The IKON Program

IKON is at the heart of the Newman Idea's Gift of Integrity because it flows from enduring truths.  Integral Knowledge (IKON) courses appeal to universals in human life and thought.  These courses cultivate the Habit of Integral Knowing, where one's faith corresponds to acquiring wisdom, science, and practice.   St. John Henry Newman [with some edits] captures the essence of Integral Knowing: 

“In a word, Religious Truth [Faith] is not only a portion, but a condition of general knowledge.  To blot it out is nothing short… of unravelling the web of University Teaching….”  Integral knowing, “is the education which gives men and women a clear conscious view of their own opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them. It teaches them to see things as they are, to go right to the point, to disentangle a skein of thought, to detect what is sophistical, and to discard what is irrelevant. It prepares them to fill any post with credit, and to master any subject with facility.  It shows them how to accommodate themselves to others, to know their state of mind, to bring other before their own, how to influence, how to come to an understanding with them, how to bear with them.”

Simone Weil depicts the fruits of Integral Knowing: 

The intelligence can only be led by desire. For there to be desire, there must be pleasure and joy in the work.  The intelligence only grows and bears fruit in Joy.  The joy of learning is as indispensable in study as breathing is in running.