The Gentleman in Newman’s Idea of a University: A Genderless Model for Irish Catholics

The Idea of a University (1858) comprises ten public lectures John Henry Newman gave in Dublin on the occasion of the establishment of the first Catholic University of Ireland in 1852 when he was invited by the Irish Catholic hierarchy to assume the role of rector. The publication also includes a series of discourses and articles written during his tenure at the university from 1854 to 1858. In the preface Newman defines the nature and aims of a university, stressing that it is a place not so much for the advancement of knowledge through research as the diffusion of knowledge and the acquisition of wisdom through teaching and learning.