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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
When people think about Newman, they usually think, first of all, about his ideas, doctrinal development, the relationship between faith and reason, the place of the laity in the Church, and much else besides. But however brilliant those ideas may have been, Newman was never simply a thinker, a man trapped in his brain. The key question for him was always how to make the ideas become real. He had no interest in moving minds without touching hearts. Newly ordained as an Anglican deacon, then as a tutor at Oriel, as a leader and preacher during the early years of the Oxford Movement, as a parish priest in Birmingham, as an educator, and as a champion of the via media, of moderation in dispute, his instinct was invariably pastoral.
1 Lash, Nicholas, ‘Newman since Vatican II’, in Ker, Ian and Hill, Alan G. (eds.), Newman after a Hundred Years, (Oxford, 1990), pp. 451Google Scholar, 452.
2 Jenkins, Roy, ‘Newman and the Idea of a University’, in Brown, David (ed.), Newman: a Man for our Time, (London, 1990) p. 157Google Scholar.
3 All references to Newman's works are taken from the Uniform Edition (1868–1881, 36 vols, Longman, Green & Co, London), and the references to his letters are taken from Dessain, C.S. et al (eds.), The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman i-xxxii (London and Oxford, 1961–2008)Google Scholar.
4 Tristram, Henry (ed.), John Henry Newman: Autobiographical Writings, (London, 1956), p. 200Google Scholar.
5 In passing it may be amusing to note the contrast with Newman's reaction when he was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1847. He sent a letter that day to Elizabeth Bowden, widow of his first, close Oxford friend, John Bowden. He told her: ‘You will be pleased to hear I was ordained Priest about two hours ago; surprised perhaps, for things have progressed so rapidly that I do not know what I said in my last letter’ (Letters and Diaries xii, p. 84). It is not always easy to catch the tone of written remarks, but there seems to me to be a note of slightly amused bewilderment, very different from the earnest words twenty-three years earlier.
6 Autobiographical Writings, p. 206.
7 Fifteen Sermons preached before the University of Oxford, pp. 75–98.
8 Historical Sketches iii, p. 74.
9 Chadwick, Owen, The Mind of the Oxford Movement, (London, 1960), p. 42Google Scholar.
10 Letters and Diaries v, p. 38.
11 Ibid., xxiv, pp. 44–5.
12 Cf. Ibid., xxiv. p. 44.
13 Ward, Wilfrid, The Life of John Henry Cardinal Newman ii, (London, 1912), pp. 335–6Google Scholar.
14 See, Letters and Diaries xx, p. 261.
15 Letters and Diaries xxi, pp. 166–7.
16 See Shrimpton, Paul, A Catholic Eton? Newman's Oratory School, (Leominster, 2005)Google Scholar.
17 Autobiographical Writings, pp. 258–9.
18 John Roberts, ‘The Idea of a University Revisited’, Newman after a Hundred Years, pp. 221–2.
19 Letters and Diaries xxi, p. 94.
20 Certain Difficulties felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching ii, p. 25.
21 Ibid., ii, p. 176.
22 The Via Media i, p. xxxvii.
23 An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent, p. 425.
