Our Mission
The Augustine Fellowship facilitates dialogue between the rich theological and philosophical traditions of the Christian faith and the current moment of modern academia. It gathers students, faculty, and community members to fellowship with one another as they engage in intellectual and spiritual discussions about the human experience. The Fellowship is a place where spirits are refreshed and strengthened.
THE Problem
During the university years, staggering numbers of young people depart from the Christian faith. According to a 2018 Pinetops Foundation report, based on current trends, “roughly 35 million young people who were raised in Christian households will leave the faith … if trends worsen, that number could reach as high as 42 million.” Consequentially, the spiritual life of our society is suffering great decline. Our modern universities are in need of dense networks of Christian thinkers who can aid students in exploring the existence of transcendent good. These networks can assist in restoring the vision of the university as a place of pursuing wholeness. Universities contribute to our society in a most significant manner. They train our young people in the fields of education, medicine, law, politics, the fine arts, and more. The Fellowship comes alongside the academy in this important work.
The Solution
For the good of the church and the academy, society requires interrogative dialogue between the claims of the Christian faith and the various disciplines of the university. The Christian faith (as well as the whole of society) benefits from the research university to help discover the breadth of truth, and academia needs Christianity to posit transcendent questions regarding truth, goodness, and beauty. The Christian Study Center model essentially bridges this gap. The Augustine Fellowship gathers people to explore and engage the works of theologians and scholars of the past and present regarding the Christian faith and its impact on our current age. The Fellowship provides a hospitable environment for students and faculty to connect and have their spirits refreshed and strengthened. And for churches and campus ministry groups, the Fellowship augments the spiritual formation and pastoral care provided by these groups to those engaged in scholarly pursuits.
The Rationale
We celebrate the university as a place to discover, conserve, and cultivate God’s good creation and to form us for our fundamental vocation as divine image-bearers and stewards of the earth. We believe God is at work to reconcile and renew all things through Jesus Christ. For centuries, Christians have devoted themselves wholeheartedly to academic inquiry and professional practice in light of this ultimate hope, seeking both to reorder their own loves and to contribute to peace, justice, and human flourishing. The Augustine Fellowship continues this rich tradition in the context of Georgetown University, serving the academic community, the church, and the society more broadly.
