John Henry Newman

This article follows Newman’s writings mainly with a systematic (thematic) methodology; it does not, however, ignore the historical, since we can best see Newman’s ecclesiology evolve within his historical context  In his Evangelical years, the adolescent Newman distrusted “material elements,” including—of course—the visible church, but after his Anglican ordination, the (then) vicar of St. Clement began to preach on various aspects of the church as one, holy, catholic, and apostolic”  The cumulative effect of the theological debates at Oxford, together with his pastoral experience and personal reflections, gradually led Newman to a more high church ecclesiological approach, especially on visibility, invisibility and apostolicity of the Church, as we are going to see in these pages.

Abstract: A reading of Newman’s life and writings in a liturgical perspective is an innovative and pertinent task. This article analyses six of Newman’s sermons, preached between 1829 and 1831, in their liturgical context. It offers us, in germ, an outline of his liturgical theology. Newman persistently subordinated sermons to public prayer. Every church activity, primarily preaching, is directed toward liturgical worship. He defines liturgy etymologically as “public service.” “Public” refers to the ecclesial nature of liturgy, within its two dimensions: corporate and pneumatic. “Service” refers to two aspects, which are always intertwined: it denotes the sacrificial and thanksgiving character of liturgy. Liturgy is our self-sacrifice and our praise to God. In Newman's view, liturgy is the primary repository of apostolic teaching and Church tradition. Consequently, it is the best teacher of faith formation. Thus, in Newman, there is constant interaction between liturgy and life ...

The following "paper" is a proposal for a presentation in a congress. I intend to analyze the influence of David Hume on the philosophy of John Henry Newman and how Newman's philosophical bases are the same as those of Hume although they reach different conclusions.

Nine-and-a-half years and markedly different style separate “Religious Faith Rational”  and “Faith and Reason, Contrasted as Habits of Mind,”  two sermons preached by a then-Anglican John Henry Newman. Yet both have revealing arguments about the nature of and relationship between faith and reason within and in opposition to Christianity in England.

Should education have any use? The question seems hardly worth asking, let alone answering. Yet this apparently absurd topic constitutes the major issue that has dominated debates about higher education in Britain for the past two hundred years. What is perhaps most remarkable is that such a controversy should have managed to sustain itself into such extreme old age; that indeed it reasserts itself even now. It is true that not even Oscar Wilde dared to assert publicly, at least, that universities should be like art- that is, perfectly useless. But to suggest that universities should be useful, that they should teach practical forms of knowledge, has been for many to go too far.

John Henry Newman (now St. John Henry Newman) a Catholic Theologian from England encased in his book "The Idea of A University" (1852) peculiar thoughts and responses regarding the way university education has been predominantly ran. In this book he sways away from the popular tendency to use education as a means to reduce real human learners into systems and numbers. Despite the dismissive response of Charles Dickens-his contemporary-on the same subject, Newman lays bare his alternative solution through this work. In a more hopeful manner, he argues that the purpose of a university is: i.) to pursue true knowledge as a valuable thing in itself; and ii.) to contribute to students and learners a freedom upon the pursuit of this knowledge-thereby making them truly in liberty for the benefit of the whole society. He writes "The nature or essence of a university is to teach, diffuse, and extend universal knowledge. Knowledge that is discoverable and applicable to all men everywhere and at all times." In fact, this same model of education was normalized at Newman University, Birmingham, England-a university dedicated to the legacy of the late saint. My aim in this paper is to highlight his critical arguments regarding the way university education runs, how learning takes place, and the distinction between philosophical and mechanical knowledge.

Dentro del vasto campo de su pensamiento, el Cardenal Newman dedicó varios de sus escritos a lo que podríamos llamar el problema de la idea o esencia de la universidad. En nuestros días, uno de los indicadores más preocupantes de la crisis que viven las instituciones de educación superior es justamente la ausencia de claridad sobre este punto. Pienso que no hay que dar por sentado que sabemos qué es una universidad y es por ello que en esta ponencia se hará una exploración del problema a partir de las ideas de John Henry Newman, con el objetivo de arrojar luz sobre nuestra situación actual y proponer posibles vías de desarrollo para el futuro. Asimismo, se prestará particular atención al tema de la especificidad de la universidad católica en la concepción de Newman y al papel que esta catolicidad está llamada a jugar no solo intraeclesialmente, sino también y sobre todo dentro del ámbito de la cultura contemporánea y sus retos más acuciantes y profundos.

John Henry Newman, who was a significant figure of life in the nineteenth England, and which by many reaserchers is called on of the "most important theological thinkers of modern times" perfeclty fits into a wide panorama of the discussion of truth. The author in his article presents the figure of Newman, who may be for us, people of 21st century, who he was for contemporary people: a real and safe guide. He shows Newman as a true seeker of truth.

