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Chesterton, Lewis, and the shadow of Newman: a study in method
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
Abstract
In this essay I argue for a line of descent, in terms of methodology as an apologist, from J.H. Newman to G.K. Chesterton, and hence to C.S. Lewis. I analyse aspects of Chesterton's methodology as an apologist which strongly suggest the influence of Newman. I then argue that Newman may have exercised a greater influence on Lewis's methodology as an apologist, through Chesterton, than has previously been realised. This raises questions for future study concerning Newman's possible influence, not only on Lewis, but on the other Inklings and related thinkers such as Dorothy Sayers.
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References
1 For Newman's influence on Chesterton's epistemology, see Pickering, David, ‘Chesterton's Epistemology: A Study in the Development of Newman's Doctrines’, Journal of Inklings Studies 12, no. 1 (2022): pp. 91–109CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 Ian Ker has done important work in this area. Among other things, Ker points out that Wilfrid Ward saw Chesterton as ‘the successor of Newman as an apologist for Christianity’, and that Chesterton read, and wrote appreciatively of, Ward's biography of Newman, published in 1912, which deals extensively with Newman's theology. Ker, I.T., G.K. Chesterton: a biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 277-78Google Scholar.
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32 See Lewis, C.S., Surprised by joy (London: Collins, 2012), pp. 220-22, 260Google Scholar.
33 Quoted in Vanauken, Sheldon, A Severe Mercy (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1979), pp. 92, 90Google Scholar.
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35 Rhone, Zachary A., The Great Tower of Elfland: The Mythopoeic Worldview of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and George MacDonald (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2017)Google Scholar, See especially pp. 12-13, 102-08, 117-55.
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50 Zachary Rhone has noted this resemblance. Rhone, Great Tower of Elfland, p. 152.
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57 See Pickering, ‘Chesterton's Epistemology’, pp. 91-109.
58 Newman, Grammar of Assent, pp. 49-50.
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61 Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 6.
62 Newman, Grammar of Assent, p. 97.
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65 Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, p. 92.
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