The Idea of a University Discourse VIII Part 2: To be and not to seem – an integrated education

[For more context about Discourse VIII, see Part 1]

During the summer months, young students of many families have time to reflect and pray about the coming school year. St. John Henry Newman’s eighth Discourse of The Idea of a University provides ample, but often misunderstood, material with which to exercise discernment and prudence about education. 

Discourse VIII famously extols, then paradoxically criticizes, the “gentleman.” The human formation of a liberal education can do great things, but education alone is not the source of moral formation or supernatural grace. Without the integration of virtue and faith, education alone, even at its best, can produce only the polished surface of a “mere gentleman.”

To make his point about the inadequacies of education without religion, Newman constructs a darkly humorous parody of what the “religion” of the intellect would look like without the Church. Without the Church, one pursuing intellectual truth tends to idolize “Reason,” initiated into academic mysteries, having a warped faith in his own intellect. Newman warns of the danger of rationalism; without being checked by God’s revealed truth spoken by the Church, education will not only fail to thrive, but may also swell into a kind of humanistic church, worshiping not the true God, but worshiping one made in man’s own image, human reason itself, as if the schools alone possess the mysteries of existence and provide for all of the needs of humanity.

Reason can only take us so far; left to itself, it tends to worship itself and forget about the demands of reality and of God. Cultivating intellect is supremely important, and can increase man’s dispositions and capacities to know the truth. But rational mastery of truth does not constitute true conversion, which is an act of will. Nonetheless, in viewing reason and its tendencies outside of the Catholic fold, Newman looks to Catholicism “chiefly as a system of pastoral instruction and moral duty,” directing the “conscience and conduct” of man in his “ruined state” and his call to heaven by Christ’s redemption. He does think that the “cultivated intellect” formed in sound education might be more inclined to hear and heed this divine call. Religious and intellectual development complement each other; religion shows man that he has a mind made to glorify his Creator through rational knowledge, and intellectual pursuit grants him an appetite for truth that inclines him to its fullness, the realities and mysteries of a Creator God who redeems fallen men and calls them to rationally share his divine life by knowing him, face to face, for all eternity. Reason requires faith, and when joined to it, is of utmost importance and service to Christianity.

While robust integration is the ideal goal, it is far more dangerous to pursue reason without faith than faith without reason. Left to itself, pursuit of reason tends to create an outward show of morality without regenerating the heart. It cultivates humans whose formation is all on the surface. There is no healthy fear of God rooted in the conscience, no sense of having offended God’s Almighty benevolence by our sins, no affective love for the truth of ourselves and the world. The only fear in the cult of reason is “self-reproach” for having not fully discovered what is “fitting and becoming,” and fear of public shame. “Sin” becomes merely sin against “Intellect,” or ignorance, and “conscience tends to become what is called a moral sense; the command of duty is a sort of taste; sin is not an offense against God, but against human nature.” The conscience is demoted from that which instructs us of our duty before God, and merely becomes a vain worry to appear knowledgeable, tasteful, or moral before others. Moral conscientiousness is flattened into a temporally enlightened mannerism that defers to the arbitrary social standards and tastes of the time. This education is all on the surface; it requires nothing of the will, the heart, or the soul, and lacks any ultimate meaning. “To seem becomes to be; what looks fair will be good, what causes offense will be evil; virtue will be what pleases, vice what pains.” Newman’s caution from Discourse V echoes here Discourse VIII:

Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk; then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants, the passion and the pride of man.

The best school and the best teachers do not guarantee the moral or religious outcomes of students. Only conversion of heart, humility, pursuit of virtue, and the infusion of the divine virtues of faith, hope and love can transform and develop human potential to the full. For this, we desperately need Christ’s Church and the Sacraments. Newman wrote hundreds of pages extolling the goodness of natural formation in education; yet he equally cautions the dangers of trusting human formation to the exclusion of divine grace and religious commitments. Discourse VIII offers good questions for self-examination as we approach the new school year:

• Do I mistakenly think that my child’s school can “fix” him or her?
• Do I neglect my child’s moral and religious formation under the false assumption that they can be guaranteed by a school or academic system? 
• Do I uncritically accept educational slogans and media, or do I spend time personally investigating the quality of my child’s education?
• Do I take time to get to know my child’s teachers, discerning their knowledge, integrity, and faithfulness? 
• Do I personally nurture my child’s love for God and neighbor, and their excitement to grow in intellect, virtue, and faith?
• Do I, as a parent, see myself as a “primary educator” of my child, as the Church teaches I am, even as I entrust them to others during the school day?
• Do I do what I can, with my limited means and gifts, to support the integration of intellect, faith and morals in my children, community, Church, and world?

Schools can do a lot for our children. They might encourage or discourage morals and faith, but they are not the source of morals and faith, and students cannot achieve full maturation without the full integration of faith and morals in family, community, and the Church. Newman wants an education that fits minds for this world while preparing souls for the next. With his wisdom, example, and intercessions, we can seek to achieve, as best as possible in our unique contexts, full integration of mind, heart, and soul for the next generation.