Newman Studies Journal

Readers expecting a deep, archaeological investigation into how Newman understood "history" theologically will be a bit disappointed—or delighted—by Cimorelli's serious contribution to Newman scholarship. The book is a welcome addition to the subject of Newman's view of how history informs his "theological imaginary." It is especially important for understanding Newman's theological methodology and investigations as they pertain to his labors against liberalism, his working out theories of history in Arians, the development of his own view of the church, and a constructive proposal for a "relationship-developmental view of doctrine"—drawing on both Charles Taylor and Nicholas Lash to do so.

It is even more welcome because it fills a serious gap in scholarship. There are few to no serious monographs of Newman's theology of history. Recent works that overlap a bit with Cimorelli's project include Andrew Meszaros, The Prophetic Church: History and Doctrinal Development in John Henry Newman and Yves Congar (Oxford, 2016). Yet as the title suggests, Meszaros's text is not solely about Newman, nor does it focus on Newman's early historical work in Arians or stages of his thinking that led up to the Essay on Development as does Cimorelli's book. Another recent work a bit closer in subject matter is Benjamin J. King's Newman and the Alexandrian Fathers: Shaping Doctrine in Nineteenth-Century England (Oxford, 2009). Yet, King is not as interested in investigating how Newman appropriated and conceived of history in his theological methodology, nor does King display a trajectory toward a theory of doctrine as "narrative-linguistic icons" (283).

Indeed, the main lines of argument from chapters one through four ultimately aim at Cimorelli's more original contribution: a theology of doctrinal development in chapter five. The content of the chapters is not investigated simply to find out what Newman thought. Cimorelli aims to show how Newman's theology can still provide ways of thinking about how Christians might understand history-church-doctrine-participation and liturgy as a more integrated [End Page 113] whole for the post-Vatican II people of God. In chapter three, Cimorelli painstakingly traces several theories in Arians that bear upon the emergence of doctrinal principles and, ultimately, reveal the importance for an authoritative magisterial church to declare infallibly on points of heterodoxy and orthodoxy. As such, this chapter's aim helps to foreshadow Newman's more participative idea of Christianity and church unity through time.

Cimorelli finds Nicolas Lash's distinction helpful that doctrines do not "describe" so much as "refer to" God (294). In this way, divine mystery and truth are protected from idolatry and narrow ideological passion. In a serious way, one title of the book could be "The close integration of doctrine-creed-liturgy and practice for the church of today"—though the focus centers on theology and history. A good summary of this project is given by Cimorelli: "Doctrines, when conceived in a relational, developmental, and narrative manner, call for the ongoing engagement of the faithful, particularly in the liturgy. Such participation provides for the ongoing development and vitality of tradition" (285). That certain teachings expressed in doctrinal or creedal form exhibit a "narrative" character means that Christians are a community-in-history with stories and events that tell how revelation becomes more clearly and fully expressed in different ages. Part of Cimorelli's aim here is to get beyond a mere "propositional assent" model of doctrine to one that engages the believers more personally. Expressed a bit more technically, Cimorelli desires to hold in tension the "synchronic" and "diachronic" properties of doctrine (302). Stories and history have the power to root and connect modern identity with prior Christian experiences. As he argues, doctrines "represent the crystallized remnants of complex and interrelated narratives, and are part of the much larger Christian narrative" (emphasis is Cimorellis's...