Education is often described as teaching students how to think. But at the core of a Christian philosophy of education, the central task of the educator is the formation of students who worship rightly.

Throughout the body of his writings, Augustine of Hippo offers one of the most compelling accounts of what it means to think by faith.

For Augustine, the human mind is that part of us which distinguishes us from the irrational animals. It is naturally capable of reasoning, judgment, and intelligence. Yet because of sin, the mind is no longer ordered toward its true delight. Left to itself, it cannot abide in God or offer proper response in worship to him. The problem is not simply one of ignorance, but that of a disordered love. Our hearts have turned in on themselves. We love and want to love the wrong things in all the wrong ways.

Therefore, before the mind can think rightly, Augustine argues, it must be healed.

That healing, Augustine insists, begins not with understanding but with faith. Credo ut intellegam—I believe in order to understand. At first glance, this sounds like a reversal of rational thinking. Shouldn’t we understand first, and then believe what we understand?

Augustine’s answer is no, and for two reasons.

First, God as Creator is distinct and set apart from His creatures. He is not immediately discerned or understood by the human intellect. “Who can understand his ways?” (Romans 11:33). This does not mean that God cannot be known, but rather that, as creatures, we can know God only insofar as he makes Himself known to us.

Second, the problem is not that God hides Himself from reason, but that reason, corrupted by sin, no longer sees clearly. Sin has not merely limited our knowledge, but it has corrupted our vision. We do not simply lack information about God, we misperceive Him. Our reasoning powers are distorted, our worship misaligned and malformed.

What we need, then, is not only clearer sight but a deeper and transformative healing. We need both our end made clear (our vision of the happy and blessed life in God) and we need a trustworthy way of reaching it.

For Augustine, that way is not a method or a system, but a person: Jesus Christ, the one in whom we have placed our faith. The true light which gives light to everyone (John 1:9). The Word made flesh (John 1:14).

Christ himself is the truth who, by assuming humanity without ceasing to be divine, establishes faith in Him alone as the path of healing. As Augustine writes, Jesus Christ “founded this faith, that there might be a way for man to man’s God through a God-man… For it is as man that He is the Mediator and the Way.”

This is why Augustine speaks of education as preparation for happiness. True education is not merely the accumulation of skills or information, but the re-formation of the mind toward its proper love—God Himself. It trains us to set our minds “on things above” (Colossians 3:2) and to “take every thought captive in obedience to Christ” (First Corinthians 10:5).

In this vision, the teacher is not merely a lecturer or technician. But something closer to a worship leader—a “maestro” conducting students into an ensemble of attention, contemplation, and worship. The processes of learning and thinking are transformed by faith into offerings of praise and devotion. The Christian Teacher teaches by faith, taking hold of the hands of Truth alongside their students, walking with Christ along the blessed way of the happy life in God whom they will one day see face to face.

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“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:1-7)