The idea of a university: is knowledge its own end, and does theology belong among the sciences?

John Henry Newman, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

The position in brief

Knowledge is its own end, and a university that omits theology has not left a gap but redistributed the ground to sciences that will overreach into it.123

Sources

  1. KNOWLEDGE ITS OWN END. A UNIVERSITY may be considered with reference either to its Students or to its Studies; and the principle, that all Knowledge is a whole and the separate Sciences parts of one, which I have hitherto been using in behalf of its studies, is equally important when we direct our attention to its students.
    The Idea of a University, pp. 127–128
  2. But is not this supplemental process a science? and if so, why not acknowledge its existence? If God is more than Nature, Theology claims a place among the sciences: but, on the other hand, if you are not sure of as much as this, how do you differ from Hume or Epicurus? I end then as I began: religious doctrine is knowledge.
    The Idea of a University, p. 70
  3. According then as a teacher is under the influence, or in the service, of this system or that, so does the drift, or at least the practical effect of his teaching vary; Arcesilas would not teach logic as Aristotle, or Aristotle poetry as Plato, though logic has its fixed principles, and poetry its acknowledged classics; and in saying this, it will be observed I am claiming for Theology nothing singular or special,…
    My Campaign in Ireland, p. 258

Where the argument is made

  • The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated (Discourses of 1852
  • the whole 1873), especially Discourses II–V on theology as a branch of knowledge and Discourses V–VII on liberal knowledge as its own end

How the argument was received

Constantly cited, rarely read past the gentleman passage, and argued about wherever universities are.