Newman Studies Journal

The ten essays in this book are a promising sign for the future of Newman studies. The essays are not part of a shared program but are constructive engagements with Newman's work in a number of different areas. The premise of the book is that Newman's work can speak to some important topics in contemporary life. The authors readily use historical, philosophical, and theological approaches, sometimes several approaches in the same essay. The result is a lively book that convincingly demonstrates Newman's continued relevance.

I must, however, begin with a critical observation. The book is divided into two sections. The first four essays are grouped under the unwieldly label "Theological-Historical Investigations and Newman's Influence on Contemporary Thinkers." The six other essays are included under the label "Contemporary Applications of Newman's Thought." These labels make it seem as though the first four essays are concerned with interpreting Newman and his influence on others, while the latter six are devoted to constructive engagement with Newman's thought. However, the reality is that the first four essays also bring Newman into constructive conversation with more contemporary issues and figures.

Each essay deals with one aspect of contemporary life and asks how Newman's writings can provide resources for navigating tensions. Benjamin King's essay on [End Page 125] the Anglican and Catholic receptions of Newman's notion of "consulting the faithful" is an exemplary work of historical theology. King demonstrates that the way those communions have received Newman's idea is the inverse of what one might expect: Anglicans in the nineteenth century argued that consulting the faithful should not be confused with democracy, while recent Catholic documents increasingly appeal to the idea as though it were a form of liberal democracy.

Paul Monson's essay is an appropriation of Newman's ecclesiology from the 1877 preface to the third edition of the Via Media. He argues that Newman's idea of three offices in the church (prophetic, sacerdotal, and regal), which are full of tensions and collisions, is a useful way to frame the complex history and theology of Catholics in North and South America. He creatively demonstrates that Newman provides a grammar for speaking of a "hemispheric ecclesiology" of the Americas.

Several of the authors use Newman as a way to interpret and respond to the transformation of knowledge in modernity. Timothy Muldoon asks what Newman's Idea of a University has to say to today's fragmented "multiversity." He discusses a promising initiative at Boston College that seeks to restore the idea of the university as a shared community of learning. Ono Ekeh's interpretation of Newman's phenomenology of the mind demonstrates the continued relevance of Newman in epistemological debates, especially those over the philosophy of science. Colby Dickinson's essay brings Newman into conversation with Theodor Adorno and Bruno Latour, arguing that each thinker helps to diagnose the extraordinary complexity of religious existence in the modern world.

In different ways Dan Rober and Christopher Cimorelli argue that Newman can help us develop more Christian ways of thinking about history. Rober puts Newman's Essay on Development in conversation with Charles Taylor's writings on "the secular." He argues that Newman's robust theology of history frees us from the trite nostalgia so prevalent in genealogical accounts of modernity. Cimorelli brings Newman's eschatology together with his emphasis on the moral agency of individuals to propose an alternative to the blind hope that the future will improve without requiring moral transformation. Newman, Cimorelli argues, can provide us with an account of progress that avoids the danger of acedia. Such an account is essential in light of the current climate crisis.

The remaining three essays highlight theological themes in Newman's work, which have special relevance today. Danielle Nussberger argues that Newman's account of sainthood is a valuable resource for recovering...