Chapter 2: Origins and Characteristics of Newman’s Spirituality
2
Origins and Characteristics of Newman’s Spirituality
“I ask not for comfort in comparison of sanctification”111
Origins of Newman’s Spirituality
When Newman entered the Roman Catholic Church he was forty-four years old and had been an Anglican priest for twenty years. Both his spiritual life and theological outlook had already been largely formed. In leaving the Church of England and joining the Church of Rome, he looked for a more perfect realization of that faith which he had tried to live as an Anglican. Since the spiritual direction of others flows out of the director’s personal beliefs, an analysis of the major elements of the director’s own understanding of the spiritual life is helpful in understanding the foundation for his spiritual direction. Throughout Newman’s life, there is a continuity in the influences which affected the development of his spiritual life. The first part of this chapter briefly examines the origins and characteristics of his spirituality and discusses the influences of biblical reading and patristic studies as well as certain influential Anglican authors on Newman’s understanding of the spiritual life. The second part surveys the dominant characteristics of his spirituality: the unseen world, the holiness of God, providential guidance, and dependence on God. The third part considers the principal theological aspects of his doctrine on the spiritual life: personal experiences as theological loci, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the centrality of Christ.
Biblical
Newman was born into the rich heritage of Anglican piety, which is steeped in Scripture both in its themes and its language. His evangelical background strengthened his appreciation for the Bible. As a Roman Catholic, Newman recognized the value of “Bible religion,” which consisted not in rites and creeds, but primarily in having the Bible read in Church, in the family, and in private. However, he also came to see that “Bible religion” had to be supplemented by creeds lest it remain only at the notional level of assent.112
The Bible revealed a living and personal God to Newman, a God whose providential care extends to every person in a unique way. This God is constantly taking the initiative in loving his people and the believer is invited to respond by generously detaching himself from anything incompatible with God’s will. By watching and praying for opportunities to glorify God, the believer is led to share more deeply in the richness and joy of the community of his fellow believers. The Bible offers various examples of the attitudes and ascetical practices of holy people for admiration and instruction, and Newman incorporated these into his own understanding of the spiritual life. Moses and Paul were two particularly significant biblical figures for him. In 1853, Newman wrote to Mrs. William Froude concerning the importance of Moses: “The remarkable circumstance in the case of Moses, is, that the Almighty informs him of the sin of his people in order that he might intercede for them—which is just the object for which Catholics say the prayers of the faithful are revealed by Him to the saints.”113 Likewise, St. Paul was a special exemplar for Newman; Paul’s life and writings greatly influenced Newman’s theology and spirituality.114 He considered the first chapters of the second letter to the Corinthians “one of the most soothing, comforting parts of Holy Scripture.”115 In these chapters St. Paul spoke openly of himself and of his sufferings, as well as of the transforming power of God contained in earthen vessels. In 1861, at a time when he was suffering from misunderstanding and lack of usefulness, Newman wrote to Sister Mary Gabriel du Boulay: “For myself, I know I am deeply deficient in that higher life which lasts and grows in spite of the ills of mortality—but had I ever so much of supernatural love and devotion, I could not be in any different state from the Apostle, who in the most beautiful of his inspired epistles speaks with such touching and consoling vividness of those troubles, in the midst of which these earthen vessels of ours hold the treasure of grace and truth.”116
Newman based his own spiritual life and his teaching on scriptural texts. Moreover, as a preacher, he consistently taught with the Bible in his hands, explaining its content and encouraging his congregation to read it themselves. C. S. Dessain has observed: “Newman never wrote like the great mystics, St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa, and the rest. He limited himself to expounding the scriptural ideal of holiness. He was preaching to ordinary people, not to enclosed contemplatives, and with his horror of unreality and unreal words in religion, he would not venture beyond the clear teaching of revelation.”117
Patristics
As a young man, Newman was impressed by Joseph Milner’s History of the Church of Christ, which awakened in him a love for the Fathers.118 He was able to deepen his study of the church fathers in 1828 by setting out “to read them chronologically beginning with St. Ignatius and St. Justin.”119 Five years later he published The Arians of the Fourth Century, which reflected the thought of the Fathers of the Eastern Church. Newman viewed antiquity as the true exponent of the doctrines of Christianity, and the theology of Clement and Origen found resonance in his own thinking and activity. In his Apologia, he wrote:
Some portions of their teaching, magnificent in themselves, came like music to my inward ear, as if the response to ideas, which, with little external to encourage them, I had cherished so long. These were based on the mystical and sacramental principle, and spoke of the various Economies or Dispensations of the Eternal. I understood these passages to mean that the exterior world, physical and historical, was but the manifestation to our sense of realities greater than itself. Nature was a parable: Scripture was an allegory: pagan literature, philosophy, and mythology, properly understood, were but a preparation for the Gospel.120
The attitude with which he read Clement’s Stomata and Origen’s De Principiis was influenced by other books such as Joseph Butler’s Analogy and John Keble’s Christian Year. He was already favorably disposed toward a sacramental view of nature and the Church by reason of his literary background and personal experiences, and the patristic writings strengthened and developed it.
The respect and love for the Fathers which he acquired as an Anglican carried over into his Roman Catholic period. He was attracted to St. Philip Neri whose institute had the spirit of the primitive monks. He agreed with Cardinal Baronius that a beautiful apostolical method of spiritual life was renewed by means of St. Philip’s rule. In his Litany of St. Philip, Newman included the phrase, “man of primitive times,” which was a characteristic particularly appealing to his own spirituality grounded in Scripture and the Church Fathers. However, this patristic background was not appreciated by all his contemporaries: Archbishop Manning regarded Newman as the chief promoter of a dangerous attitude: “It is the old Anglican, patristic, literary, Oxford tone transplanted into the Church. It takes the line of deprecating exaggerations, foreign devotions, Ultramontanism, antinational sympathies.”121 In fact, Newman’s strong foundation in patristic studies provided him with a mature view of the Church and spirituality which has come to be better appreciated in this century after the Second Vatican Council.
Anglican Authors
In addition to the biblical and patristic influences on the spiritual formation of Newman, various books which he read after his conversion experience in 1816 also played a significant role in his understanding of and growth in the spiritual life and influenced the way he directed others.
Thomas Scott (1747–1821) was the writer who made a deeper impression on Newman’s mind than any other, and to whom he felt (in human terms) he almost owed his soul.122 Scott’s Commentary on the Bible, a widely acclaimed religious work at the time, first planted deep in Newman’s mind the fundamental truth of Christianity, namely, faith in the Holy Trinity. Newman greatly admired Scott’s unworldliness and the practical character of his writings.123 Newman was attracted by the manliness and independence of Scott’s character, as one who was willing to stand on God’s side against the world. Scott also influenced Newman’s understanding of the value of prayer. Distinguishing between public, social, and secret prayer, Scott taught that secret prayer was the best means of maintaining communion with God, and keeping alive the power of religion in the soul.
