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The Mind of Cardinal Newman Compiled by Charles Stephen Dessain
All booklets are published thanks to the generous support of the members of the Catholic Truth Society
CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY PUBLISHERS TO THE HOLY SEE
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Preface
These short passages from Cardinal Newman’s writings, organized under twenty themes, give a general view of the Christian message, as he has described it, and shown its relevance. The passages can also he dipped into and read at random for the light they throw on one or other aspect of the Good News. John Henry Newman found himself utterly convinced of the Truth of the Christian Revelation when he was fifteen years old, and gave himself up then with his whole heart to the pursuit of the Christian ideal. He became a lifelong champion of the Christian Faith, and what he had to say is found to have a wide appeal and to be very effective at the present day. Why is he still so influential? First; he builds on reliable foundations. He goes by facts, he is personal, he avoids what is abstract. He asks us to examine our conscience and see if it does not point 3
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to one with claims on us, which also makes us long for some clearer guidance. Is it not very likely that God has made himself known in a more direct way? And again, if he has done so, surely he must have provided a permanent guarantee that this precious knowledge will not be lost. Second; although he upholds the institution which preserves the life-giving Truth, he is neither legalistic nor authoritarian. What matters in the Church is the invisible part of it, God’s grace in the soul and its union with him. Newman is an open, liberal Catholic, very respectful of persons, and yet never playing down the mystery in Christianity. Third; he rings true, and is felt to be authentic. He will state the arguments against Christianity better than the unbelievers, before be attempts to reply. He was a man of integrity. When he was preaching and writing at Oxford, the highest prizes might have been his, had he been ready to stoop a little. In the end he sacrificed all he loved best in this world, once he was convinced that his wholehearted acceptance of Christianity made it necessary for him to become a Catholic. This he did at the age of forty-four, and again he paid the penalty: when he could not toe the extremist line of the moment. Had he swerved from his integrity then, he would have been without influence today. 4
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Lastly; he not only defended Christianity from outside attack. but also put before believers the Christian ideal in its fullness. His preaching and his books were all directed to ordinary men and women, lay people living in the world. He had full sympathy with their problems, but would not lower the standard of holiness, as these extracts will show. He has been described as saying: “If you have a religion like Christianity, think of it and have it worthily.” All the extracts here are taken from the works Newman himself published. Other books on this pattern could be drawn up from papers of his published since his death or from his correspondence. For all his seriousness as to the claims of God, his letters show how natural, cheerful and humorous he was. The cause for his canonization was introduced by the Archbishop of Birmingham in 1958, and Pope Paul VI has shown great interest in it. There are two short lives, Newman’s Journey, by Meriol Trevor, the Fontana library 1974, and John Henry Newman, by the present writer, A. and C. Black, second edition 1971. The former deals rather with the man, the latter rather with his teaching. Charles Stephen Dessain The Oratory, Birmingham 5
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Preface to the Second Edition
Father Stephen Dessain died unexpectedly on 31 May 1976. His death was a sad loss to students of Newman. Father Stephen was lavish in the amount of time he gave to assisting scholars with their books and theses. Newman scholars the world over also stand indebted to him for his editing of the Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman. Twentyone volumes covering the whole of the Catholic period of Newman’s life saw the light of day under his editorship. His editing of the Letters and Diaries also served another interest close to his heart - the advancement of the Cause of Cardinal Newman. After the centenary of the conferring of the Cardinalate, new scholars were found in 1979 to work on the Cause. The outcome has been that on 22 January 1991 John Henry Cardinal Newman was declared to have possessed the theological and cardinal virtues in an heroic degree, and thus is entitled to be called “Venerable.” 6
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It is hoped that this little volume of Newman extracts selected by Fr Dessain will continue to help to guide men and women in the English-speaking world to a surer hold on their Faith - and be a Kindly Light in the encircling gloom. Gregory Winterton March 1994, The Oratory, Birmingham
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Contents
1. The Experience of Conscience ..............................11 2. Conscience Leads to God.......................................15 3. We are Made for a God Who Loves Us ...............19 4. Our Need of Clearer Teaching...............................24 5. The Way to Faith ....................................................28 6. The Purpose of Creeds and Dogmas.....................34 7. The Church Protects the Revealed Message..........39 8. The Church, Visible and Invisible..........................45 9. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, One God .................51 10. Our Lord and Saviour ...........................................55 11. The Gift of the Spirit.............................................59 12. The Mass and the Sacraments ..............................63 13. The Reality of sin ..................................................69 14. Detachment, Surrender and Joy...........................74 15. The Prayer of Christians .......................................78 16. Purity and Influence .............................................82 17. The Blessed Virgin Mary ......................................88 18. Life in the World and Love for Others ................93 19. The Two Cities ......................................................98 20. The Last Things ...................................................103
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Abbreviations for Newman’s Works
Apo. Ari. Ath. I, II Call. D.A. Dev. Diff. I, II Ess. I, II G.A. H.S. I, II, III Idea Jfc. L.G. Mir. Mix.
