A Theology of Higher Education

Towards a Philosophy of Liberal Education: John Henry Newman on Teaching Universal Knowledge, the Cultivation of the Intellect, and the Enlargement of Mind

“…19 Newman also believed that it was not the purpose of liberal education to replicate and preserve the culture and privilege of a small dominant segment of society, but, rather, to provide both the intellectual and practical resources necessary to solve problems in society. 20 Here, I propose, we can see, in short, Newman's formulation of animating truth with reason to produce knowledge that enhances faith and improves society. Below, I elucidate this method in more detail by examining the specific mechanisms that Newman believed were its key components, which he called 'teaching universal knowledge,' 'the cultivation of the intellect,' and 'the enlargement of mind.'…”

Tudásbázisok szerepe az egyházi hivatásúak élethosszig tartó tanulásának támogatásában

“…16 Több jel mutat arra, hogy korunkban a kultúra területén jelentős változások mennek végbe, ezzel együtt az egyetemi képzések keretén belül új paradigmák keresése indult, és ezen belül a teológiai képzés is keresi helyét az átalakuló világban. 17 Ebben az útkereső, folyamatosan változó világban az egyházak által fenntartott felsőoktatási intézményeknek is új és újra feltett kérdésekre kell válaszokat adniuk:…”

Head & Heart: Promoting Holistic Biblical Engagement for Ordinary Christians

“…14 He proposes, rather, that the emergence of the University may be seen as 'in part, an experiment within an ongoing tradition of devout learning, and as involving the development of at least some practices of reason that were reasonable precisely because they were devout'. 15 Higton notes that both monks and scholars were viewed as contemplatives who prayed and studied even though the emphases given to each activity differed. Although '[s]cholastic lectio inculcated and assumed a different relation to the materials of tradition, with a more pronounced historical consciousness, and a more explicit machinery of techniques and technologies available for lectio and the accompanying meditation', 16 it was part of a development including the 'nurturing by some university practitioners of what they saw as a new form of spiritual discipline: a contemplative and purificatory meditatio outside the monasteries, ordered towards the establishment of well-ordered individual and public life before God'.…”

“…15 Higton notes that both monks and scholars were viewed as contemplatives who prayed and studied even though the emphases given to each activity differed. Although '[s]cholastic lectio inculcated and assumed a different relation to the materials of tradition, with a more pronounced historical consciousness, and a more explicit machinery of techniques and technologies available for lectio and the accompanying meditation', 16 it was part of a development including the 'nurturing by some university practitioners of what they saw as a new form of spiritual discipline: a contemplative and purificatory meditatio outside the monasteries, ordered towards the establishment of well-ordered individual and public life before God'. 17 In Higton's construal of the concept of biblical engagement in the University, study was integrally bound up with the development of virtue within community: 'one could learn the good ordering of the materials at one's disposal only if, in humility and trust, one took the risk of being called to penitence and transformed understanding by them' and 'one could learn the good ordering of one's materials only by participation in a certain kind of communal good: a community involved in the friendly exchange of calls to such penitence before God'.…”