Newman was also impressed by A Serious Call to a Devout Life, which was written by William Law (1686–1761), who greatly influenced Thomas Scott.124 Stressing the practical implications of one who lives a spiritual life, Law emphasized the necessary link between moments of prayer and everyday activities to a church-going but easy-living age: “And as actions are of much more significance than words, it must be a much more acceptable worship of God to glorify Him in all the actions of our common life than with any little form of words at any particular time.”125
A second aspect of Law’s thought which impressed Newman was the close connection between prayer and asceticism. In Law’s understanding, prayer had to be connected with mortification: “The spirit of indulgence and the spirit of prayer cannot subsist together.”126 In his chapter entitled “Daily Early Prayer,” he wrote about the importance of self-denial in renouncing sleep in order to rise early for prayer: “It will best fit and prepare you for the reception of the Holy Spirit.”127
The work of Joseph Milner (1744–1785) put Newman into contact with the Fathers of the Church who provided him with another strong basis for his spiritual life. Newman later acknowledged that he “was nothing short of enamored of the long extracts from St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, and the other Fathers” which he found in Milner’s Church history:128
Even when I was a boy, my thoughts were turned to the early Church, and especially to the early Fathers, by the perusal of the Calvinist [Joseph] Milner’s Church History, and I have never lost, I never have suffered a suspension of the impression, deep and most pleasurable, which his sketches of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine left on my mind. From that time the vision of the Fathers was always, to my imagination, I may say, a paradise of delight to the contemplation of which I directed my thoughts from time to time.129
Thomas Newton (1704–1782), Bishop of Bristol, is mentioned by Newman in negative tones with regard to his spiritual formation. Upon reading Dissertations on the Prophecies, Newman’s imagination became stained by the effects of the teaching that the Pope was the antichrist predicted by Scripture.130 The roots of Newman’s initial prejudice against the invocation of the saints in prayer can also be traced to Newton.
Another influence on Newman was Bishop Joseph Butler (1692–1752) who introduced The Analogy of Religion by describing the general decay of religion in England: “It is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted, by many persons, that Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry; but that it is, now at length, discovered to be fictitious.”131 Newman listed some of Butler’s teachings which were influential: a visible Church as an oracle of truth and a pattern of sanctity; the duties of external religion; the historical character of Revelation; and probability as the guide of life. The very idea of an analogy among the separate works of God led Newman to the conclusion that the system which is of less importance is economically or sacramentally connected with the more momentous system. Eventually this insight developed into Newman’s sacramental principle, contributing to his understanding of the economy of salvation.
The Private Thoughts of William Beveridge (1637–1708) was not mentioned by Newman in his Apologia because “I am speaking there of the formation of my doctrinal opinions, and I do not think they were influenced by it.”132 Yet this work undoubtedly conditioned his devotional life. Walter Mayers had presented Newman with a copy on December 31, 1816, and in the spring of 1817 Newman wrote “reflections or sermonets” which were in the style of Beveridge of whom he was “very fond.”133 On the inside cover of this same copy, Newman wrote on October 14, 1874: “No book was more dear to me, or exercised a more powerful influence over my devotion and my habitual thoughts. In my private memoranda I even wrote in its style.”134 Bishop Beveridge’s labors earned for him, in his day, the title of “The Great Reviver and Restorer of Primitive Piety.”135 He maintained that our knowledge of God must be practical and experiential:
For we must not think that it is enough to know in general that there is a God, and that he is wise and powerful, great and glorious, true and faithful, good and gracious; these things a Man may know in general, so as to be able to discourse of them, and dispute for them too, and yet come short of that knowledge which is requisite to our true serving of God: Which should be such a Knowledge as will not only swim in the Brain, but sink down into the Heart; whereby a Man is possessed with a due Sense of those Things he knows, so that he doth not only know, but in a manner feel them to be so . . . that is, feel and experience it in ourselves; which tho’ it may seem a Paradox to many of us, yet there is none of us but may find it to be a real Truth, and attain unto it, if we but be careful and constant in our Meditations upon God, and sincere in performing our Devotions to him; for by these Means our Notions of God will be refined, our conceptions cleared, and our Affections, by consequences so moved towards him, that we shall taste and experience in ourselves, as well as know from others, that he is good, and that all Perfections are centered in him.136
C. S. Dessain has commented on Beveridge’s combination of deep piety and compelling logic which is reminiscent of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. For example, Beveridge reflected “on striving to enter in at the strait Gate” (John 6:44):
But we can never expect that he should draw us, unless we desire it of him. And therefore it must be our daily Prayer and Petition at the Throne of Grace, that God would vouchsafe us his especial Grace and Assistance, without which I cannot see how any one that knows his own Heart, can expect to be saved. But our Comfort is, if we do what we can, God will hear our Prayers, and enable us to do what otherwise we cannot; for he never yet did, nor ever will fail any Man that sincerely endeavours to serve and honor him.137
Philip Doddridge (1702–1751) was the author of The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, a manual which Newman used to prepare himself for the reception of the Eucharist. Doddridge provided an outhne of his chapter, “The Christian Assisted in Examining into His Growth in Grace,” which is important because of Newman’s reflections in his journal:
The examination [is ] important. I. False marks of growth to be avoided. II. True marks proposed: such as (1) Increasing love to God. (2) Benevolence to men. (3) Candour of disposition. (4) Meekness under injuries. (5) Serenity amidst the uncertainties of life. (6) Humility, especially as expressed in Evangelic exercises of the mind towards Christ and the Spirit. (7) Zeal for the divine honour. (8) Habitual and chearful [sic] willingness to exchange worlds whenever God shall appoint. (9) Conclusion. (10) The Christian breathing after growth in grace.138
Besides proposing particular models for morning and evening prayer, Doddridge also exhorted the Christian to undertake the exercises of habitual love and joy in God, and to exert himself for purposes of usefulness.
In August 1821, Newman began using The Communicant’s Spiritual Companion; or, An Evangelical Preparation of the Lord’s Supper of Thomas Haweis (1734–1820).139 Besides helping one to prepare for communion, this work also spoke about the element of fear in the spiritual life, which enables us better to understand this aspect of Newman’s spirituality. In the form of a prayer, Haweis wrote:
Lord, put thy fear into my soul; be thou ever sanctified in me; let me ever tremble before, and dread to offend thee. May the sense of thy omniscience and nearness ever over-awe my soul; when sin would tempt may I remember that thou art present; may my fear be as my love, filial; may thy displeasure be more grevious to me than thy punishment, and may I hate to offend thee, because thou art my good and gracious Father, more than thou art withal the just and righteous Judge.140
Characteristics of Newman’s Spirituality
To analyze and categorize the thought of another person is never a simple matter, and it becomes even more challenging when such analysis and systematization concerns something so personal as another’s spiritual life. Yet, as a prelude to considering Newman’s spiritual direction, it should be helpful to sketch the dominant characteristics of his spiritual life.
