John Henry Newman

Review: An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine

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Cover image of "An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine" by John Henry Cardinal Newman

An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, John Henry Cardinal Newman (foreword by Ian Ker). University of Notre Dame Press (ISBN: 9780268009212) 1994 (first published in 1845).

Summary: Shows that doctrine has undergone development and provides marks of genuine doctrines.

One of the questions raised by many who are not Catholics is why the church affirms many doctrines that have no explicit basis in scripture. These include beliefs about the Virgin Mary, papal supremacy, and purgatory. John Henry Cardinal Newman, in 1845, penned what may be the best explanation of how these doctrines are genuine developments of biblical truth.

“Development” is the key word in An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. He argues that while some of the doctrines of the Catholic Church don’t arise from explicit texts of scripture, they are nevertheless genuine developments from the scriptures. To make this argument, Newman devotes the first part of his “essay” to defending the idea that Christian doctrine has developed over time. Many things implicit in scripture were later brought out in the Councils and Papal teaching. And we need look no further than the doctrine of the Trinity or the doctrine of the Incarnation to see this is the case. But Newman holds this to be true of all the doctrines of the Catholic Church.

But how are we to distinguish the genuine from corruptions of doctrine? Newman offered seven “notes” or distinguishing marks:

  1. Preservation of its Type. This refers to the persistence of a main idea even though its external expression may change. Newman contrasts the egg to a fully grown bird as an example. He supports this note through a study of the first six centuries of the church.
  2. Continuity of Its Principles. As true doctrine develops, it never violates the basic principle of Christianity, of which Newman enumerates nine. Every heresy will violate at least one of these.
  3. Its Assimilative Power. Growing things depend on assimilating nutrients for their life. Similarly true doctrine develops in part by assimilating external ideas such as Greek philosophy that help it define more clearly what the church believes.
  4. Its Logical Sequence. In a genuine development of doctrine, a logical progression can be shown from biblical truth to the doctrine’s expression. For example, purgatory develops from the requirement of perfection to enter heaven. Yet many are friends of Christ who are not perfect and thus must undergo a purifying process before entering heaven.
  5. Anticipation of its Future. Essentially, this note proposes that there are hints to future developments implied in the earliest statements. Newman shows this to be the case with the idea of relics, the Virgin Mary, and the cult of saints and angels.
  6. Conservative Action on its Past. Genuine developments build on earlier ones, often bringing greater clarity. For example, the Nicene Creed clarifies and strengthens what is in the Apostles Creed. A corruption contradicts and weakens the earlier development.
  7. Its Chronic Vigour. Genuine developments endure while heresies die off. One example Newman offers is Pelagianism, which denied original sin and argued for human pefectability apart from Christ’s redemptive grace.

One of the strength’s of Newman’s work is to show how doctrines develop over time and to legitimize that process. This is important because all of us believe things not explicitly stated in the Bible. Additionally, his extensive arguments from church history help substantiate his case. At the same time, it seems, as an outside observer, a good argument to legitimate what is. And I could see some from Eastern or Reformed traditions using some of the notes to argue against particular Catholic doctrines. It also essentially brands Eastern Orthodoxy and the churches of the Reformation as embracing corruptions at their points of difference. Although Newman doesn’t explicitly say this, it is a logical “development” from his argument.

Newman’s Victorian prose is never an easy read. In this case, his lengthy discussions of church history risk losing the forest for the trees. One must keep the main contours and particular “notes” of Newman’s argument before one.

To sum up, this is an important work, not merely for Catholics but for all Christians. We may know that Jesus loves us “because the Bible tells me so” but not all that any of us as Christians affirm comes directly from scripture without development. Newman also helps us, whether we agree or not, to understand the Catholic justification of doctrines with which others may disagree.

But it also shows why it will be difficult to reach a doctrinal rapprochement that encompasses Eastern, Protestant, and Catholic churches. That does not mean we cannot strive for mutual understanding and charitable relations. But to be of one mind in doctrine seems to me to be part of the beatific vision. “ For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12, KJV).

Review: John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed

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Cover image of "John Henry Newman" by Ida Friederike Görres

John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed, Ida Friederike Görres. Ignatius Press (ISBN: 9781621646983) 2024.

