Newman Studies Journal

Shortly after the close of the Second Vatican Council, the French Jesuit and peritus Jean Daniélou recollected how John Henry Newman had shaped his own theological vision. He considered how Newman had found in faith a way to unify both the seemingly disparate chapters of his own life and the distinctive epochs of the Christian past. Marek Cieślik is a Parisian Jesuit like Daniélou and likewise traces the Second Vatican Council's emphasis on "dialogue" back to Newman. His monograph defines Newman's understanding of dialogue as "focused as much on action as on knowledge" (319) and "ethereal discourse" (22). Cieślik claims, "the dialogue of which Gaudium et Spes and Ecclesiam Suam both speak was tacitly but effectively inspired by the existential and intellectual contribution of John Henry Newman" (319). While Cieślik refers to Vatican II documents sparingly, his focus accords with Peter Hünermann's hermeneutic that conciliar documents are "constitutional texts" requiring ongoing interpretation. Cieślik's valuable contribution is his interpretation of Newman's understanding of the personal, existential dimensions in which faith and reason interact. Not surprisingly, Cieślik identifies Newman's illative sense as the "cornerstone" of his contributions (228).

Cieślik's study began as a 2007 doctoral thesis at Centre Sévres, and it proceeds in three main sections. These sections cover Newman's biography, doctrinal development, and finally his understanding of faith and reason, particularly in the Grammar of Assent. This structure proceeds from Cieślik's methodology, which emerges from German fundamental theologian Hans Waldenfels. Cieślik writes: "Throughout this theology of dialogue, we affirm that fundamental theology must not overlook its apologetic dimension, nor its privileged connection to frontier questions, since it has both an existential and intellectual dimension" (26).

In the first section, Cieślik affirms the biographical problem of unifying the seeming disparate chapters of Newman's life, especially in the formative years before his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1845. Cieślik's approach to Newman is primarily textual, so his focus rests on published sermons and essays in lieu of epistolary and archival sources, which would provide the historical and political contexts of Oriel College, the Oxford Movement, and so on.

Next, Cieślik presents Newman's ecclesiology as providing the requisite context for the act of faith, which for Newman emerged in action through his [End Page 126] conversion to Roman Catholicism just prior to his 1845 Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. The theory of doctrinal development evolved when Newman "justified the dogmas of the Catholic Church by upholding a position in which faith and time are distinct and inseparable" (217). Cieślik summarized the seven tests of doctrinal development before drawing connections between Newman's dynamic view of history and humans "who are simultaneously the actors and spectators of history" (219). Faith in a God who acts in history is both practical and anthropological, since for Cieślik, humanity is the hermeneutical foundation for all theology.

In his wide-ranging final section, Cieślik examines Newman's mature view of faith and reason from his Grammar of Assent. He considers the text's genesis and asserts that Newman devoted himself fully to the theme of truth, which was "the leitmotiv of Newman's entire quest toward a more lucid and well-elaborated view of the Christian faith" (233). To do so, Cieślik pursues two questions: 1) the manner in which "humanity can know God" and 2) how "life is for action" (266). These points uncover the message of Newman's Grammar as coherently elaborating faith's role in personal and existential dimensions of the human longing for God. He answers that, for Newman, "humanity can know God and discover the importance of a life which is for action only by rooting ourselves dynamically in God through formation in...