The Unseen World
In 1828 Newman wrote in an essay published in the London Review about how revealed religion should be especially poetical and bring us into a new world: “With Christians, a poetical view of things is a duty,—we are bid to colour all things with hues of faith, to see a Divine meaning in every event, and a super-human tendency.”141 Newman seems to have grown up with a poet’s ability to penetrate beyond the surface of things, to discern God’s immanence while respecting his transcendence. In his Apologia, he recalled the effect which the doctrine of final perseverance had on his youthful imaginations in isolating him from the objects surrounding him, in confirming him in his mistrust of the reality of material phenomena, and making him rest in the thought of two and only two absolute and luminously self-evident beings, himself and his Creator.142 This view was presented in one of his sermons at St. Mary’s: “To every one of us there are but two beings in the whole world, himself and God; for, as to this outward scene, its pleasure and pursuits, its honours and cares, its contrivances, its personages, its kingdoms, its multitude of busy slaves, what are they to us? Nothing—no more than a show.”143 This sense of separation from the visible world dated back to Newman’s youth. Moreover, his reliance on the thought of himself and his Creator is to be understood, not as the worldview of an introspective self-centered youth, but as the re-echoing of the whole Christian ascetical tradition, from the Desert Fathers onwards, who aimed at seeking and living with God alone.
Newman’s reading of Clement and Origen strengthened his attitude of looking beyond this visible world to that greater reality, which we experience sacramentally in this life. Beyond the veil of this world, Newman was conscious of an Invisible Presence which is more real than what is seen.
We are born into a world of sense; that is, of real things which lie around us.
. . . They act upon us and we know it; and we act upon them in turn and know we do.
But all this does not interfere with the existence of that other world which I speak of, acting upon us, yet not impressing us with the consciousness that it does so. It may as really be present and exert an influence as that which reveals itself to us. And that such a world there is, Scripture tells us. Do you ask what it is, and what it contains? I will not say that all that belongs to it is vastly more important than what we see, for among things visible are our fellow-men, and nothing created is more precious and noble than a human soul. But still, taking the things which we see altogether, and the things we do not see altogether, the world we do not see is on the whole a much higher world than that which we do see. It appears, then, that the things which are seen are but a part, and but a secondary part of the beings about us. Once, and once only, for thirty three years has He condescended to become one of the beings that are seen, when, in the Person of His Only begotten Son, He was, by an unspeakable mercy, born of the Virgin Mary into this sensible world.144
The unseen world is a recurring theme in Newman’s sermons, poetry and correspondence. This other world “exists now, though we see it not. It is among us and around us.” The Christian must choose whether he will be dominated by the world he sees or the unseen world. He must be willing to walk by faith rather than by sight. The invisible presence of evil spirits and angels, for example, was very real for Newman, and he acknowledged it from childhood to old age.145 Newman’s lifestyle and personality conveyed his conviction about the invisible world, as Principal J. C. Shairp witnessed from his Oxford days: “From the seclusion of study and abstinence and prayer, from habitual dwelling in the Unseen, he seemed to come forth that one day of the week (Sunday) to speak to others of the things he had seen and known.”146 This outlook remained lifelong, as can be seen in a remark from the testimony of Elizabeth Mozley in 1874:
One sees that Dr. Newman’s great power . . . is a certain vivid realisation of the unseen, or rather that there is an unseen that you cannot see. “How can people say what is, or is not, natural to evil spirits? What is a grotesque manifestation to us may not be so to them. What do we know about an evil spirit?” The words were nothing, but there was an intensity of realisation in his face as he said them, of a reality of his ignorance about it, that was a key to me as to the source of his influence over others. The sight of belief in others is next to seeing yourself; and men cling to it.147
Newman’s sense of the unseen world has led some authors to classify his spirituality as platonist, but this term must be understood with some nuances. His teaching must be distinguished from Platonism, insofar as he did not de-emphasize the reality of material phenomena to the extent that Plato did. For Newman, the invisible world was not simply a world of ideas but the world of christian revelation, the kingdom of a personal God, of Christ, the saints and the angels. As much as he involved himself in interpersonal relationships and pastoral responsibilities, the truth of his relationship with God and the reality of the unseen world remained primary.
Newman realized that some Christians are tempted to neglect their responsibilities in this world in order to contemplate the unseen world; however, when this occurs, “we may be sure that there is something wrong and unchristian, not in their thinking of the next world, but in their manner of thinking it.”148 Among the remedies suggested by Newman, thankfulness to Almighty God and the inward life of the Spirit will cause the Christian to labor diligently in his calling and to see God in all things:
Accordingly, in whatever comes upon him, he will endeavour to discern and gaze (as it were) on the countenance of his Saviour. He will feel that the true contemplation of that Saviour lies in his worldly business; that as Christ is seen in the poor, and in the persecuted, and in children, so is He seen in the employments which He puts upon His chosen, whatever they may be; that in attending to his own calling he will be meeting Christ; that if he neglects it, he will not on that account enjoy His presence at all the more, but that while performing it, he will see Christ revealed to his soul amid the ordinary actions of the day, as by a sort of sacrament. Thus he will take his worldly business as a gift from Him, and will love it as much.149
In his own pastoral responsibilities, Newman was sensitive to following the signs which he thought were given to him by God in his providence. When he sensed a convergence of signs, he would pray and then move ahead and become actively involved in the project indicated. His ministry was always seen against the background of the unseen world insofar as Divine Providence granted such insights and revelations.