John Henry Newman's "Benedictine Essays" develop a strong thesis that Benedictine spirituality is necessarily at odds with the methods of the modern university. Benedictine spiritual life encourages the monk to mortify his intellect, not to satisfy it or to stir it up. It is best suited to grammar school, to the study of literature and history and Scripture, while rejecting the value of studying worldly topics that don't prepare a person for union with God in the next life. Newman's account makes the project of a Benedictine university like St. Anselm's College seem deeply problematic, even oxymoronic. St. Anselm of Canterbury, a transitional figure on Newman's account, shows some ways of reconciling a speculative intellectual life with Benedictine spirituality, but Newman's challenge to the project still remains.

This volume of John Henry Newman’s Catholic University papers, collected and arranged by his private secretary William Neville, was printed for private circulation in 1896, six years after Newman’s death. Since then, it has only been reproduced in facsimile. It is now published in a critical edition for the first time.
    My Campaign in Ireland, Part I brings together the most important documents penned by Newman in his efforts to establish a Catholic university in Ireland. Appointed the founding Rector in 1851, Newman was fully involved in every aspect of the university from 1854, when it opened, until 1858, when he resigned. The discourses he composed in 1852, to prepare for the foundation of the university, form the first half of The Idea of a University, Newman’s great classic work on education which many regard as the most influential book on the nature and purpose of the university. By contrast, the foundational documents in My Campaign in Ireland, Part I demonstrate how he was able to turn theory into practice in adverse circumstances. Filling out Newman’s vision of education, they show how he should also be esteemed for his practical contribution to education.

The canonisation of John Henry Newman by Pope Francis in 2019 was an opportunity to communicate to a largely secular audience in Britain and the rest of the world the search for truth that inspired Newman’s life. A giant of 19th century Britain, an emi- nent Victorian, a respected intellectual, a prolific writer and a reli- gious reformer, Newman was now going to be declared a saint in the Catholic Church. After a brief historical summary, this article explains how the communications plan for the event was drawn up and executed to reach this secular public.

Purpose of this presentation is characteristic of relation between the tutor and the tutee according to The Idea of a University written by St. John Henry Newman (1801-1890). His thought about university ideas and whole public activity reveals authority Newman's concept. Influence of that way of thinking is still recognized in contemporary education, both youthful and academical. An educational and pedagogical accompaniment are inseparable elements of seeking, recognizing and accept (or reject) the value system of previously known authorities. These days the role of peer group or social media is more important than authority of family and teachers. Because of that, the idea of authority formed by J. H. Newman is still the actual concept. It based on transfer of knowledge connected with authentic moral attitudes of tutor. He ought to be really involved in the creative development of personal potential of tutee. According Newman's concept, tutor's authority should be motivating for tutee who is going to be not only a passive participant of contemporary culture but also co-creator of the surrounding world.

Conscience before conformity tells the story of German students who dared to speak out against Hitler and the Third Reich, and died for their beliefs. Operating under the name of the White Rose, they printed and distributed leaflets condemning Nazism and urging Germans to offer non-violent resistance to the ‘atheistic war machine’. By looking at the cultural and religious journey of the protagonists, Hans and Sophie Scholl, we can see what made them change from active participants in the Hitler Youth to leaders of the White Rose resistance. These modern-day heroes were deeply influenced by intellectuals they met in secret, and by the writings of great Christian thinkers such as St Augustine, Pascal, Georges Bernanos, and Bl. John Henry Newman. What they learnt gave them the strength to put their consciences before conformity to the Nazi lie.

Ever since the Enlightenment, demonstrative reason became the only access to knowledge. The system of beliefs was divided into two major groups: those that fulfilled all the requirements established by the rationalist model, and therefore were considered legitimate and certain, and those which could not be considered legitimate because they were unreachable by logical demonstration. Before this scenario, Newman provides an original analysis of knowledge to vindicate the legitimacy of religious belief. In this work I review the way in which Newman overcomes the rationalist crisis of the XIX century through an original method intended to recognize the personal dimension of our minds.

This essay inquires into the unique intersection of Erich Przywara and John Henry Newman and explores the re-imagined notions of divine transcendence and the supernatural in their works. Przywara found in Newman a source of inspiration for a more lively presentation of Catholic thought and a model for illuminating the path toward a new Catholic intellectual culture. Newman's work highlights the actively inquiring disposition of faith, an active search for the meaning of its doctrines, a progressive and unceasing journey that comprises the entirety of one's life. By showing the changing Catholic responses to modernity and the evolving theological approaches that would come to characterize later twentieth-century Catholic thought, the paper emphasizes how Przywara and Newman contributed to a more vibrant form of Catholicism and a renewal of Catholic intellectual culture that anticipated the Church's wider opening to the world.

