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NEWMAN STUDIES: RECENT RESOURCES AND RESEARCH DURING HIS LIFETIME, John Henry Newman captivated the attention of a multitude of readerssimultaneously attracting admirers and antagonizing adversaries. For example, Maria Pusey (the wife of Edward Pusey, Newman's onetime colleague in the Oxford Movement ) once remarked: ... there are some things that come to one as truth as soon as they are proposed, and those are the things one really believes unhesitatingly . Mr. Newman's ... sermons are full of truths of [this] sort, and perhaps that is one reason why I so like them.1 In contrast is the animosity that prompted Newman to write his Apologia Pro Vita Sua in reply to Charles Kingsley's gratuitous insult: Truth for its own sake has never been a virtue of the Roman clergy. Father Newman informs us that it need not, and on the whole ought not, to be; that cunning is the weapon which Heaven has given the saints wherewith to withstand the brute male force of the wicked world which marries and is given in marriage.2 Such reactions are characteristic; as David DeLaura has observed: Newman is in fact the one nineteenth-century figure most difficult to discuss dispassionately. His persuasive power is still felt to be either a flagrant danger or a rich source of wisdom.3 1 Marvin O'Connell, The Oxford Conspirators, A History of the Oxford Movement , 1833-1845 (New York: Macmillan; London: Collier-Macmillan, 1969), p. 217. O'Connell's book, with its detailed explanations of Oxford University practices and procedures in the nineteenth century, furnishes a _helpful background for understanding Newman's role in the Oxford Movement. •Susan Chitty, The Beast and the Monk: A Life of Charles Kingsley (New York: Mason/Charter, 1975), p. 229. 8 D. DeLaura, "Newman's Apologia as Prophecy," in DeLaura's edition of Newman 's Apologia Pro Vita Sua (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1968), p. 498. 288 ~84 JOHN T. FORD, C.S.C. De Laura's appraisal has validity, not only in the area of biography and literary criticism, but also in relation to Newman's philosophy and theology. During his lifetime, Newman's theological views were often considered deceptive, if not dangerous. While he was at Oxford , his theological positions were frequently disowned by his fellow Anglicans; indeed, Kingley's acerbic criticism, coming nearly two decades after Newman's conversion to Roman Catholicism, is an indication of deeply rooted suspicions about his theological integrity. Yet Newman's theological reputation fared little better as a Roman Catholic; his theological endeavors were puzzling, if not suspect, as far as most professional theologians were concerned; in fact, his orthodoxy was long in question at the Vatican.4 The Anglican rejection of Newman's efforts to re-catholicize the Church of England is readily understandable as a Protestant reaction against "Romanism." More puzzling, however, are Roman Catholic hesitations about Newman's theological inquiry. First of all, Newman's way of theologizing, relying on an analogical, historical process of reflection, differed radically from the systematic, speculative approach then coming into vogue in Roman Catholic circles. In effect, this divergence was sort of a methodological "generation gap," resembling the different orientations in Roman Catholic theology before--in contrast to after-Vatican Il.5 Moreover, Newman's deviation from the then conventional theological mainstream was interpreted by ecclesiastical authorities as haughty at best, if not heretical at base. Yet Newman's theological alienation was not merely an ecclesiastical quarrel: Above all, the conflict was between a patient, deeply inquiring mind that wanted undecided questions left open and an impatient, intolerant spirit that regarded open questions as untidy, to be turned •Details on one instance are given by Vincent Biehl, "Newman's Delation," The Dublin Review 234/486 (Winter, 1960-61), 296-305. •Wolfgang Klausnitzer, Piipstliche Unfehlbarkeit bei Newman und Dollinger, Ein historisch-systematischer Vergleich, lnnsbrucker theologische Studien 6 (InnsbruckVienna -Munich: Tyrolia, 1980,) pp. 203-215. RECENT NEWMAN STUDIES ~85 as soon as possible into static formulas that could be imposed as matters of faith.8 Accordingly, it is not surprising that Newman opposed the rising tide of ultramontane theology that looked to Rome for dogmatic answers to any and every theological question...

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