Apologia pro Vita Sua The Arians of the Fourth Century Select Treatises of St Athanasius Callista, A Tale of the Third Century Discussions and Arguments on Various Subjects An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine Certain Difficulties felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching Essays Critical and Historical An Essay in aid of a Grammar of Assent Historical Sketches The Idea of a University defined and illustrated Lectures on the Doctrine of Justification Loss and Gain: the Story of a Convert Two Essays on Biblical and on Ecclesiastical Miracles Discourses Addressed to Mixed Congregations
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O.S. P.S. I-VIII Prepos. S.D. S.E. T.T. U.S. V.M. I, II
Sermons preached on Various Occasions Parochial and Plain Sermons Present position of Catholics Sermons bearing on Subjects of the Day Stray Essays on Controversial Points Tracts Theological and Ecclesiastical Fifteen Sermons preached before the University of Oxford The Via Media
These examples of Newman’s thinking have been taken from the uniform edition of his works, with the exception of Stray Essays, 1890, which he did not include in it. This uniform edition, which remained unchanged after Newman’s death in that year, was published by Longmans, Green and Co., until the stock was destroyed in World War II. It is being reprinted photographically by Christian Classics, Westminster, Maryland, 21157, U.S.A. Cases where a word or phrase has been omitted are marked thus ...
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1. The Experience of Conscience
Whether a man has heard the name of the Saviour of the world or not ... he has within his breast a certain commanding dictate, not a mere sentiment, not a mere opinion, or impression, or view of things, but a law, an authoritative voice, bidding him do certain things and avoid others. I do not say that its particular injunctions are always clear, or that they are always consistent with each other: but what I am insisting on here is this, that it commands, that it praises, it blames, it promises, it threatens, it implies a future, and it witnesses the unseen. It is more than a man’s own self. The man himself has no power over it, or only with extreme difficulty: he did not make it, he cannot destroy it. A Universal Phenomenon. O.S. 64
This is Conscience; and, from the nature of the case, its very existence carries on our minds to a being exterior to ourselves; for else whence did it 11
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come? and to a Being Superior to Ourselves; else whence its strange troublesome peremptoriness? I say, without going on to the question what it says ... its very existence throws us out of ourselves, to go and seek for him in the height and depth, whose voice it is. The significance of Conscience. O.S. 65
I say, then, that the Supreme Being is of a certain character which, expressed in human language, we call ethical. He has the attributes of justice, truth, wisdom, sanctity, benevolence and mercy, as eternal characteristics in his nature, the very law of his being, identical with himself; and next, when he became Creator he implanted this Law, which is himself, in the intelligence of all his rational creatures. Conscience the source of natural law. Diff. II, 246-47
Conscience is not a long-sighted selfishness, nor a desire to be consistent with oneself; but it is a messenger from him, who, both in nature and in grace, speaks to us behind a veil, and teaches and rules us by his representatives. Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ. The supremacy of Conscience. Diff. II, 248
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Conscience is a stern monitor, but in this century it has been superseded by a counterfeit, which the eighteen centuries prior to it never heard of, and could not have mistaken for it, if they had. It is the right of self-will. The enemy of Conscience. Diff. II, 250
I spoke just now of the scorn and hatred which a cultivated mind feels for some kinds of vice, and the utter disgust and profound humiliation which come over it, if it should happen in any degree to be betrayed into them. Now this feeling may have its root in faith and love, but it may not; there is nothing really religious in it, considered by itself. Conscience indeed is implanted in the breast by nature, but it inflicts upon us fear as well as shame; when the mind is simply angry with itself and nothing more, surely the true import of the voice of nature and the depth of its intimations have been forgotten, and a false philosophy has misinterpreted emotions which ought to lead to God. Fear implies the transgression of a law, and a law implies a lawgiver and a judge; but the tendency of intellectual culture is to swallow up the fear in the self-reproach, and self-reproach is directed and limited to our mere sense of what is fitting and becoming. A travesty of Conscience. Idea. 191
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I feel myself in his presence. He says to me, ‘Do this: don’t do that’. You may tell me that this dictate is a mere law of my nature, as is to joy or to grieve. I cannot understand this. No, it is the echo of a person speaking to me. Nothing shall persuade me that it does not ultimately proceed from a person external to me. It carries with it its proof of its divine origin. My nature feels towards it as towards a person. When I obey it, I feel a satisfaction; when I disobey, a soreness - just like that which I feel in pleasing or offending some revered friend. A description of Conscience. Diff. 314
