In this chapter, although I shall not address Newman or Weber’s work
directly, neither is irrelevant, as will become clear. Instead, attentive to Chris-
tian humanist concerns, I want to place a spotlight on anotherfigure from the
nineteenth century who was concerned about the direction of higher learning.
Thisfigure is the Catholic historian and theologian Ignaz von Döllinger
(1799–1890), and the work of his that is most relevant is his‘Universities,
Then and Now’(Die Universitäten, sonst und jetzt),first delivered as his
rectorial address at the University of Munich in 1866—fifty years prior to
Max Weber’s address there on the same spot. While not without its short-
comings and blind spots, this short work offers a window into the mind of a
leading theologian taking stock of present trends and future possibilities in
modern Western higher education. In what follows, I would like to pursue
several lines of inquiry: since, unlike Newman and Weber, Döllinger is not a
widely recognized name, I shall begin with 1) a brief historical sketch, both of
Döllinger and 2) the historical context of his address; 3) I shall examine the
principal arguments of his address,‘Universities, Then and Now’; and,finally,
4) I shall ask why we should bother with him today: what enduring insights
and broader considerations for the retrieval and maintenance of Christian
humanism might Döllinger’s work offer us now in the twenty-first century?
IGNAZ VON DÖLLINGER: A BRIEF RETROSPECTIVEWhile too often overlooked today, Ignaz von Döllinger was afigure of immense
significance in the nineteenth century. To register this, one might note that John
Henry Newman desired Döllinger above all Catholic scholars to grace the faculty
of the new university in Dublin; at one point, Newman even suggested him as a
worthy successor as Rector.^3
We can only briefly indicate Döllinger’s biography: born in Bamberg (Fran-
conia) into a family of eminent physicians and professors and educated in
Bamberg, Würzburg, and Landshut (all in present-day Bavaria), Döllinger was
ordained a priest in 1822. He spent the lion’s share of his life in Munich, where he
received a distinguished professorship in church history and historical theology
in 1826.^4 We might break up Döllinger’s career into three phases: the period up
(^3) Charles Stephen Dessain and Vincent Ferrer Blehl (eds),The Letters and Diaries of John
Henry Newman, vol. 15 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961), 75.505–6; xx:‘Döllinger would not
accept, I am sure, a mere Upper-deanship. I wish he could be Rector’. Newman to Peter le Page
Renouf (11 October 1858).
(^4) It was in this year that the university, hitherto seated in Ingolstadt and then Landshut, was
transferred to Munich. See Carl Prantl,Geschichte der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in
Ingolstadt, Landshut München(Munich, 1872), 720ff.
222 Thomas Albert Howard