Preface to Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 25:1 (winter 2022): 5-24. In this essay, a revised version of my lecture at the 2021 conference of the Society of G. K. Chesterton, I look at Newman and Chesterton as both practitioners and theorists of satire, with special attention to the spiritual and theological implications of satire and humor. Included as always in the preface are summaries of the articles in the issue.

John Henry Newman’s Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent seeks to explain why it is that when the mind’s eye strains to pick out one among the world’s furnishings, its gaze passes only per speculum in aenigmate. Within the Grammar, this explanation unfolds as a diptych, first addressing how assent can outpace understanding (Part One), and then, how merely probable grounds can yield absolute assent (Part Two). Central to the argument of both “panels,” however, is the opposition between “notions” and “things,” which is woven throughout Newman’s successive accounts of apprehension, assent, and inference. At a glance, Newman’s distinction between notion and thing can seem to imply a parsimonious or even “nominalist” ontology, committed to the unreality of abstract objects such as kinds, classes, or propositions. By contrast, this paper argues that such a reading of Newman’s distinction fundamentally mistakes the aim for and register in which he writes; Newman principally distinguishes notions from things, not in order to attach appropriate metaphysical qualifiers to items in the world’s inventory, but rather to pick out distinct modes of the mind’s relation to the world. In other words, the opposition of notion to thing is not adjectival, but adverbial, or even, “grammatical.”

In The Theologian of Auschwitz, Peter Damian Fehlner establishes the historical and theological context of St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe’s stupendous insights into the theology of the Church in its deepest Pneumatological and Marian dimensions. Fehlner draws out the implications of Kolbe’s thought and spirituality, showing Kolbe’s dependence upon and development of the broader Catholic and Franciscan tradition, especially St. Francis, St. Bonaventure, and Bl. John Duns Scotus. At the heart of Fehlner’s argument is Kolbe’s outline for a never-completed text on the mystery of the Immaculate Conception. Based upon his comprehensive knowledge of Kolbe’s writings as well as his deep knowledge of Francis, Bonaventure, and Scotus, Fehlner presents Kolbe as a genuine theologian with insights and riches to offer the Franciscan Order as well as the entire Church and the world. For Fehlner, the absolute priority of Jesus Christ essentially conjoined with his Immaculate Mother, so much emphasized by Kolbe, must not only be believed but actually lived in the context of both the Church’s inner dimension as well as in its evangelical mission to the nations. Only through fully incorporating the mode of life of Christ the King and the Immaculate Queenship of Mary will the New Evangelization and ecclesial renewal, so desired and emphasized by the Second Vatican Council and each of the popes following the council, be realized.

This is my English translation of H. G. Stoker's doctoral dissertation written under Max Scheler in 1925 (Das Gewissen: Erscheinungsformen und Theorien), quite possibly the most exhaustive study of conscience in any language.  It was received with acclaim by Scheler, Heidegger and others in its day, but never promoted as an independent publication.  Now I'm happy to help make it available to a much wider audience in English translation.

It has sections exploring (1) various historical theories conscience (Jerome, Origen, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Cardinal Newman, Butler, Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Freud, and many others); (2) the various terms used for conscience in Greek, Latin, and other European languages; (3) different types of theories -- those that identify conscience with the intellect, intuition, will, feelings, etc.; (4) the development of conscience; and (5) the reliability of conscience.

The book is not highly technical, but reasonably accessible, and promises to be of interest to those interested in moral and religious psychology, ethics, and religion, as well as Schelerian phenomenology.

The book will go on sale the end of March.

This work is the defense of the faith position as reasonable and it also explores the theological method employed by the great nineteenth century theologian and gifted writer John Henry Newman.  I successfully defended this thesis in 1994 and was awarded a First Class Honours S.T.L. degree.  (The S.T.L. is the equivalent of a Master's degree.

In this article, we will explore the main
characteristics of Cardinal John Henry Newman’s
idea of a university, emphasizing his notion of
liberal education as in between a moral and a
pragmatic education. Liberal education is free and
trains a person’s intellect to constantly pursue the
truth. Finally, this article showcases the similarities
between his thought and that of itam’s General
Studies Department.

In its response to common sense judgements such as “here are two hands,” On Certainty gave an analysis of reasoning as structured in hinge propositions. As Duncan Pritchard points out, here Wittgenstein was influenced by Newman and should be understood in the context of faith and reason. One issue, though, is “quasi-fideism,” and another is whether knowledge and certainty are as distinct as Wittgenstein appears to claim. In response, I present Lonergan’s alternative account of common sense in Insight.

Newman’s anti-skeptical philosophy in the Grammar of Assent implicitly relies on the normativity of human nature and its epistemic faculties. This fundamental trust in the reliability of the teleology of human nature finds further confirmation in Neman’s understanding of the certitude of human conscience. Without this reliability and certitude, we would not even have any faculties to be skeptical with: “If I do not use myself, I have no other self to use.”

