Some major ideas and themes from Newman's reflections on the University: The discussion of controversial topics, free from the interference of Church authorities, aids in the discernment of truth, and has been the normal mode of proceeding throughout Church history. "There was never a time when the intellect of the educated class was more active, or rather more restless, than in the middle ages.  And then again all through Church history from the first, how slow is authority in interfering!  Perhaps a local teacher, or a doctor in some local school, hazards a proposition, and a controversy ensues.  It smoulders or burns in one place, no one interposing; Rome simply lets it alone.  Then it comes before a Bishop; or some priest, or some professor in some other seat of learning takes it up; and then there is a second stage of it.  Then it comes before a University, and it may be condemned by the theological faculty.  So the controversy proceeds year after year, and Rome is still silent.  An appeal perhaps is next made to a seat of authority inferior to Rome; and then at last after a long while it comes before the supreme power.  Meanwhile, the question has been ventilated and turned over and over again, and viewed on every side of it, and authority is called upon to pronounce a decision, which has already been arrived at by reason.  But even then, perhaps the surpreme authority hesitates to do so, and nothing is determined on the point for years: or so generally and vaguely, that the whole controversy has to be gone through again, before it is ultimately determined.  It is manifest how a mode of proceeding, such as this, tends not only to the liberty, but to the courage, of the individual theologian or controversialist.  Many a man has ideas, which he hopes are true, and useful for his day, but he is not confident about them, and wishes to have them discussed.  He is willing, or rather would be thankful, to give them up, if they can be proved to be erroneous or dangerous, and by means of controversy he obtains his end.  He is answered, and he yields; or on the contrary he finds that he is considered safe.  He would not dare do this, if he knew an authoirty, which was supreme and final, was watching every word he said, and made signs of assent or dissent to each sentence, as he uttered it.  Then indeed he would be fighting, as the Persian soldiers, under the lash, and the freedom of his intellect might truly be said to be beaten out of him." From Chapter V, Apologia Pro Vita Sua The primary purpose of a University is intellectual and pedagogical, not moral or religious. "The view taken of a University in these Discourses is the following. -- That it is a place of teaching universal knowledge.  This implies that its object is, on the one hand, intellectual, not moral; and, on the other, that it is the diffusion and extension of knowledge rather than the advancement.  If its object were scientific and philosophical discovery, I do not see why a University should have students; if religious training, I do not see how it can be the seat of literature and science." From the "Preface," The Idea of a University The Idea of a University is to be determined without recourse to the authority of the Church, or any authority at all. "Observe then, Gentlemen, I have no intention, in any thing I shall say, of bringing into the argument the authority of the Church, or any authority at all; but I shall consider the question simply on the grounds of human reason and human wisdom." From Discourse I, "Introductory," The Idea of a University The range of a teaching within the University is universal; it encompasses all branches of knowledge, including Theology, and is inconsistent with restrictions of any kind. "A University, I should lay down, by its very name professes to teach universal knowledge: Theology is surely a branch of knowledge: how then is it possible for it to profess all branches of knowledge, and yet to exclude from the subjects of its teaching one which, to say the least, is as important and as large as any of them?  I do not see that either premiss of this argument is open to exception. As to the range of University teaching, certainly the very name of University is inconsistent with restrictions of any kind." From Discourse II, The Idea of a University Often, the more narrow a person's knowledge is, the more immodest and obstinate he is in adhering to his beliefs and making generalizations on the basis of such beliefs. "Men, whose life lies in the cultivation of one science, or the exercise of one method of thought, have no more right, though they have often more ambition, to generalize upon the basis of their own pursuit but beyond its range, than the schoolboy or the ploughman to judge of a Prime Minister.  But they must have something to say on every subject; habit, fashion, the public require it of them: and, if so, they can only give sentence according to their knowledge.  You might think this ought to make such a person modest in his enunciations; not so: too often it happens that, in proportion to the narrowness of his knowledge, is, not his distrust of it, but the deep hold it has upon him, his absolute conviction of his own conclusions, and his positiveness in maintaining them.  He has the obstinacy of the bigot, whom he scorns, without the bigot's apology, that he has been taught, as he thinks, his doctrine is from heaven." From Discourse IV, The Idea of a University University Education cannot restrict itself to "Christian Literature" alone. "Here then, I say, you are involved in a difficulty greater than that which besets the cultivation of Science; for, if Physical Science be dangerous, as I have said, it is dangerous, because it necessarily ignores the idea of moral evil; but Literature is open to the more grievous imputation of recognizing and understanding it too well.  Some one will say to me perhaps: 'Our youth shall not be corrupted.  We will dispense with all general or national Literature whatever, if it be so exceptionable; we will have a Christian Literature of our own, as pure, as true, as the Jewish.'  You cannot have it: -- I do not say you cannot form a select literature for the young, nay, even for the middle or lower classes; this is another matter altogether: I am speaking of University Education, which implies an extended range of reading, which has to deal with standard works of genius, or what are called the classics of a language: and I say, from the nature of the case, if Literature is to be made a study of human nature, you cannot have a Christian Literature.  It is a contradiction in terms to attempt a sinless Literature of a sinful man." From Discourse IX, The Idea of a University The University is not a Convent or a Seminary, and it prepares students for the world by allowing them to learn about "the ways and principles and maxims" of the world. "For why do we educate, except to prepare for the world?  Why do we cultivate the intellect of the many beyond the first elements of knowledge, except for this world? Will it be much matter in the world to come whether our bodily health or our intellectual strength was more or less, except of course as this world is in all its circumstances a trial for the next?  If then a University is a direct preparation for this world, let it be what it professes.  It is not a Convent, it is not a Seminary; it is a place to fit men of the world for the world.  We cannot possibly keep them from plunging into the world, with all its ways and principles and maxims, when their time comes; but we can prepare them against what is inevitable; and it is not the way to learn to swim in troubled waters, never to have gone into them." From Discourse IX, The Idea of a University True education requires the personal influence of teachers on students. "An academical system without the personal influence of teachers upon pupils, is an arctic winter; it will create an ice-bound, petrified, cast-iron University, and nothing else." From Historical Sketches, Volume III, "The Rise and Progress of Universities," Chapter I, Section 6. Click here for an online version of Newman's Idea of a University