The Idea of a University

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1873

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-7

Part 1, Chapters 8-9

Part 2, Chapters 1-4

Part 2, Chapters 5-6

Part 2, Chapters 7-10

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Part 2, Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “University Subjects”

Part 2, Chapter 1 Summary: “Christianity and Letters”

The first piece of Newman’s “University Subjects” is a lecture delivered upon the opening of the School of Philosophy and Letters at the Catholic University of Ireland. This school, also referred to as the Faculty of Arts, was based largely upon the teaching of classic literature. Newman frames his lecture around a historical argument for the prominence of what he calls “Civilization” (by which he means Western civilization) and of its special relationship to the rise of Christianity. Just as Christianity is based on certain principles and writings from its historical origins, so also is Civilization based on “its common principles, and views, and teaching, and especially its books, which have more or less been given from the earliest times” (192). Newman then gives a brief overview of the classical literature to which he is referring, beginning with Homer and running through Cicero, Virgil, and Horace, and including all the leading lights of both Greek and Roman literature. He argues that the study of these classics has a proven track record in strengthening and refining one’s intellectual powers, while the effect of studying other sciences is still unproven.

Part 2, Chapter 2 Summary: “Literature”

Newman’s second piece in “University Subjects” is another lecture delivered to the School of Philosophy and Letters, addressing qualifications of “literature.” He begins with a counterpoint, quoting from a sermon by Laurence Sterne, which claims that most so-called literature is marked by gaudy and unnecessary embellishments of language. Newman argues that Sterne’s perspective is incomplete; literature cannot simply be a matter of flowery style. Rather, he defines it as writing that is expressly personal: the exercise of language that represents one person’s subjective thoughts. This contrasts with the scientific writing, which concerns external and objective realities. Matters of style in literature relate to the personal character of the writer. The passion that characterizes a writer’s thoughts will come through in their style of writing, whether simple or embellished, and this is particularly the case with the great minds of history: “The elocution of a great intellect is great. His language expresses, not only his great thoughts, but his great self” (210). Not all personal thoughts set to writing are called literature, however; Newman believes that the term “literature” is applicable only to the written thoughts of those who articulate the thoughts of their historical period, those “who have the right to speak as representatives of their kind, and in whose words their brethren find an interpretation of their own sentiments” (219). Literature is the written thought of those who can uniquely articulate the universal human condition.

Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary: “English Catholic Literature”

The third piece of “University Subjects” is an essay addressing the desire for a Catholic literature in English. Newman begins by stating that a Catholic literature is not a literature exclusively devoted to religious subjects. Rather, it is literature produced by Catholics: “It includes all subjects of literature whatever, treated as a Catholic would treat them, and as he only can treat them” (222). Such a literature would voice the sentiments of an age from a Catholic perspective.

However, if the desire is for Catholic writing to be esteemed among the English literary classics, Newman regards this as unlikely. He observes that “classics” within a particular language or nationality tend to be bound to a particular frame of historic and literary development, often amounting to about three centuries. Within that window of time, as a particular language finds its voice in literature, great authors appear who frame the way that the language is used, who explore its expressive features, and who define the idioms and images by which their fellow citizens learn to express their own thoughts. In Newman’s view, this period of English literature was already closing, having been dominated by non-Catholic works like the Book of Common Prayer, the plays of William Shakespeare, and the poetry of John Milton. If that sense of the matter is correct, then the canon of English literary classics was already largely closed, and thus there could be no great Catholic stream of English classics. An English Catholic literature must aim simply for the service of their neighbors, being a part of the more common level of literature: “When I speak of the formation of a Catholic school of writers […] I mean a literature which resembles a literature of the day. This is not a day for great writers, but for good writing, and a great deal of it” (246).

Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary: “Elementary Studies”

“Elementary Studies” is a piece that stands alone in content and style within “University Subjects,” and it is often left out in abridged editions of The Idea of a University. Nevertheless, it fits within the broader arc of Newman’s interest in using literary classics as a primary means of education, and it offers striking examples of his educational methods. He begins with the analogy of a baby first learning how to see by slowly training its eyes to make sense of the shapes and colors around it. In the same way, elementary studies train young minds to make sense of the ideas presented to them, using classical disciplines under the advisement of a tutor to refine a student’s ability to process ideas and fit them into a larger whole.

