The Idea of a University: New Revised and Annotated Edition

The Idea of a University: New Revised and Annotated Edition

ABOUT OUR EDITION: What is different about our edition? Its greater readability and reliability. Ours is not a facsimile print. We reset the content. We translate foreign language texts, provide explanations and descriptions for names, places, and terms that may not be known in everyday discourse. We also document quotes, references, and allusions, providing citations to works that were available at as near the times the works were written.ABOUT THE BOOK: What is a university? Is it a place where we get the skills for a job? A place of learning? Or is it where we gain knowledge for its own sake? John Henry Newman says yes and no, and goes on to argue that it is more. The whole purpose of education is to tame the appetites, uplift the soul, and to strive for Heaven, for man is naturally inclined to seek God. Find Him, and life becomes meaningful. In ten discourses and ten lectures, Newman argues that the summit of knowledge is gained in the study of theology. Every other branch of knowledge answers “how.” Theology answers “why.” With the fluidity that only a master of the English language can muster, he explains that theology is attainable by all, for it is a reasonable science; equal, if not superior, to the exact sciences. Biologists may understand the inner workings of organic structures; chemists, physicists, and astronomers may plumb the origins of the universe; mathematicians may supply them with tools to quantify phenomena; and they all may very well come to appreciate the beauty of natural things; but to take the true measure and gain an insight into the order of Creation, they, nay we, need faith—Christian faith, approached by the light of reason.