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Newman and the Religion of the Future
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
Abstract
Although underappreciated in his own day, Catholic convert John Henry Newman was remarkably prophetic about the challenges that lay ahead for the Catholic faith. In his 1873 sermon titled, ‘The Infidelity of the Future’, Newman warned of a time when the Church would face not only the cold indifference of agnosticism but also the targeted hostility of those opposed to both God and religion. Yet Newman was not without hope or wisdom for the future Church. This essay examines Newman's insistence upon the need to cultivate an ‘ecclesiastical spirit’ and an ‘intelligent faith’. It specifically explores how Catholic institutions of higher education can respond to Newman's call and assist in bringing about a renewal in the evangelical mission of the Church, providing a much-needed alternative to the wisdom of the world.
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References
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3 Newman, Infidelity, p. 116-17.
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9 Newman, Infidelity, p. 121: ‘If there ever was a time when one priest will be a spectacle to men and angels, it is in the age now opening upon us’.
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18 John Henry Newman, Apologia pro vita sua (1865) https://www.newmanreader.org/works/apologia65/index.html. Commentators on the Apologia include: Hilaire Belloc, Forward to 1930 edition https://www.newmanreader.org/works/apologia65/belloc.html; Cornwell, Newman's Unquiet Grave, pp. 154-72; Dulles, Newman, pp. 90-94, 123-26; Ker, JHN: A Biography, pp. 540-82, 617-8, 698-9; Linda Peterson, ‘Newman's Apologia pro vita sua and the traditions of the English spiritual autobiography’, PMLA 100(3) (October 2020); Ryan, Michael, ‘The question of autobiography in Cardinal Newman's Apologia pro vita sua’, Georgia Review 31(3) (Fall 1977), 672-99Google Scholar; Edward Short, ‘St John Henry Newman's Apologia revisited’, Catholic World Report 21 June 2020.
19 Mt 16:18; 28:20.
20 Newman, Infidelity, p. 118.
21 Newman, Apologia, pp. 487.
22 Newman, Apologia, pp. 488.
23 Newman, Apologia, pp. 489.
24 Forte, ‘Historia Veritatis’, p. 83. Ian Ker offers the translation ‘Out of unreality into reality’.
25 Newman, Development, p. 40.
26 Newman, Development, p. 107.
27 Chesterton, Gilbert K., Orthodoxy (New York: John Lane Company, 1908), p. 85Google Scholar.
28 Newman, Development, p. 364: ‘That truth and falsehood in religion are but matter of opinion; that one doctrine is as good as another; that the Governor of the world does not intend that we should gain the truth; that there is no truth; that we are not more acceptable to God by believing this than by believing that; that no one is answerable for his opinions; that they are a matter of necessity or accident; that this is enough if we sincerely hold what we profess; that our merit lies in seeking, not in possessing; that it is a duty to follow what seems true; that it may be a gain to succeed, and can be no harm to fail; that we may take up and lay down opinions at pleasure; that belief belongs to the mere intellect, not to the heart; that we may safely trust ourselves in matters of faith, and need do other guide—this is the principle of philosophies and heresies, which is very weakness’. See also Via Media xli, as referenced in Przywara S.J, The Heart of Newman, p. 161 ‘truth is the guiding principle of theology and theological inquiries; devotion and edification, of worship; and of government expedience. The instrument of theology is reasoning; of worship, our emotional nature; of rule, command, and coercion’.
29 Benedict XVI, Message to the Symposium of the International Centre of Friends of Newman (2010), https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/letters/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20101118_newman-friends.html. See also Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Presentation on the Occasion of the First Centenary of the Death of Cardinal Newman (1990), https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19900428_ratzinger-newman_en.html. See also St Paul VI, Address to the Cardinal Newman Academic Symposium (1975), ‘faithful throughout his life, with all his heart devoted to the light of truth’, https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/speeches/1975/documents/hf_p-vi_spe_19750407_symposium-newman.html
30 Newman, Development, p. 40; 324;
31 Newman, Development, pp. 169-206; on which see International Theological Commission, The Interpretation of Dogma (1989)5, https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_1989_interpretazione-dogmi_en.html
32 1Tim 3:15
33 John Henry Newman, On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine (1859) https://www.newmanreader.org/works/rambler/consulting.html. Commentators on Consulting the Faithful include: Cooper, JHN: A Developing Spirituality, pp. 154-58; Cornwell, Newman's Unquiet Grave, pp. 138-53; John Coulson, ‘Introduction’ in the Sheed & Ward edition; Dulles, Newman, pp. 105-07; Hermann Geissler, ‘The witness of the faithful in matters of doctrine according to John Henry Newman’, International Centre of Newman Friends http://www.newmanfriendsinternational.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/on-consulting-english1.pdf; Ker, JHN: A Biography, pp. 480-8, 604-9; Edward Miller, ‘Newman's teaching on the Sense of the Faithful’, in Lefebvre & Mason, JHN: Doctor, 145-62; Richard Penaskovic, ‘Newman, the laity, and the reception of doctrine’, in Lefebvre & Mason, JHN: Doctor, 163-172; Ryan, Fáinche, ‘On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine: From Newman to the Second Vatican Council and Beyond’ in Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review 106 (423) (2017) 340-58 at p. 340CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sharkey, Michael, ‘Newman on the laity’, Gregorianum 68(1) (1987) 339-46; Strange, A Mind Alive, pp. 88-9Google Scholar.
34 Newman, On Consulting the Faithful, p. 63.
35 Newman, Consulting the Faithful, pp. 25, 33-34, 71-72. Cf. Drew Christiansen, ‘A conspiracy of bishops and faithful: Reading Newman's “On consulting the faithful” today’, America 27 September 2010.
