The Idea of a University is a book by English theologian, polymath and scholar John Henry Newman in which he explained his philosophy of education. Newman believed in a middle way between free thinking and moral authority—one that would respect the rights of knowledge as well as the rights of revelation. His purpose was to build a Catholic university, in a world where the major Catholic universities on the European continent had recently been secularized, and most universities in the English-speaking world were Protestant. Newman divided his ideas in nine discourses:
Discourse I. Introductory
Discourse II. Theology A Branch Of Knowledge
Discourse III. Bearing Of Theology On Other Branches Of Knowledge
Discourse IV. Bearing Of Other Branches Of Knowledge On Theology
Discourse V. Knowledge Its Own End
Discourse VI. Knowledge Viewed In Relation To Learning
Discourse VII. Knowledge Viewed In Relation To Professional Skill
Discourse VIII. Knowledge Viewed In Relation To Religion
Discourse IX. Duties Of The Church Towards Knowledge

John Henry Newman (1801-1890) was an English theologian, academic, intellectual, philosopher, polymath, historian, writer, scholar and poet, first as an Anglican priest and later as a Catholic priest and cardinal, who was an important and controversial figure in the religious history of England in the 19th century. He was known nationally by the mid-1830s, and was canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church.