Volume 8, Issue 2, Fall 2011
Stephen Kelly
Pages 29-41
John Henry Newman and the Writing of History
Can Newman be classified as an “historian”? On the one hand, Newman did not adhere to, indeed cared very little for, modern scientific methods of empirical research; he detested the cold, clinical nature of German intellectualism of the mid-ninetheenth century. On the other hand, Newman’s historical investigation relied upon conservative methods of historical research: the use of original sources and the rules of historical criticism; his techniques were self-taught, but they were adequate to meet the historical standards of his times. Most importantly, Newman never conceived of himself purely and simply as an historian: he studied history in the service of religion and, for example, examined the fourth century in order to provide answers to the theological questions of the nineteenth.