Book Review: John Henry Newman: His Inner Life by Father Zeno

John Henry Newman: His Inner Life by Father Zeno

As a life-long Newman scholar, Father Zeno had access to all of John Henry Newman's writings, both published and unpublished. This biography presents Newman's whole history and includes many insights into his attitudes and decisions as well as the attitudes of others towards him. 

John Henry Newman was born in 1801 to Anglican parents. He grew up struggling with his faith until he was fifteen years old. He had a conversion experience that deepened his faith. He went to Oxford and was ordained. At the time, the Anglican Church was in decline. Newman spearheaded a renewal of faith in England called the Oxford Movement. The group studied the faith seriously, including the Church Fathers (the great teachers and writers of the first few hundred years of Christianity). As he studied more, Newman came to see the Anglican Church as a splinter group off of the Church founded by Christ, which more and more looked like the Roman Catholic Church. After much internal struggle and debate with friends, Newman converted to Catholicism in 1845. He spent the rest of his life as a Catholic priest and an intellectual force for the faith. He was encouraged to look for an order that would suit him and he adopted St. Philip Neri's Oratorians. They lived in small communities and lived both an intellectual and educational vocation (much like the Oxford Movement). He established the first Oratories in England even though he felt he had few administrative skills. He was also asked to start a Catholic university in Dublin and to work on many other projects that took him away from his writing and preaching. He had many doubts about what to do and had to deal with several controversies.

As Zeno traces Newman's history, he uses Newman's writings and the writings of others to give deeper insight into Newman's actions and character. Newman was smart, sensitive, and scrupulous. He was aware of different perspectives on issues which made his decision-making process uncertain. He saw good and bad possible results from his decisions so me made them very carefully. He tried not to offend others and believed in the importance of obedience, not just to one's own conscience but more importantly to those with authority over oneself. His submission to legitimate authority and his long-suffering patience are inspiring. 

The Oxford Movement was, in large part, an attempt to bring back the good parts of pre-Reformation Christianity, leading the movement initially into "High Church" Anglicanism. Many in the movement, like Newman, kept moving all the way into the Catholic Church. Newman struggled greatly in his thoughts and with his friends about converting. He came to the point where he could not honestly deny that the church of Rome is the true church of Christ. Many of his decisions and actions followed this same pattern where he would get to the point of certitude by a meticulous process of discernment. Newman's intellectual honesty and intense piety are also an inspiring example.

This book does a flawless job in blending Newman's history with his personal character. The discussions of controversies and theological conundrums does not get too technical or hard to follow. This is a great biography of a fascinating saint.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: The Heart of Newman ed. by Erich Przywara, S.J.

The Heart of Newman: A Synthesis Arranged by Erich Przywara, S.J., with a forward by Joseph Pearce

This anthology of longer quotes from the writings of John Henry Cardinal Newman covers the wide swath of his career, including selections from sermons and more formal writings. The writings are grouped in thematic sets, covering topics like faith, God and His various relations to us, our relationship to this fallen world and to the next world. Most selections are only a page or two and all contain some nice insights or ideas.

Newman's writing style is very down-to-earth. He communicates ideas, even difficult ones, with a clarity and simplicity that does not have the Victorian stuffiness you'd expect from a British theologian from the mid- to late-1800s. His work is very easy to read and still has a richness that calls the reader to a deeper understanding of the faith. The individual selections are short enough to make this a good daily devotional (though that's not the way it is written), letting the reader spend some quality time with a great thinker and a holy Christian.

Highly recommended.

Sample Text:

The real love of man must depend on practice, and therefore, must begin by exercising itself on our friends around us, otherwise it will have no existence. By trying to love our relations and friends, by submitting to their wishes, though contrary to our own, by bearing with the their infirmities, by overcoming their occasional waywardness by kindness, by dwelling on their excellences, and trying to copy them, thus it is that we form in our hearts that root of charity, which, though small at first, may, like the mustard seed, at last even overshadow the earth. [p. 254]

Book Review: Mary: The Virgin Mary in the Life and Writings of John Henry Newman

Mary: The Virgin Mary in the Life and Writings of John Henry Newman edited with an introduction and notes by Philip Boyce

John Henry Newman was an Anglican priest who was part of the Oxford Movement, a group of High Church ministers who wanted to reinstate more ancient Christian traditions within the Church of England. Newman studied the Church Fathers (theological writers from the first five centuries A.D.), which was a factor in his conversion to Catholicism in 1845. He had a devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, even before his conversion. The mid-1800s saw the declaration of the Immaculate Conception as dogma of the Catholic Church, so there was plenty of debate inside and outside of the Roman Catholic Church about whether Mary was born without sin, among other issues around Mary. Protestants thought Catholics give too much credit and honor to Mary. Newman entered into such debates in his writings.

This book has two parts. The first part is an extended introduction where Philip Boyce gives a brief biography of Newman and a more in-depth survey of Newman's thoughts on the Blessed Virgin Mary. Boyce discusses the growth from Newman's Anglican period through his Catholic times. Newman does not change his mind or repudiate what he said earlier. He develops deeper devotion to God and thereby to Mary as the Mother of God. He discusses her as the New Eve (a topic popular with the Church Fathers), her motherhood to Jesus, her Immaculate Conception and her Assumption, and her role interceding with Jesus on our behalf.

The second part of the book contains various excerpts from Newman's writings organized according to categories. First are formal sermons Newman gave throughout his life, many from Marian feasts like the Annunciation on March 25. The second category is theological reflections, taken from sermons, books, and letters. The final category is poems and meditations. The final bit is a set of thirty-one reflections for the month of May. 

Newman is a fine author. His texts are very clear and very literary. He persuades with an ease and certainty born of his scholarship and his spiritual life. The book works both as an introduction to Newman and a collection of spiritual insights on the Blessed Virgin Mary. I found a lot to treasure here.

Highly recommended.

Sample text, on the relationship of the Assumption to the Immaculate Conception:

All the works of God are in beautiful harmony; they are carried on to the end as they begin. Tis the the difficulty which men of the world find in believing miracles at all; they think these break the order and consistency of God's visible word, not knowing that they do but subserve a higher order of things, and introduce a supernatural perfection. But at least, my brethren, when one miracle is wrought, it may be expected to draw others after it for the completion of what is begun. [pp. 160-161]