“For me, reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.”

― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

In this lively conversation, Dr. Clint Brand takes up Newman’s understanding of the role of the imagination within liberal education. Dr. Brand draws upon the full scope of Newman’s writings, his own experiences as a scholar and teacher, and the insights of Dante and C.S. Lewis. Central to this conversation are several questions articulated by Dr. Brand: “If faith and reason are the two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth, what can we say of the imagination? Where does the study of literature fit into the physiology of flight? What does a literary education bring to the school of aviation in a Catholic university?” And Prof. Brand concludes the conversation with a reading of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “ To R.B.”

Links of potential interest:

Clint Brand, ed., St. Gregory’s Prayer Book

Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman, “Poetry, with Reference to Aristotle’s Poetics”

Paul Shrimpton, The ‘Making of Men’. The Idea and Reality of Newman's University in Oxford and Dublin

Newman, The Idea of a University

Newman, Apologia pro Vita Sua

Newman, Loss and Gain

Newman, Grammar of Assent

Newman, The Dream of Gerontius

Gerard Manley Hopkins, “To R.B.”