A. The Study of John Henry Newman
Chapter 3: Newman’s Historical Background
A. The Study of John Henry Newman
In January of 1864, the Anglican novelist Charles Kingsley published an article charging that the Roman Catholic Church in general, and John Henry Newman in particular, had little regard for truth. Failing to obtain either a retraction or so much as an apology from Kingsley, Newman composed seven pamphlets, which he published from April 21 to June 2. Recognizing his opportunity to offer a public defense of his Catholic faith, Newman reprinted five of the seven articles in a single volume entitled, Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1864). While lacking some personal details, such as the names of his parents, the Apologia gives an autobiographical account of Newman’s theological pilgrimage. Imbued with a quality of existential transparency, the Apologia quickly became a bestseller in Britain and remains one of the greatest religious autobiographies of all time.
The Apologia was the first volume of what would eventually become a cottage industry of books dedicated to Newman’s life.464 Shortly afterward, Ann Mozley arranged Newman’s letters and correspondence for publication.465 The collection was eventually published in two volumes in 1890.466 In 1891, the year after John Henry’s death, his brother, Francis Newman, scandalized English-language readers with his Contributions Chiefly to the Early History of the Late Cardinal Newman.467 It was an ugly screed, apparently intended to prove that John Henry was a thoroughgoing Papist long before his conversion in 1845. According to Robbins, it earned Francis a public rebuke. Six years later, when Francis himself died, an obituary in the Athenaeum referred to it as betraying “a theological unbrotherliness rarely met with in recent biography.”468
It is outside of the purview of this study to survey the myriad of Newman biographies that have been written over the years. Our concern is to understand the historical development of Newman’s doctrine of justification. Despite the modest number of monographs treating this aspect of Newman’s thought, there are a few works that are especially helpful. The following overview will consider their particular contributions according to a three-fold taxonomy: Newman’s treatment of Martin Luther, the general historical development of Newman’s doctrine of justification, and uncreated grace in the context of his via media.
The relationship of Newman’s doctrine of justification to that of Martin Luther has received considerable attention. In what is the most quoted and distilled expression of his grievance, Newman writes, “[Luther] found Christians in bondage to their works and observances; he released them by his doctrine of faith; and he left them in bondage to their feelings.”469 In his chapter, “Newman on Justification: An Evangelical Evaluation,” Alister E. McGrath dismantles Newman’s argument piece by piece before concluding that his “account of the doctrine of justification associated with Luther is seriously inaccurate, and at one point appears to demonstrate a standard of intellectual integrity which falls short of what one might have hoped to encounter.”470 McGrath’s case, which he also makes in his magnum opus, Iustitia Dei, is convincing. 471 Equally forceful is the article of Thomas Sheridan, SJ, “Newman and Luther on Justification” in which he agrees with McGrath that Newman is rightly criticized for his “unfair portrayal of Luther’s teaching,” and demonstrates that Luther’s own doctrine had much in common with the position that Newman was defending.472 In a similar vein, John F. Perry applies this historiography to contemporary ecumenical dialogue, by illustrating how badly wrong Newman got Luther, particularly in how Newman “deconstructed” a passage from Luther’s Commentary on Galatians.473 Also with an eye on modern ecumenism is the late Richard John Neuhaus’s article, “Newman, Luther, and the Unity of Christians,” which explains the far-reaching implications of Newman’s ill-informed caricature of Luther upon subsequent generations of Catholics.474 Other treatments include an article by Scott Murray, which analyses doctrinal similarities and differences of the two men according to various topics,475 and a chapter by Joseph S. O’Leary examining Newman’s treatment of Luther in the context of nineteenth-century Britain.476
Of the various works addressing the historical development of Newman’s doctrine of justification, the single most important volume is the “theological biography” by Sheridan, Newman on Justification.477 Sheridan carefully traces Newman’s thought on the subject in eight chapters, covering Newman’s childhood to the year 1835. A ninth and final chapter, “Final Synthesis and Conclusion,” brings readers to 1837 when Newman’s lectures were delivered in St. Mary the Virgin’s Adam de Brome Chapel, and eventually to 1838 when the Lectures on Justification were first published. Peter Toon has a useful chapter in his book, Evangelical Theology 1833–1856, dedicated to the doctrine of justification in which he explains the backlash against Newman’s position from within the Evangelical community.478 Toon’s work is a helpful contribution, since his investigation is the only one of its kind. Less illuminating, by comparison, is his article “A Critical Review of John Henry Newman’s Doctrine of Justification,” which is more critical in its assessment of Newman than in its research.479
While the late Frank Turner’s, John Henry Newman: The Challenge to Evangelical Religion has been rightly criticized for its excessive speculation into Newman’s psychology, its emphasis on Newman’s relationship to Evangelicalism sheds light on the formation of his doctrine of justification.480 Ian Ker’s biography has an extended section that puts Newman’s doctrine on justification into its historical context, explaining the sequence of events that surrounded its composition.481
The Cambridge Companion to John Henry Newman, edited by Ian Ker and Terrence Merrigan, offers a general overview of Newman’s thought, including a chapter on justification written by Sheridan.482 This may be the single most helpful distillation of Newman’s doctrine of justification available in print. A valuable primer on Newman’s life and thought by Avery Cardinal Dulles, John Henry Newman, includes a brief overview of Newman’s position on justification.483 Similar in form and substance is Ker book, Newman on Being a Christian.484 Finally, there is Henry Chadwick’s excellent chapter, “Lectures on Justification,” which examines Newman’s position in the context of the Oxford Movement and the history of post-Reformation soteriology.485
The central importance of the category of gratia increata to Newman’s doctrine of justification has also been a subject of some research. Charles Dessain, in his article, “Cardinal Newman and the Doctrine of Uncreated Grace,” surveys Newman’s pneumatology to see how it informed his gratia uncreata.486 Dessain acknowledges that “On becoming a Catholic . . . Newman wrote little on the subject of Uncreated Grace.”487 In a similar direction, José Morales’s chapter, “Newman and the Problems of Justification,” analyses the logic of Newman’s position, questioning whether it is in fact sustainable.488 Going further than Dessain, Morales argues that Newman jettisoned his via media on justification when he abandoned Anglicanism itself.489 In particular, Morales questions the accuracy of Newman’s assertion from the third edition of the Lectures that, “Unless the Author held in substance in 1874 what he published in 1838, he would not at this time be reprinting what he wrote as an Anglican.”490 Arguing from a sermon that Newman published in 1840, shortly after his original Lectures, Morales contends that Newman had by that point already moved away from locating the formal cause of justification in an uncreated grace in favor of an inherent deposit of righteousness.491 Against this view, Thomas Holtzen, building on his doctoral dissertation from Marquette,492 argues in his article, “Newman’s ‘Via Media’ Theology of Justification,” that Newman’s position on justification remained intact as a consistent via media owing to his doctrine of divine indwelling by the Holy Spirit.493 Before examining Newman’s via media, however, we will first consider the religious background in which it developed.