One-Dimensional Learning: The Dialectic of Sacred and Secular As the Enduring Possibility of the University (Report‪)‬

This article traces the origins of the university as an interplay between transcendence and immanence, sacred and secular, first in ancient Greek philosophy and then within the Byzantine, Islamic, and Latin intellectual worlds. It shows how the dialectic is threatened in modernity through the eclipse of the sacred in the public sphere and the hegemony of the secular in intellectual life, leaving the university no foundation for a unity and coherence of knowledge that would justify its continued existence. The author demonstrates how Newman and Whitehead provide clues for seeking apertures for transcendence to re-enter the university, as do alternative forms of intellectual and spiritual community, but a blueprint for the university's renewal cannot yet be anticipated. I. Three Moments of University Development: The Metaphysical Rivalry of Transcendence and Immanence