The Idea of a University – Prof. Raymond Hain

The Thomistic Institute

Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, Philosophy, Christianity, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 873 Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2026

⏱️ 41 minutes

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Summary

Prof. Raymond Hain presents John Henry Newman’s Idea of a University as a powerful defense of liberal education, arguing that a university should include theology because all knowledge forms one interconnected whole, yet also insisting that intellectual excellence is not the same as moral holiness.

This lecture was given on March 26th, 2026, at University of Alabama.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Raymond Hain is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Associate Director of the Humanities Program at Providence College in Providence, RI. Educated at Christendom College, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Oxford, he is the founder of the PC Humanities Forum and Humanities Reading Seminars and is responsible for the strategic development of the Humanities Program into a vibrant, world class center of teaching, research, and cultural life dedicated to the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. His scholarly interests include the history of ethics (especially St. Thomas Aquinas), applied ethics (especially medical ethics and the ethics of architecture), Alexis de Tocqueville, and philosophy and literature (especially Catholic aesthetics). His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Templeton Foundation, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and the Charles Koch Foundation. His essays have appeared in various journals and collections including The Thomist, International Journal of Applied Philosophy, and The Anthem Companion to Tocqueville. He is the editor of Beyond the Self: Virtue Ethics and the Problem of Culture and is currently working on a monograph titled The Lover and the Prophet: An Essay in Catholic Aesthetics. He joined Providence College in 2011 and lives just across the street with his wife Dominique and their five children.

Keywords: Education, Intellectual Formation, John Henry Newman, Knowledge, Liberal Education, St. Philip Neri, Theology, Theology in the Curriculum, University, Virtue, Whole of Knowledge

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tumistic Institute podcast. Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square. The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Tumistic Institute chapters around the world. To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at
0:21.6	Thomistic Institute.org.
0:23.6	So what a splendid time it is to be speaking about St. John Henry Newman, born in 1801,
0:30.6	returning home to the Lord in 1890. His life spanned the entire 19th century.
0:35.6	He grew up reading the novels of Jane Austen and Walter
0:38.9	Scott, for example, as they were first being published. And by the end of his life, the
0:42.8	Eiffel Tower had been built, the papal states had been lost for good, at least for the moment.
0:48.0	Vatican I had concluded with the deeply controversial declaration of papal infallibility,
0:53.2	and Europe was just a few short years from
0:55.5	the deadly wars of the 20th century. Newman's become, at least for us, pursuing the intellectual
1:01.9	life within the Catholic tradition, a kind of third millennium standard bearer. His articulation
1:08.6	of the development of doctrine profoundly shaped Vatican II, continues to shape the church.
1:14.3	His sermons, especially those before his conversion to Catholicism in 1845, make him arguably the greatest preacher of the 19th century.
1:22.9	His prayers and poems remain deeply beautiful and widely read, and his final treatise, the grammar
1:29.4	of assent, is a difficult but immensely thoughtful study of the structure of human thought
1:35.3	and belief, continues to inspire those unhappy with the simple dichotomy between enlightenment,
1:41.6	rationalism, and postmodern relativism.
1:45.8	Particularly noteworthy for us gathered here today under the auspices of the Timistic Institute,
1:50.5	Newman was declared a doctor of the church just last November,
1:54.1	and made at the same time the church's co-patron of education alongside, of course, St. Thomas Aquinas himself.
2:03.6	So Newman's star is on the as they say, and to be honest I think it's for very good reasons.
2:10.6	Newman's collected works are vast. He was a compulsive writer, living each hour, as it were, with a pen in his hand. Even just his collected letters, well, the ones we've been able to collect, amount to 32 hefty volumes, just the letters. He wrote two novels, a long poem called The Dream of Gerontius set to music by the composer Edward
	...

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