SOURCE: “Introduction,” in The Idea of a University, by John Henry Cardinal Newman, Image Books, 1959, pp. 21-43.

In the following introduction to The Idea of a University, Shuster explores Newman's thoughts on the intersection of religion and liberal education, and highlights the continuing importance of Newman's text.

On the twelfth of November, 1851, John Henry Newman, then a priest of the Birmingham Oratory, became Rector of the newly created Catholic University of Ireland. Seven years later, to the very day, he resigned from the post. The story of what he accomplished during his tenure of office hardly constitutes a notable page in the history of university administration. No new Harvard, Louvain, or Göttingen was established in Dublin. It may even be somewhat ironical that the greatest practical achievements of this unusual Rector, who was concerned above all with the relationships between theology and what he called “liberal education...