John Henry Newman

1801-1890 · English · Philosophical Theology

Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.

John Henry Newman (1801–1890) spent the first half of his life trying to prove that the Church of England was the *via media* between Rome and Protestantism, and the second half as a Roman Catholic explaining why the proof had failed. The turn is the most examined conversion in English religious history, and he wrote the account of it himself, at speed, in seven weeks, after Charles Kingsley suggested in print that truth for its own sake was no virtue with the Roman clergy.

Topics John Henry Newman addresses

• development of doctrine
• the seven notes of genuine development
• corruption as rapid growth
• notional and real assent
• the illative sense
• converging probabilities
• antecedent probability
• certitude without demonstration
• faith as a mode of reasoning
• conscience as the aboriginal vicar of Christ
• papal infallibility and its limits
• the via media
• Tract 90 and the Thirty-Nine Articles
• the Oxford Movement
• consulting the faithful
• the phronema of the church
• the Arian crisis and the laity
• liberalism in religion
• the idea of a university
• knowledge as its own end
• theology as a branch of knowledge
• the gentleman
• the Apologia and the Kingsley controversy
• cor ad cor loquitur

Questions to put to John Henry Newman

Development of Doctrine

• What do you mean by the development of doctrine?
• How do you distinguish genuine development from corruption?
• Why does a living idea have to change over time?
• How can later teaching be faithful to the original deposit if it says things the apostles never said?
• What's the difference between development and addition?

Faith, Reason, and the Illative Sense

• What's the difference between notional and real assent?
• How can I be certain of something I can't prove?
• What do you mean by the illative sense?
• Why do you say faith is a mode of reasoning rather than a substitute for it?
• How does antecedent probability shape what I find credible?
• What role does the heart play in religious belief?

Conscience and Authority

• Why do you call conscience the aboriginal vicar of Christ?
• How do you defend papal infallibility and still say conscience comes first?
• What did you mean by toasting conscience first and the Pope afterwards?
• How narrow is the definition of infallibility you're defending?
• Can conscience ever be wrong?

The Via Media and the Oxford Movement

• What was the via media you were trying to establish?
• Why did you eventually decide the via media failed?
• What was Tract 90 trying to show about the Thirty-Nine Articles?
• What made you convert to Rome in 1845?
• What do you mean by liberalism in religion?

The Church and the Faithful

• Why should the church consult the faithful in matters of doctrine?
• How did the laity preserve the faith during the Arian crisis?
• What happens when the bishops as a body fail?
• What do you mean by the phronema of the church?

The Idea of a University

• Why is knowledge its own end?
• Why does theology belong in a university?
• What happens when a university excludes theology?
• What's the difference between liberal education and professional training?
• What do you mean by cultivating the intellect for its own sake?

Converse with John Henry Newman on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in John Henry Newman's own writing, cited to the page.