Holiness of God
Basic to Newman’s teaching on the spiritual life is certitude about the existence of God. In his Apologia, he wondered, “Who can really pray to a Being about whose existence he is seriously in doubt?”150 Similarly, he emphasised in his Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent: “Without certitude in religious faith there may be much decency of profession and of observance, but there can be no habit of prayer, no directness of devotion, no intercourse with the unseen, no generosity of self-sacrifice.”151 Newman preached “not a theory or philosophy of his own, but the Christian revelation—not Christian doctrine in the abstract, but the truths of faith in their concrete implications.”152 He always stood in awe at the mysteriousness and holiness of God, and this was reflected in his teaching and practice. When people encounter God, their reactions can range from extreme fear to powerful attraction. Usually there are elements of both fear and love in our reaction to the holiness of God. Newman certainly sensed the dialectic between the fear and the love of God, but scholars differ in their interpretation of which attitude predominated in his life and teaching. Geoffrey Faber thought that fear was the driving force of Newman’s arguments: “Again and again in his sermons it seems as if he had to force himself to speak of God’s love and mercy. The assurance of these is less real to him than the fear of condemnation and wrath.”153 Derek Stanford added that this is not to deprecate Newman’s faith so much as to determine its kind.154 Charles Sarolea wrote that Newman “has always dwelt far more on the idea of religion of wrath and retribution than on the idea of mercy and forgiveness.”155 In addition, Jan Walgrave called the fear of God the deepest motive of Newman’s life which explains the course of his search after truth; however, he used the word “fear” in the more nuanced sense of a moral earnestness seeking after truth.156 Newman sought to follow the inner light of his conscience step by step, but was fearful of being deceived by self-will. Newman’s position seems to be clarified by Maurice Nedoncelle: “The fear of being unfaithful to the truth, of being a missing piece in the plan of God, this is what explains the evolution of Newman, and not the obsession of hell.”157 Certainly there is an element of fear in Newman’s teaching, but in the sense which is so well expressed by the English word “awe.”158 Perhaps it would be best to let Newman speak for himself. In his Anglican sermon, “Shrinking from Christ’s Coming,” Newman preached:
If indeed we have habitually lived to the world, then truly it is natural we should attempt to fly from Him whom we have pierced. . . . But if we have lived, however imperfectly, yet habitually, in His fear, if we trust that His Spirit is in us, then we need not be ashamed before Him. We shall then come before Him, as now we come to pray—with profound abasement, with awe, with self-renunciation, still as relying upon the Spirit which He has given us, with our faculties about us, with a collected and determined mind, and with hope. He who cannot pray for Christ’s coming, ought not in consistency to pray at all.159
Providential Guidance
Newman could not imagine believing in God unless one also believed that God cares about his creatures and wills them good.160 A person’s happiness then is found in accepting the providential guidance which God’s love speaks to his conscience.161 Newman was especially conscious of God’s providential concern throughout his life, and this awareness was reflected in his teaching and practice of the spiritual life. In his farewell sermon at St. Clement’s, the twenty-five-year-old Newman set forth the ideals which were to characterize his entire life:
For I have felt and feel now that it is only as He makes use of me that I can be useful—only as I put myself entirely into His hands that I can promote His glory, and that to attempt any slightest work in my own strength is an absurdity too great for words to express. He has been pleased to bring me into His ministry and to lay the weight of an high office upon me—And wherever His good providence may lead me I trust I shall never forget that I am dedicated and made over entirely to Him as the minister of Christ and that the grand and blessed object of my life must be to promote the interests of His cause, and to serve His Church, and contribute to the strength of His kingdom, and to make use of all my powers of mind and body, external and acquired, to bring sinners to Him, and to help in purifying a corrupt world—In this good work I willingly would be spent and I pray God to give me grace to keep me from failing.162
Various events in Newman’s life provided indications of God’s will. Even in the midst of his illness in Sicily, he could reflect confidently, “I thought God had some work for me.”163 He experienced the fact that God unfolds his will to us over a lifetime rather than revealing everything in one moment of great illumination.164 His own experience was reflected in his direction to others to resign themselves to the divine will, to entrust their cares and anxieties to the hands of God’s loving providence. In 1866, he wrote to Marianne Bowden: “Put yourself, then, my dear child, into the hands of your loving Father and Redeemer, who knows and loves you better than you know or love yourself. He has appointed every action of your life. He created you, sustains you, and has marked down the very way and hour when he will take you to Himself.”165 This doctrine of divine providence provided a source of inner strength and courage to Newman, as he experienced the difficulties involved in the realization of his mission. He entrusted himself as an instrument into the hands of God. He could witness by his own life to the truth of his preaching: “God’s hand is ever over His own, and He leads them forward by a way they know not of.”166
Dependence on God
A fourth characteristic of Newman’s spirituality, which logically complements the other characteristics already mentioned, was the absolute dependence of a person upon God. This principle was not abstract but grounded in the events and relationships of Newman’s life. He was a man who experienced and appreciated deep and lasting friendships, yet he was not totally dependent on the support of his friends. Human friendship pointed beyond itself to one’s relationship with God. For example, there are autobiographical overtures in his sermon on “The Thought of God, the Stay of the Soul”:
We know that even our nearest friends enter into us but partially, and hold intercourse with us only at times; whereas the consciousness of a perfect and enduring Presence and it alone, keeps the heart open. Withdraw the Object on which it rests, and it will relapse again into its state of confinement and constraint; and in proportion as it is limited, either to certain seasons or to certain affections, the heart is straitened and distressed. If it be not over bold to say it, He who is infinite can alone be its measure; He alone can answer to the mysterious assemblage of feelings and thoughts which it has within it.167
One Newman scholar, after a careful study of every stage of Newman’s spiritual life, has judged that the principal motive of all his thoughts, words, and deeds was the will of God. “God’s will is the ‘Kindly Light’ which led him step by step through the encircling gloom of his earthly existence.”168 From a study of Newman’s life, it can be seen how he experienced the consequences of surrendering to the divine will. As the Christian grows in his realization of dependency, he advances in self-surrender and his realization of God’s presence. As an Anglican, Newman challenged his congregation to “an honest purpose, an unreserved, entire submission of ourselves to our Maker, Redeemer, and Judge.”169 He taught that the true Christian enthrones the Son of God in his conscience and refers to Him as sovereign authority. He uses no reasoning with Him, but says, “Thou, God, seest me.” God is felt to be too near to allow for argument, self-defense, excuse of objection.170
In his life as a Roman Catholic, Newman passed through various purifying events, remaining wholeheartedly convinced that he was in the hands of God. He was willing to be an instrument for the fulfillment of God’s Will, and this demanded unconditional surrender. He urged people to unlock and open their hearts to God, and such advice was validated by his own experience.
Closely connected with Newman’s sense of the unseen world and surrender to God was his spirit of detachment and unworldliness. The great and obvious characteristic of a Bible Christian, for Newman, was to be without worldly ties or objects, living in this world, but not for this world. The epitaph which he composed for himself and is displayed in the cloister of the Birmingham Oratory, expresses the dynamic of his whole life: Ex umbris et imaginibus ad veritatem (“From shadows and images into the truth”).
Although the sense of unworldliness was a contributing factor to Newman’s great spiritual strength and influence on others, it is also the reason why some critics attribute a lack of social concern to his attitude. Perhaps, in this respect, Newman did not transcend the “conventional wisdom” which led many preachers of his day to neglect the social evils of their age. Since he always served the poor, it seems that Newman’s unworldliness led him to stress the individual conscience rather than social reforms. Moreover, by his own life and teaching, Newman has given a good example of the Christian productively living the tension between his spiritual life and his pastoral responsibilities. Newman’s spirituality prompted him to use the present situation as the means par excellence of his sanctification.
