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Saturday, July 11, 2009, 3:29 PM

John Henry Newman on Catholic universities:

Here, then, I conceive, is the object of the Holy See and the Catholic Church in setting up Universities; it is to reunite things which were in the beginning joined together by God, and have been put asunder by man.

Some persons will say that I am thinking of confining, distorting, and stunting the growth of the intellect by ecclesiastical supervision. I have no such thought. Nor have I any thought of a compromise, as if religion must give up something, and science something. I wish the intellect to range with the utmost freedom, and religion to enjoy an equal freedom; but what I am stipulating for is, that they should be found in one and the same place, and exemplified in the same persons. I want to destroy that diversity of centres, which puts everything into confusion by creating a contrariety of influences. I wish the same spots and the same individuals to be at once oracles of philosophy and shrines of devotion. It will not satisfy me, what satisfies so many, to have two independent systems, intellectual and religious, going at once side by side, by a sort of division of labour, and only accidentally brought together.

It will not satisfy me, if religion is here, and science there, and young men converse with science all day, and lodge with religion in the evening. It is not touching the evil, to which these remarks have been directed, if young men eat and drink and sleep in one place, and think in another: I want the same roof to contain both the intellectual and moral discipline. Devotion is not a sort of finish given to the sciences; nor is science a sort of feather in the cap, if I may so express myself, an ornament and set-off to devotion. I want the intellectual layman to be religious, and the devout ecclesiastic to be intellectual.

(Via Rick Garnett)

2 Comments

    Clare Krishan
    July 12th, 2009 | 8:28 am

    Catholic Herald Channel hah these Youtube clips that, concatenated, contain the remarks
    given by Notre Dame U.’s Professor of Philosophy Alisdair MacIntyre on
    the occasion of the their 2009 Annual Newman Lecture

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfPkHcqiguc part 1 of 5
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlQAqfZ46eE part 2 of 5
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2d2jEG26u8 part 3 of 5
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbNiZccSpMA part 4 of 5
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOf2VXpILUk part 5 of 5

    Enjoy!

    Tertium Quid
    July 14th, 2009 | 6:09 am

    I read Newman’s The Idea of the University (as well as Christopher Dawson’s The Crisis in Western Education) when I worked for Russell Kirk. They are healthily medieval in outlook. I recommend them both.

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