HISTORY

ABOUT THE CHURCH - NEWMAN'S LIFE - NEWMAN'S WORKS - NEWMAN AND EDUCATION

NEWMAN'S WORKS

During his time here in Dublin Newman developed his ideas on the scope and nature of university education, which is generally recognised as a masterful presentation of the classical theory of a liberal education reflected in the light of Christian revelation.

Newman looked forward in the 19th century to the formation of a class of mature Christians with a keen sense of faith. He hoped that ordinary Christian men and women would bear witness to the gospel in their homes, their social contacts and in their places of work. "I want a laity", he wrote, "not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men and women who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know about what they hold and what they do not hold, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it".