36 Newman frequently corresponded with Perrone about the nature and history of the sensus fidelium: Strange, Mind Alive, p. 91.
37 Newman, On Consulting the Faithful, pp. 75-7. Newman's study in this field culminated in his 1833 work ‘The Arians of the Fourth Century’ published in 1833.
38 See Coulson in On Consulting the Faithful, p. 41.
39 Ford, John, ‘“Who are the laity?” I answered that the Church would look foolish without them’, Newman Studies Journal 3(2) (Fall 2006) 3-5Google Scholar.
40 Newman, On Consulting the Faithful, p. 63.
41 Ker, Ian, The Achievement of John Henry Newman (London: Harper Collins, 1991), p. 2Google Scholar.
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43 John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University (1852, 1858, 1873) https://www.newmanreader.org/works/idea/index.html. Commentators on Idea include: Begg, JHN and the Idea; Cornwell, Newman's Unquiet Grave, pp. 122-37; Dulles, Newman, pp. 102-9, 134-47; Ker, JHN: A Biography, pp. 206-12, 376-96, 461-2; Pelikan, Jaroslav, The Idea of a University: A Reexamination (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), p. 9Google Scholar.
44 Newman, Idea, p. 27.
45 Newman, Idea, pp. 70 and 127.
46 John Henry Newman, A Letter Addressed to the Duke of Norfolk on the Occasion of Mr Gladstone's Recent Expostulation (1875) https://www.newmanreader.org/works/anglicans/volume2/gladstone/index.html. Commentators on Duke of Norfolk include: Anthony Fisher, ‘Conscience, relativism, and truth’, Nova et Vetera 18(2) (Spring 2020), 337-53, and sources therein, especially Ratzinger; Ker, JHN: A Biography, pp. 680-94; Luke Terlinden, ‘Newman and conscience’, in Lefebvre & Mason, JHN: Doctor, 207-20.
47 Newman, Duke of Norfolk, p. 248. This is quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1778. Cf. Gerard Magill, Religious Morality in John Henry Newman: Hermeneutics of the Imagination (Springer, 2015), p. 129.
48 Newman, Duke of Norfolk, p. 130.
49 John Henry Newman, ‘Saintliness the standard of Christian principle’, Discourses to Mixed Congregations, Discourse 5 https://www.newmanreader.org/works/discourses/discourse5.html, p. 83.
50 John Paul II, Letter on the First Centenary, 4, quoting Newman, Duke of Norfolk, p. 250.
51 Newman, Duke of Norfolk, p. 132.
52 John Henry Newman, ‘The religion of the day’, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. 1, Sermon 24, pp. 309-24 https://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume1/sermon24.html. Commentators on Religion of the Day and on the Biglietto Speech include: Robert Barron, ‘“A great mischief”: Newman on liberalism in religion’, in Lefebvre & Mason, JHN: Doctor, 99-114; Dulles, Newman, pp. 14, 72, 151; Pattison, Robert, The Great Dissent: John Henry Newman and the Liberal Heresy (Oxford: OUP, 1991CrossRefGoogle Scholar); Short, Edward, ‘Holding liberalism to account: The prescience of John Henry Newman’, Mercatornet 11 October 2019Google Scholar.
53 Newman, ‘Religion of the day’, pp. 310
54 Newman, ‘Religion of the day’, pp. 311-14.
55 Ker, , ‘Newman, the Councils, and Vatican II’ in Communio: International Catholic Review, Vol 28 no (4), Winter 2001: 708-728Google Scholar.
56 John Henry Newman, ‘Response to the Announcement of his Cardinalate (The Biglietto Speech)’, 12 May 1879, The Times 13 May 1879 and L'Osservatore Romano 13 May 1879, https://www.newmanreader.org/works/addresses/file2.html.
57 And, since for modernity ‘religion is so personal a peculiarity and so private a possession, we must of necessity ignore it in the intercourse of man with man. If a man puts on a new religion every morning, what is that to you? It is as impertinent to think about a man's religion as about his sources of income or his management of his family. Religion is in no sense the bond of society’. (Newman, Biglietto Speech)
58 Griffin, John, ‘The meaning of “national apostasy”: A note on Newman's Apologia’, Faith & Reason 2(1) (Spring 1976), 1-8Google Scholar.
59 Newman, Biglietto Speech. In Development, p 357-58. Newman warned that modernity will then be wedded to views like: ‘That truth and falsehood in religion are but matter of opinion; that one doctrine is as good as another; that the Governor of the world does not intend that we should gain the truth; that there is no truth… that no one is answerable for his opinions… that it is enough if we sincerely hold what we profess; that our merit lies in seeking, not in possessing; that it is a duty to follow what seems to us true, without a fear lest it should not be true… that we may take up and lay down opinions at pleasure… that we may safely trust to ourselves in matters of Faith, and need no other guide’.
60 Newman, Development, p. 357.
61 Newman, Biglietto Speech.
62 Newman, John Henry, Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England (1851) https://www.newmanreader.org/works/england/index.html, pp. 390-1Google Scholar . Commentators on Present Position include: Dulles, Newman, pp. 9, 55, 109, 117; Ker, JHN: A Biography, pp. 361-72, 413-16.
63 Newman, Second Spring, p. 170. At p. 171: ‘Oh, that miserable day, centuries before we were born! What a martyrdom to live in it and see the fair form of Truth, moral and material, hacked piecemeal, and every limb and organ carried off, and burned in the fire, or cast into the deep! But at last the work was done. Truth was disposed of, and shovelled away, and there was a calm, a silence, a sort of peace;—and such was about the state of things when we were born into this weary world’.
64 Newman, Second Spring, p. 174.
65 Newman, Second Spring, p. 177.