The Idea of a University

No man was ever better qualified to write such a book as The Life of a University than Cardinal Newman was. And the subject has never been more pressing than it is today. In this classic, Newman poses a number of important questions: What is the purpose of education? What does it mean to be educated? What is the role of a university? What is the relationship between learning and the life of a society? And where does Catholicism fit in? The issues Newman examined with incomparable insight continue to be relevant today, one hundred and fifty years after it was first published. This book has been recognized as probably the greatest of its kind, and no one interested in the relationship between religion, learning, culture and politics can afford to neglect it.

This excellent new edition of The Idea of a University, especially intended for students, contains a first-rate introduction, appropriately by Don Briel, the founder of the Catholic Studies Program which has become the model for programs around the world.” ~Ian Ker, Senior Research Fellow, Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University

“At a time when intellectuals and the cultured class felt a growing freedom to reject faith as unfounded, or relegate it to the realm of imagination and sentiment, Newman offered an elegant defense of the place of religious truth in the University—it was not just as one discipline among many, but the ‘condition of general knowledge.’ Today Newman's Idea of a University still offers a compelling vision of what a Catholic university might offer in an increasingly secular age.” ~John Garvey, President, the Catholic University of America

“John Henry Newman's classic reflection on university life is even more important today than when he wrote it, given the intellectual, social, and spiritual degradations into which the modern multiversity has fallen. A close reading of Newman, in this marvelous new edition, may help spark the reform that American high education desperately needs.” ~George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, DC

“A classic is a work of enduring relevance. There is arguably no work of greater ongoing importance for the self-understanding of contemporary colleges and universities—especially Catholic colleges and universities—than John Henry Newman’s classic The Idea of a University. Don Briel and Christopher Blum have contributed to a splendid new study edition...to situate and unlock this extraordinary work for a twenty-first century readership. This edition is of great timeliness and special urgency in view of the present crisis of higher education.” ~Reinhard Huetter, Visiting Professor, School of Theology and Religious Studies, the Catholic University of America, and Professor of Christian Theology, Divinity School of Duke University

“Among the great Christian thinkers, Newman remains the most neglected and in many ways the most needed for our times. In The Idea of a University, Newman draws together three points (among others): education is for the person-to-person formation of the mind rather than simply for information; education requires some introduction to the full scope of human knowledge in order for any one field of thought to flourish; and education in the lecture halls cannot be disjoined from what goes on in the residential halls. Reflection on each point shows the need for the Church's presence as a guard against the corrosive influence of pride and the passions--and thus the urgent need for Catholic universities. But reflection also shows that most Catholic universities today are distancing themselves from each point. Rather than despairing, read Newman's book illumined by the brilliant essays of Briel and Blum, and arm oneself with the insights needed for the renewal of true education.” ~Matthew Levering, James N. and Mary D. Perry, Jr., Chair of Theology, Mundelein Seminary