Skip to main content
Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education logo

Santa Clara Lecture

Newman and the Restoration of the Interpersonal in Higher Education

Michael J. Buckley, 14 Nov 2006

Buckley delves into the meaning of the difference between Newman's vision for the modern university and the reality of today's institutions.

2006 Santa Clara Lecture

View Published Lecture

John Henry Newman’s The Idea of a University is easily one of the most celebrated set of reflections on higher education delivered in the last few centuries. Yet, for all its authority and influence, it designs an institution that differs radically from many of the forms of university found in the United States. Does this difference constitute the end of the story, indicating an impossible ideal never to be realized, or can the contemporary university profit significantly and even consider itself challenged?

Michael J. Buckley, S.J. – is the Augustine Cardinal Bea, S.J. Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Santa Clara University, and for the past several years has been serving as the University Professor of Theology at Boston College. He is author of numerous article and several books including: At the Origins of Modern Atheism and The Catholic University as Promise and Project: Reflections in a Jesuit Idiom. He is past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, and a recipient of the John Courtney Murray Award for excellence in theology. He serves on the Board of Visitors of Harvard Divinity School and is a Fellow of Clare College at Cambridge University. He received his B.A and M.A from Gonzaga University, a Ph.L, and S.T.L. from Pontifical Faculty of Alma College, an S.T.M. from Santa Clara University, and a Ph.D. from University of Chicago.

Santa Clara Lecture