The poet T.S. Eliot posed the questions: “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”

Ours is certainly an age of increased knowledge and information. But in the maelstrom of daily life, we have lost something of great value: the emphasis, both individual and communal, on the pursuit of wisdom.

This pursuit of wisdom is the foundational ideal of the Newman Institute. All that we do – our college classes in the Great Books, our speakers and cultural activities – is aimed at helping students of all ages wrestle with the primary questions of human existence: What is life’s purpose and meaning? How should we live? What should we love?

We take our inspiration from the life and thought of Blessed John Henry Newman, whose own pursuit of wisdom led him to see that true liberal education – liberal in the sense that it frees us from error and falsehood – has “almost the beauty and harmony of heavenly contemplation, so intimate is it with the eternal order of things.”

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