Relation of Theology and Spirituality
Newman never elaborated an explicit theological treatise on the spiritual life. In fact, he even denied that he was a theologian.171 His own refusal to describe himself as a theologian can be traced to three reasons: first, his acceptance of a conception of theological method which was prevalent during much of his life as a Roman Catholic: this neo-Aristotelean “scientific” method of theology, which dominated Roman schools, held that truth was gained in the sciences through induction and in theology by deduction. Since Newman customarily treated theological topics inductively, he did not consider himself a theologian.
The second reason for Newman’s denial that he was a theologian was grounded in his belief that a “theologian” had to be a specialist with complete command of one particular field, and he was conscious of the fact that he was an amateur in many fields, rather than a specialist in one. For example, in 1874, in his Letter to Norfolk, Newman argued that “theology is a science, and a science of a special kind,” and that “every science must be in the hands of a comparatively few people—that is, of those who have made it a study.”172
Third, Newman knew his strength was less that of a theologian and more that of a controversialist, responding to particular needs, grappling with particular questions as they arose. He believed that he could best exercise his abilities if and when he was permitted to function as a private individual. Writing to Maria Giberne in 1869, he stated:
Really and truly I am not a theologian. A theologian is one who has mastered theology . . . who can discriminate exactly between proposition and proposition, argument and argument, who can pronounce which are safe, which allowable, which dangerous—who can trace the history of doctrines in successive centuries, or apply the principles of former times to the conditions of the present. This is it to be a theologian—this and a hundred things besides. And this I am not, and never shall be. Like St. Gregory Nazianzen, I like going on my own way, and having my time my own, living without pomp or state, or pressing engagements. Put me into official garb, and I am worth nothing; leave me to myself, and every now and then I shall do something.173
Just as Newman did not consider himself a theologian and did not write a theological treatise on the spiritual life, it is not surprising that he did not develop a theology of prayer: “Newman seems never to have had a theory as to how prayer works. He did not get involved in the discussion of God’s passivity, he did not ask how the immutable God could be acted upon by our prayers. He simply knew that Jesus has taught us to pray. He simply knew that prayer did work.”174
Personal Experiences as Theological Loci
In 1868, J. M. Capes, reviewing Newman’s Verses on Various Occasions, noted:
Dr. Newman’s plea, in justification of the publication of this volume of his verses, revised and enlarged, is to be found in the fact that he cannot live in absolute isolation from his fellow-man. The ordinary companionship of the friends and acquaintances of one who, as he told us in his Apologia, early thought himself bound to celibacy, is not enough, even for a man whose inner resources are so varied, whose interest in human affairs is so sympathetic, and who is so penetrated with the sense, as he expresses it, that he is “solus cum solo” (alone with Alone) in the world.175
Responding to Capes’ observations, Newman offered an interesting self-analysis: “I have often been puzzled at myself, that I should be both particularly fond of being alone, and particularly fond of being with my friends. Yet I know both the one and the other are true, though I can no more reconcile them than you can. You are the first, as far as I know, who have noticed an apparent inconsistency to which I can but plead guilty.”176 This “apparent inconsistency” perhaps explains the powerful influence of Newman on his contemporaries. The strength of his personality is still felt today in his writings. His fondness for being solus cum solo exemplifies the intimacy of his unique relationship with God, which was the source of his many human friendships and pastoral accomplishments.
Newman consistently emphasized the importance of honestly following God’s voice as expressed in one’s conscience. By being true to his conscience, Newman argued that a person could come to acknowledge the existence of God.177As people become more attentive to the voice of God in their consciences, they are drawn into a deeper personal relationship with God which is reflected in their spiritual life. As Jan Walgrave has observed: “The development of the religious man is a dialectic of fidelity to conscience.”178 Newman’s spiritual life was not isolated from earthly realities, but rather his various experiences were theological loci in which he sensed the presence of God. In the solitude of his conscience he sought to integrate such events, penetrating to the more profound reality which is revealed only to the person of faith.
Various personal experiences either reminded Newman of his fundamental relationship with God or led him to deepen that relationship. His conversion experience as an adolescent, his pastoral ministry, his sister Mary’s death and his illness in Sicily prepared him to exercise strong leadership in the Oxford Movement. His study of early Church history and patrology led him to seek admittance to the Roman Catholic Church, enduring all the pain which conversion involved at that time. As a Roman Catholic, a series of events purified his commitment to follow wherever God would lead him: the division of the two Oratories, the Achilli trial, the Catholic university in Ireland, the Scripture translation project, the Rambler editorship, the attack by Charles Kingsley, and the plans for an Oxford Oratory. In all of these situations, Newman suffered, but in his suffering he learned to confide himself to the hands of God. His personal experience of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ together with his faith in the Church’s teaching authority enabled him to integrate his other experiences and to grow holier thereby.
This is not to suggest that the integration process was always smooth and rational. Newman was a man of strong feelings and sensitivity, and his interior emotional struggles in opening his soul to God are evident in his private journals. These private thoughts were not intended for the public’s eye, but the demand for more information on Newman has publicized his personal thoughts to such a degree as to cause, in some cases, a negative reaction. Many saints probably experienced similar feelings but never wrote them down. What matters essentially is how Newman made the best use of his personality in his life. His consistency in generously responding to the Gospel was joined to his personal ascetical practices first initiated as a young man after reading Law’s A Serious Call to a Devout Life.
The spiritual life must be based on the objectivity of God’s existence and self-revelation, and the Christian should strive to conduct himself faithfully and peacefully. There must be no “unreal words,” no sentiment without practice. The Christian has a personal knowledge of God and truly senses his presence. Newman sought to unify action with feeling and thought; he achieved this unity and simplicity by his faith in God and by his honesty with himself in the face of the events of his life. God speaks to us through the events and relationships of our lives. Our task is to have the right attitude toward these opportunities and this gives life its meaning.
Indwelling of the Holy Spirit
Another theological principle in Newman’s doctrine on the spiritual life is his teaching on the Divine Indwelling in the soul of the Christian. This “unspeakable Gospel privilege,” which has traditionally been ascribed to the agency of the Holy Spirit, became one of the doctrinal foundations for Newman’s spirituality. The teachings of Thomas Scott, along with the study of Scripture and the Greek Fathers, influenced the young Newman’s thought and spiritual life. His understanding of the time and the manner in which the presence of the Spirit inhabited the Christian underwent an evolution from the early years when he was influenced by evangelical thought. Because Newman preached what he believed, his sermons provide a rich source for understanding his personal faith experience. He understood that the foundation laid in the New Testament for the new life of union with God, which the Christian religion offered to mankind, was the doctrine of the indwelling in the soul of the Holy Spirit, and through the Spirit of the Father and the Son. True Christianity is therefore the presence of the Trinity: “God, the Son, has graciously vouchsafed to reveal the Father to His creatures from without; God, the Holy Ghost, by inward communications.”179 The Spirit is “the seal and earnest of an Unseen Saviour; being the present pledge of Him who is absent.”180
Newman tried to describe this presence in order to help people realize this gift.