The reflection of sky and mountains in the lake is a proof that sky and mountains are around it, but the twilight, or the mist, or the sudden storm hurries away the beautiful image, which leaves behind it no memorial of what it was ... Who can deny the existence of Conscience? Who does not feel the force of its injunctions? But how ... easily we can be talked out of our clearest views of duty! How does this or that moral precept crumble into nothing when we rudely handle it! How does the fear of sin pass from us, as quickly as the glow of modesty dies away from the countenance! And then we say it is all superstition. The fragility of Conscience. Idea. 514
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2. Conscience Leads to God
Were it not for this voice, speaking so clearly in my conscience and my heart, I should be an atheist, or a pantheist or a polytheist when I looked into the world. I am speaking for myself only; and I am far from denying the real force of the arguments in proof of a God, drawn from the general facts of human society and the course of history, but these do not warm or enlighten me. Fidelity to Conscience is the way to truth. Apo. 241
The system of physical causes is so much more tangible and satisfying than that of final, that unless there be a pre-existent and independent interest in the inquirer’s mind, leading him to dwell on the phenomena which betoken an intelligent Creator, he will certainly follow out those which terminate in the hypothesis of a settled order of nature and selfsustained laws. It is indeed a great question whether Atheism is not as philosophically consistent with the phenomena of the physical world, taken by 15
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themselves, as the doctrine of a creative and governing power. ‘Physical phenomena, taken by themselves’ that is, apart from psychological phenomena, apart from moral considerations, apart from the moral principles by which they must be interpreted, and apart from that idea of God which wakes up in the mind under the stimulus of intellectual training. We must have right moral dispositions. U.S. 194-95
Thus conscience is a connecting principle between the creature and his Creator; and the firmest hold of theological truths is gained by habits of personal religion ... Then they are brought into his presence as that of a living Person, and are able to hold converse with him, and that with a directness and simplicity, with a confidence and intimacy ... so that it is doubtful whether we realize the company of our fellow-men with greater keenness than these favoured minds are able to Contemplate and adore the unseen, incomprehensible Creator. A purified and sensitivised mind is needed. G.A. 117-18
This Word within us not only instructs us up to a certain point, but necessarily raises our minds to the idea of a Teacher, an unseen Teacher: and in proportion as we listen to that Word, and use it, not 16
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only do we learn more from it, not only do its dictates become clearer, and its lessons broader, and its principles more consistent, but its very tone is louder and more authoritative and constraining. And thus it is, that to those who use what they have, more is given; for, beginning with obedience, they go on to the intimate perception and belief of one God. His voice within them witnesses to him, and they believe his own witness about himself. They believe in his existence, not because others say it, not on the word of man merely, but with a personal apprehension of its truth. Only a delicate instrument can receive distant transmissions. O.S. 65-66
To believe in God, is to believe the being and presence of one who is all-holy, and all-powerful, and all-gracious; how can a man really believe thus of him, and yet make free with him? It is almost a contradiction in terms. Hence even heathen religions have ever considered faith and reverence identical. The consequence of belief. P.S. VIII, 5
Many is the time when they cannot tell how much that true inward Guide commands, and how much comes from a mere earthly source. So that the gill of conscience raises a desire for what it does not itself fully supply ... It creates in them a 17
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thirst, an impatience, for the knowledge of that Unseen Lord, and Governor, and Judge, who as yet speaks to them only secretly, who whispers in their hearts, who tells them something, but not nearly so much as they wish and as they need. Thus ... a religious man, who has not the blessing of the infallible teaching of revelation, is led to look out for it. Lord, that I may see. O.S. 66
The more a person tries to obey his conscience, the more he gets alarmed at himself, for obeying it so imperfectly ... But next, while he thus grows in selfknowledge, he also understands more and more clearly that the voice of conscience has nothing gentle, nothing of mercy in its tone. It is severe and even stern. It does not speak of forgiveness but of punishment. It suggests to him a future judgment; it does not tell him how he can avoid it. Those advance who are dissatisfied with themselves. O.S. 67
The guide of life, implanted in our nature, discriminating right from wrong, and investing right with authority and sway, is our Conscience, which revelation does but enlighten, strengthen and refine. Coming from one and the same Author, these internal and external monitors of course recognize and bear witness to each other. Conscience bows to the Voice of God in Revelation. H.S. III, 79
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