The contest of faith in modern times has been intimately affected by the “turn to the subject” that typifies the age. In the modernist crisis of the early twentieth, the Catholic world was rocked by the twin threats of subjectivism and relativism, in response to which faith became identified with a rejection of the modern “turn” in favor of an objectivist intellectualism that coincided with a more or less ahistorical conception of faith. This trend was countered in the interwar period by the ressourcement, whose calls for theological and ecclesial reform bore fruit in the Second Vatican Council. The post-conciliar era, however, has witnessed a recurrence of the relativist and subjectivist dangers emblematic of modernism, inspiring many contemporary Catholics to return with sympathy to the apparent clarity and stability of neoscholastic theology. Thus, despite many good efforts, the Church remains caught in an oscillation between objective and subjective emphases, and between historical and transhistorical viewpoints, poles which are usually set in dialectical opposition to one another. This paper investigates the thought of two important modern theologians who frame the twentieth century at its bookends, John Henry Newman and Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), and seeks to unveil a common structure in their thought that, it argues, fruitfully transcends these tensions. By positively correlating objectivity and subjectivity, dogmatic stability and historical development, both men achieve a theological balance that enables them to overcome the modern crisis precisely from within, and which emerges with greater clarity as they are read together. This balance, in turn, can help the Church to transcend the false-dichotomies that continue to threaten the vitality of the faith in the present times.

The relationship between knowledge and morality is a theme recurring in most of the pages of "The Idea of a University" 1 and one to which Newman certainly devoted much of his care. A man such as Newman, with a deep ethical sense and an incisive intellect, would be expected to argue for a convergence of education and morals. This expectation is especially understandable if we bear in mind that the Discourses were written with a view to establishing a Catholic University, and that it was in a Catholic University Newman gave his speeches as a rector and in the University Church his Sermons. It is not surprising, therefore, that he perplexed his contemporary readers when he firmly stated that liberal education has an object distinct from virtue, and that the end of university education is intellectual, not moral or religious. "Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; […] Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman."  This is a delicate position that requires extensive explanation; it has, firstly, considerable effects on the conception of a university, and secondly, on the relationships of the different constituent elements of the human being, particularly reason and moral conscience. Was not Newman's education project aiming to train good Catholics? What is his conception of the gentleman? Is the gentleman synonymous with the man of a philosophical habit of mind? Is the gentleman the model of the human person that Newman had in mind when he was elaborating his Idea of a University?

La « méthode économique » de J.H. Newman
Des Ariens du quatrième siècle à l’Essai sur le développement de la doctrine chrétienne

Résumé

J.H. Newman fut parfois accusé d’incohérence dans sa pensée. Ainsi, un Charles Kingsley voulut mettre en relief l’obscurité de sa réflexion théologique, particulièrement à propos de la « méthode économique ». Newman présente pourtant cette méthode comme l’une des façons légitimes et pertinentes de raisonner.
Nous nous proposons donc de vérifier sa cohérence théologique : de sa première œuvre, les Ariens, jusqu’à l’Essai sur le développement de la doctrine chrétienne, que Newman lui-même considère comme l’un de ses meilleurs travaux sur la « méthode théologique ». Dans ce but, il convient en premier lieu d’apprécier l’importance de la notion de « méthode économique » telle que développée dans les Ariens : elle montre que dès le début de son itinéraire théologique, Newman a été préoccupé de la question de la méthode en théologie. Dans ce livre, il s’efforce de discerner le lieu de naissance de cette méthode, les éléments qui l’expliquent, ainsi que ses limites. Ce discernement des limites de la méthode va de pair avec sa recherche sur la nature de l’Église, recherche destinée à pallier les limites de la méthode. Pour l’essentiel, Newman reprendra dans ses œuvres postérieures ce qu’il avait découvert sur ce point dans les Ariens, tout en étant conscient de l’évolution de sa façon de comprendre l’Église. Pour rendre compte de ce changement, il adopte la perspective fondamentale découverte chez les Pères alexandrins dans leur réflexion sur le mystère de la Trinité face aux arguments ariens : le dialogue philosophique. Pour mettre en lumière cette continuité des acquis de la méthode économique, la présente étude a été menée principalement selon trois perspectives : la patristique, la théologie anglicane et les courants philosophiques britanniques, notamment l’empirisme. Au terme de notre enquête, nous pouvons alors caractériser ce qui constitue la continuité de la pensée de Newman comme étant l’« axe métaphysique » dans la pratique de la théologie. Nous remarquons également une postérité dans la théologie de notre temps : ce « discernement de la conscience historique », où, désormais, les théologiens voient l’une de leurs tâches fondamentales.