Faculty Summer Seminar 2003:
John Henry Cardinal Newman's The Idea of a University

Newman (1801-1890), one of the most important Catholic intellectuals of the 19th century, taught at Oxford University until his conversion to Catholicism. His works of theology have had a lasting impact on Catholic thought. The Idea of a University contains two series of lectures given by Newman in the 1850’s in connection with the establishment of the Catholic University of Ireland, of which he was appointed rector. Although directly addressed to the questions raised by the secularization of the leading English universities of his day, they offer us a philosophy of education relevant also to the concerns of our own time.

Fr. Ker is one of the world’s leading Newman scholars. He wrote a major biography of Newman, published in 1988, and edited a portion of Newman’s letters and diaries. He held the Endowed Chair in Theology and Philosophy at the (then) College of St. Thomas in the 1980’s and was later Catholic chaplain at Oxford University. He is currently Tutor at Campion Hall, Oxford.