The Holy Ghost dwells in body and soul, as in a Temple. Evil spirits indeed have power to possess sinners, but His indwelling is far more perfect; for He is all-knowing and omnipresent, He is able to search into all our thoughts, and penetrate into every motive of the heart. Therefore, he pervades us (if it may be so said) as light pervades a building, or as a sweet perfume the folds of some honourable robe; so that in Scripture language, we are said to be in Him and He in us. It is plain that such an inhabitation brings the Christian into a state altogether new and marvelous, far above the possession of mere gifts.181
At the new birth of Baptism, the Christian enters the kingdom of Christ. “By this new birth the Divine Sheckinah is set up within him, pervading soul and body separating him really, not only in name, from those who are not Christians, raising him in the scale of being, drawing and fostering into life whatever remains in him of a higher nature.”182 Newman reminded his audience that they were temples of God. “We are assured of some real though mystical fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in order to do this; so that both by a real presence in the soul, and by the fruits of grace, God is one with every believer, as in a consecrated Temple.”183 Moreover, he related the presence of the Spirit in the Christian to the Catholic Church by preaching that “the heart of every Christian ought to represent in miniature the Catholic Church, since one Spirit makes both the whole Church and every member of it to be His Temple.”184 Newman then encouraged his listeners to not only realize this presence, but to act on it.
For ourselves, in proportion as we realize that higher view of the subject, which we may humbly trust is the true one, let us be careful to act up to it. Let us adore the Sacred Presence within us with all fear, and “rejoice with trembling.” Let us offer our best gifts in sacrifice to Him who instead of abhorring, has taken up His abode in these sinful hearts of ours. . . . In this then consists our whole duty, to contemplate Almighty God as in heaven, so in our hearts and souls; and again to act the while towards Him and for Him in the works of every day.185
In 1838, Newman elaborated his teaching on the Divine Indwelling in his Lectures on the Doctrine of Justification. He carried this strong theological basis with him into the Roman Catholic Church, but he wrote little on the subject of uncreated grace after his conversion in 1845. By way of exception, in 1868, Newman wrote to W. J. Daunt: “In these later times it is usual to say that the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity resides in the soul by means of His grace—but it is still a theological opinion maintained by great divines (and I suspect the old opinion), that His Presence in the soul is not merely His grace but Himself.”186
It is evident from his Meditations and Devotions that Newman personally had a special devotion to the Holy Spirit. From his lifelong appreciation of the indwelling of the Spirit flowed certain consequences in Newman’s life: it made him watchful and detached, joyful and at peace, and substantiated his view of the unseen world. In particular, the Divine Indwelling was the dogmatic foundation for Newman’s teaching on the spiritual life. His theology and piety are wedded beautifully in this 1838 sermon:
A true Christian, then, may almost be defined as one who has a ruling sense of God’s presence within him. As none but justified persons have that privilege, so none but the justified have that practical perception of it . . . In all circumstances, of joy or sorrow, hope or fear, let us aim at having Him in our inmost heart; let us have no secret apart from Him. Let us acknowledge Him as enthroned within us at the very spring of thought and affection. Let us submit ourselves to His guidance and sovereign direction; let us come to Him that He may forgive us, cleanse us, change us, guide us, and save us. This is the true life of the saints. This is to have the Spirit witnessing with our spirits that we are sons of God.187
Centrality of Christ
The centrality of Christ in Anglican spirituality provided a rich heritage upon which Newman based his spirituality. His patristic study led to a greater clarification and realization of the mediation of Christ in his spiritual life. His personal prayer books reflect his lifelong devotion to Jesus Christ. It is in union with the person of Christ that our prayers should be offered to God the Father, and the presence of Christ within us is a principle of sanctification. A study of Newman’s sermons reveals that the whole of his doctrinal message is centered in and consequent upon the mystery of the Incarnation.
Newman taught there were two reasons for the Incarnation: atonement for sin and renewal in holiness.188 He made much of the Athanasian principle of the deification of a person by the incarnation, so that all Christians receive the power of mediation by the virtue of Him who is within them. In his Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, Newman called the incarnation the central aspect of Christianity, out of which the three main aspects of its teaching take their rise, the sacramental, the hierarchical, and the ascetic.189 In effect, there are many other Christian principles which can be drawn from the truth of the incarnation, and it is important to examine three of these in relationship to his understanding of the spiritual life. By the dogmatic principle is meant that “supernatural truths have been irrevocably committed to human language, imperfect because it is human, but definitive and necessary because given from above.”190 Just how important this principle of dogma is in Newman’s thought can be seen in his Apologia: “From the age of fifteen, dogma has been the fundamental principle of my religion; I know of no other religion; I cannot enter into the idea of any other sort of religion; religion, as a mere sentiment, is to me a dream and a mockery. As well can there be filial love without the fact of a father, as devotion without the fact of a Supreme Being. What I held in 1816, I held in 1833, and I hold in 1864. Please God, I shall hold it to the end.”191 Newman insisted on the dogmatic principle to counter the subjectivism of the liberals and the preoccupation of the Evangelicals with feelings and emotion. Newman believed that dogma was one of the means of expressing the faith of Christians. In the early Church, with which he was so familiar through the writings of the Fathers, the creeds were prayers which tried to describe objective realities. Each of the early Church councils would always incorporate the professions of faith, enunciated by previous councils. These credal formulations were part of the living tradition of the Church, and were not considered to be mere abstractions. They were an approach to the reality of God, which calls for real assent, and which provides the basis for our spiritual lives. Accordingly, Newman considered the Athanasian Creed as “the most simple and sublime, the most devotional formulary to which Christianity has given birth.”192 He faced his God in continuity with the whole of Christian tradition, ever striving to make his assent more real by his prayer and life.
For Newman, the doctrine of the Incarnation is “the announcement of a divine gift conveyed in a material and visible medium,” and thus in the very idea of Christianity the sacramental principle is established as its characteristic.193 The sacramental principle maintains that material phenomena are both the types and the instruments of real things unseen. The young Newman derived this understanding from Bishop Butler’s Analogy of Religion, John Keble’s Christian Year, and his study of the Alexandrine Fathers. The sacramental principle is easily connected with Newman’s consciousness of living in the invisible world; everything that is seen is a revelation of the unseen world. Newman’s use of various devotions and spiritual practices can be better understood in the light of the sacramental principle.
This idea of sacramentality found expression in Newman’s understanding of prayer because he considered prayer a sacramental activity which draws people closer to the reality of God. By means of symbols such as words and gestures, prayer is a communication with God, acknowledging our complete dependence on Him. Prayer provides the means to come to a knowledge of God’s will and enables us to participate more actively in his providential plan for the world. Just as the texts of Scripture can be understood in a mystical sense, so also our words in prayer are invested with a sacramental office. Because of Newman’s sense of the holiness of God, he strongly advocated the use of set forms and times for prayer and reacted against the casual use of extemporary prayer.