Summary: A study of Newman focused on the cost of his conversion to Catholicism and how it formed his character.

John Henry Newman is one of those figures of interest to many of us who have worked in college ministry. Newman Centers often served as the base for Catholic ministry on campus. For those of us who tried to think Christianly about what universities are for, Newman’s The Idea of a University was required reading.

Newman’s story is an interesting one. He came to a vibrant evangelical faith as a teenager. As a young man, he became part of a movement to reform and revitalize Anglicanism through turning toward its Catholic roots, promoting a kind of Anglo-Catholicism. But he discovered he could not go half way, and after an agonizing process, converted to Catholic belief. While this brought spiritual relief, it both cost him friends and engendered suspicion among his fellow Catholics in England. He was relegated to a parish in Birmingham, where he faced (and lost) a libel trial. Later, he had a chance to pursue his vision of a university in Ireland, but never enjoyed the support of his fellow Catholics. Only late in life did he rise to the office of Cardinal.

This work is less a biography than a study of how Newman was formed through the challenges and setbacks he faced in his life. The theme of this book is that Newman sacrificed his life in the pursuit of spiritual truth. Whether this was in the advocacy of his Tracts for the Times during his Oxford Movement period or his wrestlings at Littlemore, he sought truth. Later on, his works on The Grammar of Assent and on the development of doctrine centered on the pursuit of truth. A long chapter toward the conclusion of the work unpacks Newman’s ideas on conscience

Görres traces how adversity brought him low. She also shows how it formed a godly humility and deep personal devotion. Newman always adhered to the code of the gentleman. He even addresses himself to the formation of gentlemen in Idea. To gentlemanliness, Newman’s trials added Christlike gentleness.

But this work is not just about Newman, but about Ida Friederike Görres. Görres was a German Catholic scholar, profoundly influenced by Newman, who wrote on the lives of saints. In an introduction, Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz, who edited this work for German publication describes the author’s difficulties in completing the work. Also, the translator, Jennifer S. Bryson, offers both commentary and a detailed index of the book. Concluding appendices offer timelines of both Newman’s and Görres life. One of the most helpful resources in the book is an extensive register of persons.

Görres doesn’t offer a biography of Newman so much as a study of his character in the context of the events of his life. We see how sacrifice produces sanctity. For biography, the reader may turn to Ian Ker’s John Henry Newman. But many biographies don’t reveal the personality of a person and how God formed them through the challenges of their lives. This is what Görres does so well in this work.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The Idea of a University

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The Idea of a University
The Idea of a University by John Henry Newman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is perhaps the classic work on the question of “what is a university for?” The book consists of two sections. The first is a series of nine “discourses” on University Teaching given on the inauguration of the Catholic University of Ireland, of which he was its first Rector. The second part is a collection of occasional lectures gathered under the theme “University Subjects”.

Newman’s summary in the last of his nine lectures on University Teaching summarizes the argument he pursues in these lectures:

I have accordingly laid down first, that all branches of knowledge are, at least implicitly, the subject matter of its teaching; that these branches are not isolated and independent one of another, but form together a whole or system, that they run into each other, and complete each other, and that, in proportion to our view of them, as a whole, is the exactness and trustworthiness of the knowledge which they separately convey; that the process of imparting knowledge to the intellect in this philosophical way is its true culture; that such culture is a good in itself, that the knowledge which is both its instrument and result is called Liberal Knowledge; that such culture, together with the knowledge which effects it, may fitly be sought for its own sake; that it is, however, in addition, of great secular utility, as constituting the best and highest formation of the intellect for social and political life; and lastly, that considered in a religious aspect, it concurs with Christianity a certain way, and then diverges from it; and consequently proves in the event, sometimes its serviceable ally, sometimes, from its very resemblance to it, an insidious and dangerous foe. (pp 162-163)

There is so much one could talk about in this summary (and Newman does so at length!) that I will simply observe that he gives what is probably the classic defense of liberal education, articulates a Christian vision for the unity of knowledge, and also articulates the friend/foe relationship in which the Church has often found itself with regard to higher learning.

