The Idea of a University

This lecture to the School of Medicine examines the question of why theology and the physical sciences are taken to be at odds with one another. Newman suggests that there is no true antagonism between them and that the perception of antagonism is based mostly on the disciplines’ contrasting subject matter and methodologies. While science concerns natural knowledge, theology concerns supernatural knowledge. The two bear on one another, but they do not overlap. Whereas science pursues “efficient causes” in observable (i.e., empirical) systems, theology pursues “final,” metaphysical causes; the terms efficient and final causes draw from Aristotelian philosophy (foundational to Roman Catholic theology); an efficient cause is an agency of change, while the final cause of a thing is the purpose of that thing and is thus essentially a metaphysical concern. Therefore, while final causes may be inferred from observable data, they cannot be empirically scrutinized.

Newman notes, “Theology and Physics […] have no ground of difference or agreement, of jealousy or sympathy. As well may musical truths be said to interfere with the doctrines of architectural science” (326).

Each discipline operates by a different method: Catholic theology reasons deductively from truths it accepts as divinely revealed, whereas science reasons inductively from observation and experimentation.