Our vision for the Augustine Collegiate Review is to publish an academic, Christ-honoring, and accessible journal, benefiting both the academy and the lay-person. We seek to provide an opportunity for Christian scholars to conduct independent research on topics they find personally engaging and appropriate for the building up of the church. As the next generation of Christian academics, we desire to make valuable contributions to fields ranging from metaphysics, aesthetics, apologetics, history, and more. We envision a journal that engages century old ideas with fresh words and eyes, while providing critical analysis on important cultural endeavors. These demand a Christian response, a response that perhaps only Christians reared in a rigorous academic environment are prepared to make. Remaining true to our namesake, we desire, like Augustine, to provide scholarship that also transcends this current culture and impacts readers for decades to come.

As one of the first research journals of our kind, we see a bright future for aspiring scholastics. Research journals are one of the main avenues people present groundbreaking scholarship, and the Augustine Collegiate Review provides a new approach to those ideas. We want to renew the idea that our generation can hold ideals and opinions worthy of consideration and respect. John Calvin published a commentary on Seneca’s De Clementia when he was only 22, and later became one of the most prolific theologians in Christian history. His renown and influence was impossible without an opportunity to publish his work as a young man.

This journal is not an echo chamber, meant only for similar ideas and opinions. Instead, students who publish this journal interact critically with the big-ideas of history and current culture in such a way that demands conversation with secular and sacred realms alike. This journal has a vision of showing there are eloquent and scholarly young men and women with an exceedingly large amount of worthwhile ideas that deserve interaction. It is intended to be ecumenical enough to provide scholarship that critically engages ideas from other Christians, and exclusive enough to clearly exemplify the importance of engaging all ages, races, denominations, and worldviews. We believe they deserve a listening ear.

The inaugural issue of the Augustine Collegiate Review is centered around the evaluation of various aspects of metaphysics. As one of the classic disciplines, philosophers have focused on metaphysical questions for centuries, and continue the discussion today. From evaluating the relationship between the body, the mind, and the soul to exploring the presence of personal identity as it relates to the meaning of humanity, these big questions individuals have long been asking will continue to drastically shape the life of the individual and society as a whole. Overall, developing a proper view of human nature is determined by one’s ultimate reality. Thus, the men and women who contributed to the journal connected with scholars past and present in the quest for answers to these philosophical questions. They evaluate various facets of literature, personhood and technology, beauty and craftsmanship, a theology of place, and God and time. We hope readers, through critical evaluation, self-initiated research, or a simple peaked curiosity, will venture down new paths and join this journey as well.

We hope the inaugural issue of the Augustine Collegiate Review proves fruitful, encouraging, and challenging to a wide audience. It offers students the opportunity to engage ideas charitably while also publishing an academic work for a diverse audience. Ultimately we hope it fosters intellectual curiosity for many readers, and encourages a legacy of cultural and academic engagement from a biblical worldview.