This last, begun while he was still in the English church, became a justification of his secession. It explained how modern Rome, widely different from the church of the Fathers, could yet claim to represent the original Christianity, not as identical but as consistent with it, as being in fact the full fruit of which the seed only was seen at first. In his theory, Newman was not so far away from the Darwinism which was to exert a far greater influence on English thought, and he certainly expressed the heart of the science of comparative religion. Something of the same kind may be said of lectures on University Education. They represent, if they do not indeed anticipate, some of the most powerful ideas of the later nineteenth century in regard to the true functions of a university and the motive force of university reform.
All knowledge is, ultimately, a defence of the Christian faith.
The Grammar of Assent carried the argument of probability, the corner-stone of his master Butler, on to new ground. The validity of proof is determined not by any scientific test but by the illative sense. It is easy to relate such thoughts as these to much later philosophy, both English and German. And, in fact, what is characteristic of all Newman's writing is that form of genius which seizes upon the floating tendencies of nascent thought and points the way towards unforeseen conclusions. It is only within very narrow limits that Newman's thought here or elsewhere can ever be called reactionary.