Faithful Intellect

Book excerpt: In 1850, Samuel Nelles, a well-educated Methodist minister, was selected to resuscitate the debt-ridden and declining Victoria University. As principal, and later as president and chancellor, he fought against shortsighted government educational policies while making the school into one of the premier universities in Canada. A true academic, Nelles believed in the importance of testing assumed laws, dogmas, and creeds. However his pursuit of intellectual inquiry was always guided by a rational faith in God, as well as the expectation of the future greatness and goodness of humanity. "Faithful Intellect" expands the reader's understanding of many of the key intellectual, religious, and political concerns of nineteenth-century English Canada while providing an essential contribution to the study of Canada’s system of higher education.