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Recent Critics of Newman's A Grammar of Assent

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

I. T. Ker
I. T. Ker
Affiliation:
The Oratory, Birmingham
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Extract

Professor H. P. Owen has remarked that Newman's A Grammar of Assent, which ‘is the fruit of a great mind's reflection over many years, has not received (in this country at any rate) the attention it deserves ’1 However, the year in which these words were written (1969) saw the publication of three lengthy discussions in English of the Grammar, and more studies have appeared since then.2 Owen's general appreciation has been echoed but the prevailing tone has been critical. In this article I shall attempt to reply to some of the more significant of the objections that have been made.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , March 1977 , pp. 63 - 71
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

1 Owen, H. P., The Christian Knowledge of God (London, 1969), p. 173.Google Scholar Further references are given in the text.

2 Price, H. H., Belief (London, 1969), pp. 130–56, 315–48Google Scholar; Pailin, David A., The Way to Faith: An Examination of Newman's Grammar of Assent as a Response to the Search for Certainty (London, 1969).Google Scholar Edward J. Sillem's introductory Volume 1 (Louvain, 1969) to The Philosophical Notebook of John Henry Newman is a general account of Newman's philosophy. Other recent studies in English include: Dessain, C. Stephen, ‘Cardinal Newman on the Theory and Practice of Knowledge: The Purpose of the Grammar of Assent', Downside Review 75 (1957), 1–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Davis, H. F., ‘Newman on Faith and Personal Certitude’, The Journal of Theological Studies 12 (1961), 248–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hick, John, Faith and Knowledge, 2nd ed. (London, 1967), pp. 69–91Google Scholar; Vargish, Thomas, Newman: The Contemplation of Mind (Oxford, 1970), pp. 25–71Google Scholar; Cameron, J. M., ‘Newman and Locke: A Note on some Themes in An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent’, Newman Studien (Nürnberg, 1974), pp. 197–205Google Scholar; Newman, Jay, ‘Cardinal Newman's Phenomenology of Religious Belief’, Religious Studies 10 (1974), 129–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent, p. 345. All references, which are given hereafter in the text, are to the 1889 impression of the uniform Longman edition.

1 Op. Cit. p. 90.

2 Arguments for the Existence of God (London, 1970), p. 29.Google Scholar Further references are given in the text.

1 Pailin, , op. cit. pp. 180–2Google Scholar, accuses Newman of inconsistently maintaining indefectibility we admitting false certitudes, as a result of a failure to distinguish clearly between certainty and certitude, but he too has not appreciated that Newman is stating a general rule to which exceptions are admitted.

1 Price, , op. cit. pp. 144–5.Google Scholar Further references are given in the text.

1 Op. cit. p. 200. Further references are given in the text.

2 Op. cit. p. 201.

3 Newman, Jay, op. cit p. 130.Google Scholar