Customer Reviews

The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College: What to Look For and Where to Find it

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Fr. Kenneth Baker, Editor of Homiletic and Pastoral Review magazine said this about The Newman Guide - "This book is good news for parents who want to send their children to a Catholic college that is truly Catholic. I recommend the book highly for priests and counselors who deal with high school graduates who are looking for a Catholic college."
I read the entire book and found it to be a straight-shooting, candid look at what goes on in truly authentic Catholic schools. It is refreshing!
We sent our daughter to one of those 21 colleges it recommends. Her Catholic faith has been nurtured there and she has grown intellectually as well. I couldn't be happier with the "consistency" between
- what she learned at home
- what is reinforced at this Catholic College
(Benedictine in Atchison, KS)
- what The Newman Guide said about this college
I liked the book so much I bought a 2nd copy and donated it to our local Catholic high school, where it is visible in the counselor's office. For anyone who takes choosing a Catholic college seriously(and wants the inside scoop) this is a most valuable book.

This book is a wonderful tool for anyone interested in going to a Catholic college. It thoroughly explains the role and responsibility of Catholic colleges in our society and also the importance of philosophy and theology as part of a college curriculum.

This Guide introduces 21 very different institutions from across the country (and even one in Canada) that represent the best of Catholic higher education, each in their own ways. I read this book from cover to cover, and now I have a much better idea of what I want to get out of my own college experience.

The book is geared more towards parents than students, but it is a great aid for anyone who is interested in Catholic higher education.

I only wish the Newman Society would compile a database of reviews covering all U.S. Catholic colleges and universities in order to better inform us about those colleges that didn't make the cut.

This catalog is badly needed, and worthwhile. However, it's usefulness is limited by its incompleteness. Clearly, there is a need for "evaluations" of many other Catholic institutions!

Most colleges are places who's goal through their environment and teaching is to make young people question their faith til they lose it. They do not need this at this time in their life. If nothing is more important to you than your soul go to one of these 21 colleges. There is a good Catholic college for every type of student. The book explains all aspects of the schools it lists.

Anyone looking for colleges that wholeheartedly embrace the maturity, beauty, meaningfulness, incomparable treasure of living the Catholic faith, must consult this book. Mom and Dad, Your children may lose their Faith in these schools, but it will take a lot of work on the part of the Devil to accomplish it.

I am becoming more and more frustrated with an attitude among certain sectors of conservative Catholics (with whom I strongly identify, to be sure), that in order to be truly Catholic you have to be just like them in all of your beliefs and practices. I teach at a high school with many committed Catholic families, so I heard about this book from parents and students. What I heard was that my particular university was relegated to an appendix, and they wondered why this was so. Although in the broader culture Notre Dame is so often held up as the pinnacle of Catholic higher education, in conservative circles it is fashionably derided as a haven for "heretics." The fact of the matter is that Richard McBrien is not the only professor of theology, and that even he is still a teacher in good standing with the Church... he's no Roger Haight (Weston Jesuit), Charles Curran (formerly CUA), or Hans Kung (Tubingen). There are MANY wonderful Catholic professors at Notre Dame (and at other colleges not in this book) who are quite devout personally besides being excellent scholars. In a large and vibrant theology department there should be scholars of different approaches who are willing to consider controversial questions. If we cease to do that, quite simply, we cease to be "Catholic."

But this review is not just about the fact that they excluded my university from consideration. I do have tons of anecdotal evidence about all of the amazing Catholic people at ND; it was not and is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it by all means should be given full respect in a book like this. The deeper issue, and the reason for this review, concerns the nature of the Catholic university. Nowadays, it seems that kids aren't grown up by the time they are 18, and parents are looking for places where their kids can go and be inculturated in a Catholic environment. That sounds great. But that is NOT a university. A university is a place of education, a place of dialogue and inquiry. It is not an indoctrination center or a holding tank where kids can hang out in an insulated setting for four years. The term "university" connotes the range of pursuits of a scholarly community, while "college" can refer to residences where students live. The very word derives from a shared set of rules (con+lege (with+law) = college). The anecdotal evidence I have heard is that some colleges strongly recommended in this book are intellectually and culturally stifling, as many kids have a homogenized and authoritarian worldview. To be sure, secular universities have tremendous problems of their own, but the solution is not to retreat into a Catholic ghetto. There is also a selection about what parts of the magisterium need to be held to with unswerving obedience. I have met graduates of these universities with decidedly un-Catholic understandings of the interpretation of Scripture (Divino Afflante Spiritu / Dei Verbum never happened), the role of Mary (Marian excess), the nature of Christ (abundant crypto-monophysitism) and the nature of the Church (sacramental gas-station), for example.

The proximate cause of this review is that I read an article last night on the strange ignorance/avoidance of serious modern Christian philosophy even among even Catholic scholars. It just so happened that half of the names this author furnished (Alvin Plantinga & Peter van Inwagen) as philosophers who do this teach at Notre Dame. Benedict Groeschel and Peter Kreeft, apparently involved in the writing of this book, are wonderful and intelligent Catholics, but they are writers of popular books and not academics (well, Kreeft is a professor but concentrates on popularizing). Their missions of all these men are important--we need the rigorous inquiry in the university and also those who take their insights to the people.

The interface between Church authority and the academy is complex and has been for a long time. One interesting thing that I have learned is that Thomas Aquinas, whom many of these schools look to as patron, described not one magisterium but two magisteria--that of the pastoral office of the Church and the teaching office of the university. The cutting edge of theology is almost always viewed with suspicion, and there is no better example than Aquinas himself, who was condemned by so many in his time for his teachings. Yet, look at the reverence accorded him today. Would these same critics assail his institution as insufficiently Catholic?

There is a sage piece of advice in their brief, agonized write-up on Notre Dame: that parents should make sure that their children are well-formed before they send them there. What I would prefer would be to see that same caveat applied to ALL Catholic colleges and universities, and for more universities to be included that are making an earnest effort to be both Catholic and a University. The crisis in Catholic education has much more to do with widespread, insufficient catechesis on the parish level rather than a few dissenting professors at universities that take their mission as such seriously.