Christian Humanism and the Radical Middle

In The Idea of a University, written in 1852 for the new Catholic University of Ireland, Saint John Henry Newman establishes the university's relative independence from two powers in society: (1) the Church and (2) the "academies." By the "academies" he refers to various Royal Societies and the like, institutions somewhat akin to our graduate schools and research centers, where specialists advance their mostly secular work. Newman envisioned a dialectical opening between the sacred and the secular, and that opening is where his ideal university exists. In my own work, I use the phrase "the radical middle" to describe this uniquely Christian cultural site, poised between the Church and the academies, between the sacred and the secular, and yet in dialogue with both. A Christian author who occupies the radical middle is, in my view, a Christian humanist. Such an author writes as an individual. He or she is an agent neither of the Church nor of the State, the former understood in its spiritual essence, the latter understood in its cultural influence, which extends to all levels of education and to research centers.