The second part includes lectures on Christianity and letters, English Catholic literature, Elementary studies (the groundwork he sees as necessary for the perfection of the intellect), a lecture on Infidelity, University Preaching, several lectures on Christianity and the sciences, and a lecture on the Discipline of the Mind.

Two things stood out to me in these lectures. One was Newman’s wisdom as he explore what we call the intersection or integration of faith and discipline. Newman was all for letting each discipline pursue its own modes of inquiry so long as none of these presumed to intrude upon either other disciplines nor the theological enterprise of the church (and vice versa!). On the whole he believes that truth will out in the end and that we don’t have to force reconciliations at the expense of theology or other academic disciplines–better to work with mystery and ambiguity. The second thing was his telling comments on how easy it is to know much about many things but in a disordered way rather than to discipline the mind through grammar, composition, the classic languages and foundational beliefs. This might be a telling criticism for our day when university students and even “educated” adults have opinions about everything but cannot write clearly or develop a logical argument.

That said, while Newman writes with a mastery of language and argument, he writes as a Victorian, with dense and compound sentences. I found that I often had to read him allow to capture a sense of the flow of his ideas. In other words, there is much rich thinking in this work but it is heavy going that requires the reader’s full attention.

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Current Reads

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For a time, the GoodReads widget on my blog kept you informed of what was on my “currently reading” shelf. For the past week or so that has not been working and none of the bulletin boards I’ve consulted have shown me how to fix this.

So I thought I might give you a quick update of what I’m reading that you can look forward (or not!) to seeing me review in the not-too-distant future.  I actually have a number of books going at present because of groups I’m in and other projects as well as what I’m reading just for the interest of it.  I will include Amazon links so you can see more info about each of these books.

1.  John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University.  This is a collection of a lecture series and other occasional talks in which Newman lays out his vision for a Catholic university and university education in general.  Dense reading with at least one interesting idea in each lecture so far–and some things with which I’d take great exception, particularly what I think is an elitist view of the university. Our Dead Theologians group stopped reading after the first set of lectures–I hope to get around to re-reading the second set (last time over 20 years ago) sometime soon.

2. Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow.  I’m reading this on my Kindle and nearly through it.  Alexander is an Ohio State law professor who makes the case that The War on Drugs, policing patterns, sentencing guidelines, and post-incarceration stigmas contribute to creating a permanent underclass of blacks and Latinos.  A challenging book.

3. James Wilhoit and Evan Howard, Discovering Lectio Divina. This is a good introductio with much practical help into this ancient practice of reflectively reading scripture.

4. James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful God. Smith contends that many of us have distorted images of God that distort our relationship with God, ourselves, others, and the world.  Through chapters exploring the character of God and “soul-training” exercises, he helps us see the source of goodness, truth, and beauty.

5. Hugo Young, This Blessed Plot. Just started in on this one so will be with it for awhile.  Young explores the post World War II history of Great Britain and its policy toward Europe through the lives of those who helped shape that from the time of Churchill to Tony Blair.

6. Ron Highfield, God, Freedom, and Human Dignity. This is a distillation of the work of Alasdair MacIntyre and Charles Taylor looking at how we derive our sense of identity–do we source this in ourselves feeling our freedom and dignity threatened by God, or do we source this in God, understanding that we find our freedom and dignity through Him?

7. C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory. Our Dead Theologians group decide to pick this up as easier reading than Newman. One of the essays I’ve most appreciated in this collection is “Learning in Wartime” in which Lewis answers the question of why should one devote oneself to higher learning when their are so many other “great matters” at hand–a perennial question faced by the graduate students I work with.

So those are the books scattered about my house that I am currently reading.  I look forward to sharing reviews of many of them in the near future.  So, what are you reading that you think I might be interested in?

 

Literacy and Liberty

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This week I’ve been in several conversations with people and with books I’m reading around the theme of the connection between cultural literacy and preserving our liberties. This item first came up as I was reading Os Guinness’s Suicide of a Free People. Guinness’s basic idea is that there are two kinds of freedom–freedom from and freedom for–and that our society almost exclusively emphasizes the former in a manner that is unsustainable for the long haul.  He argues that our founders were wiser in part on these matters because their thought was formed by the classic Greek and Latin writers on government and human affairs, as well as more recent writers like Locke.  For example, they knew of Polybius and the three ideal forms of government, including democracy, and each forms degraded expression, which for democracy is mob rule and built into the constitution various constraints against mob rule in the balancing of powers.

