(10) A professor at Auburn University and I exchanged
ideas about how to present
Newman to conservative non-Roman Catholic Christians
who move in a world of
sola fide, sola scriptura, private judgment and where
the Pope is still to some the
Anti-Christ. That wise man advised, in effect,
“just teach Newman as Newman.” For
in his teaching experience, students soon accept the
teacher’s approach, whatever
it may be.
That is a time honored supply side approach. And it may
work in a college course
for credit. For degree students in large measure must
be content with whatever they
are given. They cannot just stand up and walk out without
consequences. But
informal adult education and the Elderhostel system does
not work that way. Our
students are mature, often retired physicians and missionaries.
They will have
selected the course for their own personal reasons. They
will almost certainly not be
there because of any sizable prior knowledge of Newman.
No one has ever asked
my wife or me to teach about that great man. We have,
by contrast, been asked to
teach about Shakespeare, foreign policy, Afghanistan,
Iraq, Winston Churchill and
other topics, but never about Newman. |