The advantage of formulas is that they habituate us to an attitude of quiet reverence. As an Anglican, Newman prayed morning and evening from the Book of Common Prayer and employed the Devotions of Bishop Andrewes. From 1838 on, Newman prayed the Roman Breviary. In the prayers which he himself composed for private use, one can sense that he desired to have somewhat fixed forms for prayer as well as to recognize the influence of other traditional liturgical forms. He realized, however, that devotion is a highly personal matter and he never forced his preferences on anyone else. A letter written in 1863 affords insight into Newman’s understanding of the dogmatic and sacramental principles.
While private judgement is forbidden to Catholics in matters of divine revelation, it is fully accorded to them in matters of devotion. Worship is a free-will service. It is our response to God’s voice. He speaks, and what He speaks is dogma—it cannot be altered—it never was ours—it comes to us, not from us—it is objective—but worship is essentially subjective—it is what we give to God—and (under rational limits) we have power over our own acts. Therefore the Church is very loth to interfere with it. Catholics may choose their own saints to be devout to. They may honor this one, they may pass over that. They have their own “special devotion.”194
The ecclesial principle is also important in Newman’s understanding of the spiritual life. Although he insisted on the intimate relationship between the individual person and God, Newman experienced a developing appreciation of the Church and the value of public prayer. His sermons, especially at St. Mary’s, reflected his theological conviction that the Church is the chief means of grace. As a Roman Catholic, his gratitude for the Communion of Saints increased; in 1848 he wrote to Mrs. William Froude: “To know too that you are in the Communion of Saints—to know that you have cast your lot among all those Blessed Servants of God who are the choice fruit of His Passion—that you have their intercessions on high—that you may address them—and above all the Glorious Mother of God, what thoughts can be greater than these”?195 Newman also taught his parishioners that the Holy Spirit is given to individuals through the Church’s sacrament of baptism. The Church celebrates the eucharist which strengthens and binds Christians together. The united prayers of Christians gathered for worship are particularly blessed and have a special place in the life of the Church.
Throughout the Oxford Movement, Newman was concerned with the significance of the Church. Just as the individual Christian enjoys the Divine Indwelling, so also does the Church possess an objective supernatural reality. Just as the individual Christian can serve as an instrument of God, so also does the Church serve as the means of communicating God’s life to the faithful. The Church was considered by Newman as the sacramental reality of God’s revelation, and he was willing to endure anything in order to be in true communion with it. The Church was presented as the Body of Christ, the Communion of Saints, adoring God and interceding for sinners. Ecclesiastical authority was an important ascetical value in Newman’s spirituality. Reflecting on his Anglican days, Newman wrote in his Apologia: “I loved to act as feeling myself in my Bishop’s sight, as if it were the sight of God.”196 He consistently lived and taught this principle throughout his life, expressing it by his personal faithful obedience to his ecclesiastical superiors.
Summary
This chapter has highlighted some of the major influences on the origins and characteristics of Newman’s approach to the spiritual life: its scriptural and patristic foundations as well as his worldview, integrating his consciousness of living in the unseen world with his personal experiences in this visible world. As he expressed in his famous poem, “The Pillar of the Cloud,” he sought to surrender to the guidance and providence of God, leading him one step at a time toward his true home. His teaching on the holiness of God along with a person’s absolute dependence upon God are characteristics which any authentic theology of the spiritual life must consider. Newman’s spirituality was an expression of his theology. His belief in and explanation of the centrality of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, as well as his dogmatic, sacramental and ecclesial principles give his understanding of the spiritual life a strong theological framework. The authenticity of his own spiritual life gives credibility to his teaching and contributes to the relevancy of his doctrine to people in other ages and cultures.
111. Newman, Autobiographical Writings, 200.
112. Newman, Essay in Aid, 57. Newman, Apologia, 20–21, acknowledged learning the principle of tradition from Dr. Hawkins at Oxford: “He lays down a proposition, self-evident as soon as stated, to those who have at all examined the structure of Scripture, viz. that the sacred text was never intended to teach doctrine, but only to prove it, and that, if we would learn doctrine, we must have recourse to the formularies of the Church; for instance to the Catechism, and to the Creeds. He considers that, after learning from them the doctrines of Christianity, the inquirer must verify them by Scripture.”
113. JHN to Mrs. William Froude, 8 March 1853, in LD 15:328.
114. Ivory, “Doctrine,” 386.
115. JHN to Mrs. William Clarke, 10 October 1879, in LD 29:185.
116. JHN to Sister Mary Gabriel du Boulay, 18 August 1861, in LD 20:31.
117. Dessain, Why Pray?, 114.
118. Newman, Apologia, 18. “I read Joseph Milner’s Church History, and was nothing short of enamoured of the long extracts from St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, and the other Fathers which I found there.”
119. Ibid., 33.
120. Ibid., 34.
121. Purcell, Life, 323.
122. Newman, Apologia, 17.
123. Ibid. Newman continued: “They show him to be a true Englishman, and I deeply felt his influence; and for years I used almost as proverbs what I considered to be the scope and issue of his doctrine, ‘Holiness before peace,’ and ‘Growth is the only evidence of Life.’” In converting to Roman Catholicism, Newman scrupulously followed Scott’s advice: “I sat down very coolly to search the truth, I proceeded very gradually, and with extreme caution.” Scott, Force, 71.
124. Law, Serious Call. Concerning this work, Newman wrote, “The main Catholic doctrine of the warfare between the city of God and powers of darkness was also deeply impressed upon my mind by a work of a character very opposite to Calvinism, Law’s Serious Call.” Apologia, 18.
125. Ibid., 93.
126. Ibid., 146.
127. Ibid., 150.
128. Newman, Apologia, 18. See Milner, History.
129. Newman, Certain Difficulties, 1:370–71.
130. Newman, Apologia, 18. See Newton, Dissertations.
131. Butler, Analogy, xvii.
132. Newman, Correspondence, 116.
133. Newman, Autographical Writings, 154; Newman added this additional note in 1873: “I have now burned them.”
134. Newman, Correspondence, 116.
135. Beveridge, Theological Works, 1:vii.
136. Beveridge, Private Thoughts, 22.
137. Ibid., 119.
138. Doddridge, Rise, 260–68. In Autobiographical Writings, 174, Newman’s entry on August 4, 1821, responded to Doddridge’s questions: “Praised be God, I think I am much more resigned to Him than I was, more contented, less careful of the morrow, less desirous of the things of the world. . . . I am very deficient in spirituality in prayer, brotherly love, humility, forgiveness of injuries, charity, benevolence, purity, truth and patience. I am very bad-tempered, vain, proud, arrogant, prone to anger, and vehement. . . . I am also in great want of fervent love towards Christ.”
