We are all certain that Great Britain is an island. But, John Henry Newman asked, why are we so sure? How many of us can say we have seen for ourselves by circumnavigating it? And yet, we believe it with certainty, all the same.
In An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent, the 19th-century thinker questioned the sources to which we assign authority. When it comes to much of our knowledge, we are at the “mercy” of those before us who first passed it down. We accept most of what we know about life — not just religion — on faith.
Newman was hugely influential, both in the Anglican Church he left and the Catholic one he joined. Claimed by both conservatives and liberals, the theologian and poet is now becoming a saint.
On Tuesday, Pope Francis approved Newman’s canonization. He was known for helping found Ireland’s largest university, writing poems such as “Lead Kindly Light,” and influencing the Second Vatican Council that took place decades after his death. The cardinal’s simultaneously orthodox and reformist theology developed through his evolution from evangelical Calvinist to Anglican priest to Catholic cardinal. Some writers argue that Newman ended up too liberal, while others praise his “war on liberalism.”
As an Anglican, Newman led the Tractarian movement, a reintroduction of medieval traditions into the liturgy. He was traditional, but ecumenicism was his achievement. In one of the tracts from which the movement got its name, Newman argued that the Catholic Church’s doctrines, laid out in the Council of Trent, were compatible with the Church of England’s 39 Articles.
Since his death in 1890, Newman has become much more popular, but a debate still continues as to whether he was traditional and conservative or radical and progressive. Newman dodged clear-cut theological labels, earning the title “the most dangerous man in England.” In a letter to the archbishop of Westminster, Monsignor George Talbot, a secretary of Pope Pius IX, not only characterized Newman as dangerous but also criticized his heresy “on consulting the laity on matters of faith.”
He maintained the importance of participation from the people in the pews and open theological thinking. Yet he championed the idea of objective, eternal truth. This dichotomy in his theology may be best summed up in his own words: Newman believed because “old principles reappear under new forms,” the church changes “in order to remain the same.”
