The Scope Nature of University Education #267596

Cardinal Newman's lectures on the "Scope and Nature of University Education" have quite special interest as a turning-point in his mental history. At Oxford he was regarded as the head of the reactionaries, the unflinching opponent of all "liberalism" in Theology. In later life he was called by many a "Liberal Catholic," and though he most strongly repudiated that epithet he did admit in 1866 his "enthusiastic agreement" with the general line of thought of Montalembert and Lacordaire, who gloried in the title of "Liberal Catholic." Later on came a phenomenon yet more surprising on the surface. Such advocates of Modernism as Abbé Loisy and M. Leroy claimed Newman's philosophical thought as being in line with their own speculations. The fact is that labels and watchwords are constantly so inadequate as to be quite misleading. Not all opponents of Liberalism have been illiberal. All Newman's earlier career emphasized his opposition to Liberalism. His later years brought in evidence his true liberality. Newman was never a Modernist, but he was keenly alive to the changes of outlook wrought by the thought and research of modern days. One side of his thought was emphasized at Oxford, another was developed in his later Catholic life. And the change was brought about by the circumstances in which these lectures were written.