The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated

These discourses were delivered to the Catholics of Dublin by John Henry Newman and printed with a dedication dated 21 November 1852. The preface states their view: that a university is a place of teaching universal knowledge, with an intellectual rather than a moral aim, and concerned with spreading knowledge more than advancing it.

The first part, nine discourses, takes up theology as a branch of knowledge, knowledge as its own end, and knowledge in relation to learning, professional skill and religion. A second part collects occasional lectures and essays on literature, Christianity and letters, physical science, medicine and the discipline of the mind.

Newman also describes the Church founding a university not for talent or knowledge as ends in themselves but for the sake of her children and their usefulness, and he sets a university apart from the academies that exist to push research forward. Anyone interested in the history of higher education, or in what a liberal education is for, will find the argument set out at length.