In John Henry Newman’s Idea of a University, Newman doesn’t address this directly but speaks of the enlargement of mind that he believes is a function of a liberal education as it classically has been understood:

That only is true enlargement of mind which is the power of viewing many things at once as one whole, of referring them severally to their true place in the universal system, of understanding their respective values, and determining their mutual dependence.

What both writers have in common is the recognition of a breadth of perspective that comes when we engage the great writers and great books.  And this is what came up in a couple conversations with university faculty this week. The great concern is that in place of this kind of education, today’s student usually gets a smattering of self-selected GEC courses and lots of focused training in a very specific, job-related area, unless they opt to go to a liberal arts college, or a place like St John’s, that focuses on a Great Books curriculum.  (Here is the reading list for their curriculum.)

What troubles me is that while there is great emphasis on preparing students for entering the world of work, it seems there is little that facilitates the enlargement of mind of which Newman speaks.  Many of us bemoan the smallness of mind that characterizes our present political discourse.  The question for me is whether in fact we are achieving the result that we are aiming for, highly skilled specialists who fuel our economic engines but lack the enlargement of mind and the habits of literacy to think cogently over a lifetime about the important matters required of us as citizens in a representative democracy? Perhaps what troubles me most is wondering what will happen should the cohort entering our workforce wake up and recognize that their education has been directed primarily to the end of making them cogs in our economic machine, and the only resource at hand to them is inchoate anger?  That, it seems, is a prescription for mob rule.

What is a University For?

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The Ohio State University is in the midst of a search for a new president after the departure of the illustrious Gordon Gee.  This has been the occasion for much discussion around the university of what the university is for.  It seems to me that this is in fact a good thing.  Yet many of the faculty I listen to are troubled.  All universities are increasingly facing pressures to effectively and efficiently graduate students able to obtain good jobs that advance our economy.  Many bemoan the fact that it seems that the university is being turned into a job training school.

What seems more difficult is defining what a university is for beyond providing the training and credentials to obtain a decent job.  One of my favorite authors, Wendell Berry, has long opined on the university–from his essay on “The Loss of the University” in Home Economics to his recent withdrawal of his papers from the University of Kentucky because he feels they have strayed from the purpose set forth in establishing this institution by the Morrill Act. Berry believes this mandates a purpose of the university that continues to study the care of the land and people of the state of Kentucky–a mandate he believed had been sold out to “big coal”.

Ohio State is also a land grant university.  And it least a part of the focus of our governor and others is to address how the public universities in Ohio are contributing to the welfare of the state.  On its face, this seems consistent with the Morrill Act and the university’s original purpose.  But Berry also raises the question of a university caring for the land, the places, the character of the state.  This calls for far more than looking at jobs, wages, unemployment, and business development.  It means asking how well universities are training students for citizenship and stewardship–creating just and livable communities and tending the land and the resources that those communities depend upon, for now and for future generations.

This brings me to another venerable contributor to the discussion of universities:  John Henry Newman.  During the 1850s he gave a series of lectures collected into The Idea of a University.  Our Dead Theologians Society reading group has just begun reading Newman’s work.  He sees these as places that teach “universal knowledge” that refines the intellect and shapes the character of students.  Newman would contend that religious knowledge, theology if you will, is central to this and without this, the other subjects of the university fragment into a myriad of unconnected pieces–sounding much like today’s “multiversity”.

Other than at some private religious colleges, it seems that by and large university’s have given up on addressing the larger issues of life, character virtues, and ethics, aside from the obligatory ethics courses in professional education.  True, many emphasize service but by and large are averse to considering some of these classic aspects of university purposes, and this at a time when some studies indicate student hunger for addressing questions of spirituality and not just job training.

What are your thoughts about “what a university is for”.  What books have you found influential in thinking about the purpose of a university?