Strategies for Realization of the Catholic Identity in Catholic Education: Based on Newman’s 『The Idea of a University』

ABSTRACT

Today the problems facing the religious education mostly relate with its religious identity of each educational institution. The Catholic education also has confronted the challenges to promote both its excellence and religious identity, as other disciplines and educational sectors have done. John Henry Newman who was the most famous educator and a Catholic cardinal in the nineteenth century’s Europe professed to clear direction for the Catholic higher education institutions. This study discussed about the Catholic identity to which Catholic education should pursue based on his renounced book 『The Idea of a University』. To achieve its purpose, the paper briefly sketched about the life and thoughts of Newman. Then, it examined its values and roles of the universal knowledge that Newman proposed as a key concept of pursuing the idea of a university based on the institutional identity. Third, it discussed about need and role of theology in formation of universal knowledge. According to him, theology is both a part of and a condition of universal knowledge. Finally it proposed strategies of how the Catholic education promote both excellence and identity as its challenge and a goal.