139. Newman, Autobiographical Writings, 175, August 18, 1821: “I bought Haweis’s Spiritual Communicant yesterday, and shall examine myself by that.”
140. Haweis, Communicant’s, 108.
141. Newman, “Poetry, with Reference to Aristotle’s Poetics,” in Essays Critical and Historical, 1:23.
142. Newman, Apologia, 16.
143. Newman, Sermon 2, in Parochial and Plain Sermons, 1:20; July 21, 1833.
144. Ibid., Sermon 13, 4:201–3; July 16, 1837. Newman frequently referred to the unseen world in his correspondence during his Roman Catholic years.
145. Newman, Apologia, 14, 34–36. In Newman’s Roman Catholic correspondence, there are numerous references to a person’s Guardian Angel, as well as to St. Gabriel and St. Raphael.
146. May, Cardinal Newman, 30.
147. Mozley, Letters, 1:335.
148. Newman, Sermon 2, in Parochial and Plain Sermons, 8:155; November 1, 1836.
149. Ibid., 165.
150. Newman, Apologia, 28.
151. Newman, Essay in Aid, 220.
152. Dessain, “Newman’s Spirituality,” 138.
153. Faber, Oxford, 170–71: “This was the inheritance from Evangelicalism which he was never able to discard, by which he was always to be distinguished from those happier spirits to whom the tidings of the Gospel were kindly tidings.”
154. Newman, Letters of John Henry Newman, edited by Derek Stanford and Muriel Spark, 20: “The basis of religion in some men is joy; in some, love or praise; in others, fear. ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’ There is certainly a good case for believing this to be so of Newman.”
155. Sarolea, Cardinal Newman, 41.
156. Walgrave, Newman, 22.
157. Nedoncelle, Introduction to Apologia, xliiin1.
158. Harrold, John Henry Newman, 328–29, offered a balanced view. “Yet we must do Newman the justice of observing that for him ‘fear’ was ordinarily more a ‘holy awe’ at the mysteriousness and dreadful seriousness of man’s destiny, than the mere terror of the possibility of eternal damnation.”
159. Newman, Sermon 4, in Parochial and Plain Sermons, 5:55–56; December 4, 1836. In one of his earliest sermons, Newman preached on repentance, on October 10, 1824: “But I would rather persuade you from love than urge you through fear.” Ivory, “Doctrine,” 408.
160. JHN to Mrs. F. R. Ward, 8 May 1849, in LD 19:127. “It would be easier for me to believe that there is no God at all, than to think he does not care.”
161. Walgrave, Newman, 25 stated succinctly: “In Newman’s thought, the primary factor is always conscience. It is his starting point in throwing a bridge across the external world, in ‘situating’ it in the perspective of Divine Providence, which is itself the first and supreme truth of religious experience.”
162. Newman, St. Clement’s Sermon, 150: unpublished manuscript, A. 17. 1, preached April 23, 1826, as cited by Ivory, “Doctrine,” 410.
163. Newman, Autobiographical Writings, 122.
164. JHN to Mrs. William Froude, 23 February 1853, in LD 15:307. “He does not tell us everything at once—but first one thing, and then, when we act upon that, another.”
165. JHN to Marianne Bowden, 5 June 1866, in LD 22:247.
166. Newman, Sermon 17, in Parochial and Plain Sermons, 4:261; May 7, 1837.
167. Ibid., Sermon 22, 5:318–19; June 9, 1839. The conclusion of this sermon reiterates the same idea: “Life passes, riches fly away, popularity is fickle, the senses decay, the world changes, friends die. One alone is constant; One alone can be all things to us; One alone can supply our needs; One alone can train us up to our full perfection; One alone can give a meaning to our complex and intricate nature; One alone can give us tune and harmony; One alone can form and possess us; Are we allowed to put ourselves under His guidance? This surely is the only question. Has He really made us his children, and taken possession of us by His Holy Spirit?” Ibid., 326.
168. Zeno, John Henry Newman, 274.
169. Newman, Sermon 17, in Parochial and Plain Sermons, 5:253; December 9, 1838.
170. Ibid., Sermon 16, in Parochial and Plain Sermons, 5:227; December 16, 1838.
171. This denial occurs chiefly in Newman’s correspondence as a Roman Catholic and with increasing frequency during the years leading up to the First Vatican Council and the publication of the Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent. See the following letters:
JHN to Sir John Acton, 2 August 1859, in LD 28:433;
JHN to E. B. Pusey, 14 November 1867, in LD 23:369;
JHN to Maria Giberne, 10 February 1869, in LD 24:212–13;
JHN to E. B. Pusey, 4 November 1869, in LD 24:363;
JHN to R. H. Hutton, 16 February 1870, in LD 25:32;
JHN to Unknown Correspondent, July 1877, in LD 28:216;
JHN to Robert Whitty, 20 December 1878, in LD 28:431.
172. Newman, Difficulties, 294.
173. JHN to Maria Giberne, 10 February 1869, in LD 24:212–13.
174. Swanston, “Newman Praying,” 34.
175. Capes’ review appeared in the Fortnightly Review, March 1, 1868, 342–45; cited in LD 24:53n1. The phrase solus cum solo (alone with oneself) is related to a longer phrase: numquam minus solus quam cum solus (never less alone than when alone).
176. JHN to J. M. Capes, 16 March 1868, in LD 24:53.
177. Newman, Apologia, 156: “I am a Catholic by virtue of my believing in a God; and if I am asked why I believe in a God, I answer that it is because I believe in myself, for I feel it impossible to believe in my own existence (and of that fact I am quite sure) without believing also in the existence of Him, who lives as a Personal, All-seeing, All-judging Being in my conscience.”
178. Walgrave, Newman, 148.
179. Newman, Sermon 19, in Parochial and Plain Sermons, 2:217; end of the year, 1834.
180. Ibid., 220.
181. Ibid., 222.
182. Ibid., Sermon 18, 3:266; November 8, 1835. Shekinah (“dwelling” in Hebrew) refers to the dwelling place of God, i.e., the divine presence.
183. Ibid., Sermon 3, 2:35; December 25, 1834.
184. Ibid., Sermon 10, 2:132; June 4, 1843.
185. Ibid., Sermon 18, 3:269; November 8, 1835.
186. JHN to W. J. Daunt, 17 September 1868, in LD 24:144.
187. Newman, Sermon 16, in Parochial and Plain Sermons, 5:225–26, 236; December 16, 1838.
188. Newman, Select Treatises, 189.
189. Newman, Essay on the Development, 36.
190. Ibid., 325.
191. Newman, Apologia, 51.
192. Newman, Essay in Aid, 133.
193. Newman, Essay on the Development, 325.
194. JHN to Lady Chatterton, 16 June 1863, in LD 20:471.
195. JHN to Mrs. William Froudes, 16 June 1848, in LD 12:224.
196. Newman, Apologia, 52.