The Cambridge Companion to John Henry Newman (Cambridge Companions to Religion), edited by Ian Ker and Terrence Merrigan, Cambridge University Press, 2009.
John Henry Newman is one of the most studied, respected, and beloved figures in English Catholic history. His beatification is imminent, and his life story is legendary, particularly his prominent conversion from Anglicanism to Catholicism, and his vast literary contributions to Christian theology and culture. His work is so extensive and his career so distinguished that he has few peers of similar stature. As such, a vast scholarship has been build up around his work, and this anthology demonstrates Newman’s considerable intellectual influence.
Roderick Strange’s Newman 101: An Introduction to the Life and Philosophy of John Cardinal Newman (reviewed here in March 2010) was carefully crafted as a go-to book for people with little or no knowledge of Newman’s life and work. If Newman 101 was meant to be the equivalent of a college freshman introductory course, The Cambridge Companion to John Henry Newman is a senior seminar, meant for those with a solid background of the man, his biography, and his major writings; who also wish to gain a better grasp of Newman’s legacy and the behind-the-scenes details of his work.
In their introduction, Ker and Merrigan declare that there are multiple reasons why Newman is a critical figure to study for the person who wishes to gain a more comprehensive grasp of Catholic theology. They write:
“[F]irst, Newman is an excellent point of entry to the history and development of theology since the nineteenth century. Second, Newman’s work is significant in its own right. He was a seminal thinker who anticipated modern and postmodern concerns and themes and who explored these in an original fashion. The ongoing interest in Newman is ample testimony to his contemporary relevance. And third, in the face of more and more specialized studies of Newman, there is a great need for an accessible, comprehensive and systematic presentation of the major themes in his own work.”
There are thirteen essays in this anthology. Contributors include the editors, Avery Dulles, and several other scholars, many of them priests. The first essay is an overview of Newman’s life and writings. This is followed by analyses of Newman’s work regarding the Church Fathers, revelation, faith, justification, development of doctrine, the Church as communion, infallibility, authority in the Church, conscience, theology in the university, and preaching. The anthology concludes with a summation of the great man’s career, titled “Newman in Retrospect.”
One does not need to be familiar with Newman’s writings in order to read The Cambridge Companion to John Henry Newman. If a reader is completely new to Newman, then the book will serve as a useful overview of his work and major themes. Comparatively, those who are well-versed in Newman’s oeuvre will find these critiques to be useful tools to better understanding his ideas and goals.
With thirteen different writers collaborating on this collection, it is unavoidable that certain details about Newman’s life and career would be overlooked and others repeated frequently. The first essay is a very brief biography of Newman, so novices to Newman will be grateful for this if they wish to get an overview of his life and career. However, there are certain gaps (or at least empty spaces) in the biographical narrative, leaving some of the major events of his life (which in turn fueled some of his most famous writings) sketched out in only rough detail. Thankfully, all of the authors have been careful to provide sufficient biographical details so that no one need feel lost at any point, although many readers may occasionally crave additional details.
The turning point of Newman’s life, his conversion to Catholicism, is described in nearly half of the essays, and intriguingly, each author brings a different perspective to event. One scholar insists that by converting, Newman did not make much of an intellectual leap from his years as an Anglican. In contrast, another argues that a Roman Catholic worldview radically altered Newman’s entire intellectual framework. Likewise, all of the other authors bring a slightly different perspective to Newman’s character, though never in a negative way. All of the authors treat their subject with deep respect and sincere admiration.
Each of the essays in this volume focuses on a specific theme, one which Newman himself addressed in his major works. One of the more interesting essays centers on “The University and Theology,” by Gerard Loughlin. This article looks at the contemporary university and the importance of the topics that are taught there. The author notes that with the exception of universities with religious affiliations, most of today’s institutions of higher learning devote little if any attention to theology. This is not the place to enter into the debate over academia’s current obsessions and which classics have been jettisoned in favor of trendy new works, and which subcategories of disciplines are in fact acceptable major, but it is important to understand the state of contemporary higher education.
Loughlin references a couple of prominent New Atheists and how they argue that religion has no place in higher education, claiming that only hard, verifiable science should reside within the halls of academia. They only receive about a page and half of coverage, and then the focus shifts to Newman and his own views on the importance of theology in the mind of the truly educated person, especially as outlined in his classic The Idea of a University. Granted, the author’s bias is clearly in Newman’s favor, but when Newman is pitted against the New Atheists, it seems as if Newman has brought a machete to a toothpick fight.
Newman stresses more than the importance of developing one’s faith when studying theology. Contrary to the arguments of religion’s detractors, theology is not based on irrationality and blind adherence to unquestioned dogma. Theology (at least when studied properly), teaches logic, thorough critical thinking, and requires one to exercise Indeed, it might justifiably be argued that the scientific method has its origins in the discipline of theology.
This anthology will be a welcome addition to the collection of anyone who wants to find out more about Newman or simply learn about the fundamentals of Catholic doctrine. Those readers who are studying Newman may find it salutary, when reading one of Newman’s books, to read in conjunction an essay on this volume on a comparative topic. One of Newman’s greatest legacies may be his continuing ability to shape the minds and souls of his reader decades after his death.
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