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E335: Literature of Victorian England John Henry Newman Study Questions from The Idea of a University (1852, 1873) 1. What relationship does Newman say on page 231-32 should subsist among the various "sciences" or branches of study, and what benefit comes from study at a university arranged to maintain that relationship? 2. How on page 233 does Newman use Cicero's claims to oppose Bacon's claims about the benefits of scientific endeavor? Why might he go back to an ancient author to undermine the claims of a more modern one? 3. What are the two kinds of knowledge, as Newman defines and elaborates upon them from 233-35? What is the difference between the object of or goal toward which each kind of knowledge tends? 4. When, according to Newman on page 235, does it become appropriate to say that knowledge is "Science or Philosophy"? When does knowledge cease to be deserving of that name? 5. How, on page 235-36, does Newman define "knowledge" and "education"? 6. How, from 237-39, does Newman deal with the argument that utilitarian education and the useful knowledge it promotes at least achieve their stated goal, while liberal education supposedly fails to achieve its goal? What is the "object" of liberal education, and why is that object or goal appropriate to our mental powers or to our "nature," as Newman characterizes it? 7. Do you think that scientific endeavor could meet Newman's criteria for a liberal education? What argument might a person make in favor of including it in a liberal curriculum? 8. What does Chapman University's catalog say about the goals of education here? Do you believe that the school truly promotes the achievement of those goals? Do you think that most students see themselves as engaged in something like the educational project described in Chapman U's catalog? from Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1864) 1. How is Newman's autobiographical narrative a response to what has been called a "crisis of authority" in Victorian times? 2. In describing the development of his religious convictions up through 1833, Newman says he was influenced by various factors. What were some of those factors? What effect did they have upon him? 3. From 245-246, Newman explains his reaction to the 1830 Revolution in France and the Reform agitation going on in Britain during and after that period. What was Newman's stance on the issue of reform? How does he say his reaction contributed to the development of his views on reforming the Anglican Church? 4. By 1839, what made Newman begin to doubt the validity of the Anglican "middle" strategy between Protestantism and Catholicism? See pages 249-50. 5. How, according to Newman, does the Catholic tradition he finally accepted in 1845 avoid the charge of hypocrisy in affirming doctrines like Transubstantiation even though they cannot be proven by strict logic? What legitimizes assent to such claims? See pages 251-52. 6. How, according to Newman on page 252-53, is the Catholic Church an answer to the world's infliction upon the individual consciousness that human history is "a profound mystery . . . absolutely beyond human solution"? 7. How, from 254-56, does Newman defend the Catholic Church on the issue of intellectual freedom? Why is the Church's claim to make authoritative pronouncements about spiritual matters not a violation of the individual believer's intellectual liberty? 8. How would you compare Carlyle's stance on the principal of spirituality with Newman's? Even though Newman is a firm believer and Carlyle is a doubter, do they share some common opinions and writerly strategies? Edition: Mermin, Dorothy and Herbert Tucker. Victorian Literature: 1830-1900. Heinle & Heinle / Harcourt, 2001-02. ISBN: 0155071777.
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