Conscience & Conversion in Newman. A Developmental Study of Self in John Henry Newman (review)

Walter Conn’s concise, interdisciplinary case study of Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman’s psychological self-development and conversions mines not only the English churchman’s relevant major works but also his private letters, diaries, and journals, which, to paraphrase Newman, reveal the true character of a man. Conn succeeds in his hope that “some readers will find it a useful review of Newman’s life” (p. 9), since it offers a specialized perspective, with well-chosen source references, surveying well-traveled ground. Tracking Newman’s various conversions chronologically, each of the four chapters opens with a discussion of the events and Newman literature of the period, followed by Conn’s use of psychological development theories from Erickson, Piaget, Kohlberg, Fowler, and Kegan to support his analyses of Newman’s various conversions, although to those unfamiliar with this literature, the brevity of the psychological analysis can be challenging reading at times. However, a helpful chart on the final page of the appendix compares the stages of each developmental theorist with the four conversion stages drawn from Conn’s prior research. Readers may profit by reading the very helpful appendix first, which provides a succinct overview of Conn’s previous research on conversion.

Conn’s thesis for interpreting Newman’s conversion experiences is grounded in the dynamic relationship of conscience, “the radical drive of the personal subject for self-transcendence” (p. 132), and basic conversion, “an ‘about-face’ which moves one into a new world” (p. 22). These occur within the subject’s fundamental dynamism for self-transcendence. Conn identifies Newman’s multiconversions as they unfolded chronologically in three stages. First was a “basic Christian moral conversion” with evangelical overtones at age fifteen, accompanied by “important affective, cognitive, and religious dimensions” (p. 8). This led to a “structural cognitive conversion” (p. 8) during his twenties, with changes in both what and how religious knowledge was acquired. Finally, Conn suggests a “new interpretation” of Newman’s “ecclesial conversion” as a “negative deconversion” from Anglicanism and a “positive conversion” to Rome at age forty-four, “best understood as a moral (religious) decision responding to a judgment of personal conscience . . . . after six painful years of reflection, discernment, and deliberation” (p. 8). The review of Newman’s Roman Catholic period (chap. 4) concludes with Conn’s elaboration of Newman’s nonsystematic development of his insights on conscience, which Conn summarizes as the threefold process of Augustinian desire, Aristotelian discernment, and Thomistic demand for the decision to act.

The brevity that affects the psychological analysis, however, appears to influence other notable aspects of the study, three of which deserve mention. First, theoretically, the aesthetic dimension of mind, which is the seat of the imagination, requires attention. For example, the works of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Viktor Frankl, in theology and psychology respectively, speak to the importance of this dimension of human experience. Although “imagination” is mentioned here, it is but the function of the aesthetic dimension of mind, an investigation of which would add to the study of conversion. Second, the Newman literature indicates that his lionhearted English self-will was the primary obstruction to his final conversion to Rome and deserves fuller examination. This is a prominent revelation, along with Newman’s aesthetic experience, in his very important diary notes during his participation in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1843—a critical year in Newman’s conversion process. The Exercises are mentioned here, but their effects on Newman are not explored. Third, Newman’s interpersonal relationships were so influential as to be virtually determinative of his various conversions. For example, Newman writes in the Apologia Pro Vita Sua that the Irish priest Charles Russell “had more to do with my conversion, perhaps, than anyone else.”¹ Yet Russell is mentioned only in passing.

A broader exploration of these major aspects...