Newman takes three disciplines often used in the classical model of elementary studies—grammar, composition, and Latin writing—and offers extensive case caricatures of their practice. Under the heading of grammar, he presents two dialogues between a tutor, Mr. White, and students, Mr. Brown and Mr. Black, who show varying levels of facility with the Greek and Latin grammar on which they are being questioned. The following section, under the heading of composition, relates a series of correspondence between Mr. Brown’s father and Mr. White, and then a narration of a conversation between the elder Mr. Brown and a friend (the father of Mr. Black). The third discipline, that of Latin writing, is presented by Mr. White’s essay on Latin translation and then the elder Mr. Black’s discourse on his difficulty in finding an authentic Latin style. These case studies are long and detailed, but they offer a clear picture of Newman’s view on the educational process and its value.

Newman closes his overview of elementary studies with a section regarding religious teaching. Here he advises the inclusion of religious instruction as a necessary element, essentially repeating in an abbreviated form some of the themes from Part 1 of the book (“University Teaching”).

Part 2, Chapters 1-4 Analysis

One of the most noticeable features of Part 2 of The Idea of a University is that it is far less cohesive than Part 1. Whereas the nine discourses of Part 1 form a series of talks given to a single audience within a single period of time, and so build on the previous discourses’ arguments, Part 2 is an assortment of occasional pieces. The pieces do not refer to each other, and they only loosely address the same set of themes. They also reflect different media, some being lectures and others being essays. The pieces were delivered to different audiences, and so while the discourses of Part 1 were concerned with the broad outlines of a university education considered in general, the pieces of Part 2 offer a tightened focus upon particular academic disciplines, as they are often addressed to specific departments within the university. Nonetheless, Newman apparently made an effort to topically categorize these pieces upon the book’s publication, and so each of the first four chapters addresses issues of literature, with a particular focus on the use of the classics.

Of the opening four chapters of Part 2, Chapters 2 and 3 are generally considered to have had the greatest lasting value. Chapter 1 presents a view of “civilization” that, while not atypical in Newman’s time, fell into serious disfavor in the postcolonial world of the 20th and 21st centuries. While many intellectual authorities continued to hold the literary canon of Western civilization as a unified tradition of the highest importance, Newman’s contention—that the cultural inheritance of Western civilization alone merits the title of “civilization”—has come to be viewed as deeply problematic by later generations.

His civilizational perspective, however, is not his main point, and his educational theory has found a more sympathetic audience in later generations than his statements on the nature of civilization. Newman believes that the study of the literary classics of Western civilization—and especially of the linguistic and literary heritage of Classical Greece and Rome—has a proven track record of producing robust intellectual formation in students and thus should be retained as an educational method. In his own day, a classical education that included the teaching of Greek and Latin remained standard. The Idea of a University is a testament to this, as Newman commonly quotes passages in Latin with the assumption of his audience’s understanding. He could sense, however, a growing sentiment in society for moving away from classical education. While classical studies dropped out of the core of many university curricula in subsequent generations, Newman’s perspective was taken up and carried on by the “Great Books” programs of the 20th century and by the rebirth of classical education as a favored method of private school and homeschool curricula in the early 21st century.

Newman’s most significant contributions to literary theory are found in these chapters. He addresses two perennial issues in the study of literature—namely, an exploration of what defines “literature” and what further features would merit it the title of a “classic.” Because these questions are so foundational to the study of literature, Newman’s perspective constitutes a major contribution to 19th-century literary theory. His idea of literature includes the inherent features not only of a text itself, but also of its reception. A piece of literature is one in which its readers can find their own sentiments discerned and articulated beyond their own abilities. Newman’s view of classics—as being defined by a period of about three centuries in any given language—is sometimes seen as too restrictive, but it does tend to correlate with the recognition of a “classical” period in the literary canons of most languages.

Newman offers a direct portrayal of his idea of classical studies as an educational methodology in Chapter 4. This chapter shows his most extensive use of the literary device of caricature; in fact, most of the chapter is composed of a long and detailed series of caricatures. While his use of caricature in the discourses of Part 1 was tightly focused and effective, here it becomes excessively long and complicated, a fact for which Newman himself apologizes. While these sections lose some effectiveness by risking the loss of his audience’s attention, they nonetheless offer a unique and valuable insight into Newman’s idea of educational practice. His tutoring dialogues provide a view of a teaching practice aimed at guiding the student to use information in mental habits of comparison and evaluation, rather than simply in reception.