The Convert Cardinals. John Henry Newman and Henry Edward Manning by David Newsome (review)

BOOK REVIEWS127 Again, the telling documents are not available, but Wolf makes a credible case that Kuhn was under investigation less because ofhis theological stance— which few but German professors of theology would read and understand— and more because he was caught in die politics of Rome which was anxious to repudiate any connection widi die modern world. Kuhn was spared condemnation , according to Wolf, not on the merits of his own dieological position but because die Jesuits connected to the Congregation of die Holy Office (and its most powerful members) were unwüling to concede victory to die Redemptorists who had been Kuhn's accusers. Of course, again, diis remains speculation. The records that would prove it have not been found. Even widi a one-sided documentation, however, diis is the well told story of the nineteendi-century power struggle witiiin Roman Catholicism as it played out in and affected the lffe of one man, Johannes von Kuhn. That man dedicated his life to a Church that was stUl so shaken by die hostility of the Enlightenment and French Revolution that it was skeptical of any attempt to deal widi die modern world. It was also a Church diat turned most harshly on any of its own who tried to address diat modern world. It is die story of one of diose who tried to speak die Gospel in a language its despisers might better understand. Kuhn wanted to serve what he believed to be Truth found within Roman Catholicism. He denounced otiiers when they strayed from the path he thought he saw clearly. When his own diought came under scrutiny and he narrowly escaped condemnation himself, Kuhn never wrote again, never raised his voice again. Even with the declaration of papal infallibility which he had opposed long before its definition, Kuhn wrote not, spoke not. One cannot help but wonder what might have been Kuhn's story had he chosen to speak. Wolf does an exceUent job of portraying the intellectual currents of die time and die intellectual story of this one man who was caught in those currents. In the end, however, die story points to another trudi that transcends the time in which it is written: die intrigue of a church bent on preserving and protecting itself in a changing world—a world it refuses to recognize— and die pain that church causes in its own ranks when it attempts to measure aU diought by one system of diought. This is die poignant story of a man who tried to speak die Gospel in his time only to discover, as had and would many otiiers, that his diought was found wanting by the very church he was attempting to serve. Adam Bunnell, O.F.M.Conv. Washington Theological Union The Convert Cardinals. John Henry Newman and Henry Edward Manning. By David Newsome. (London: John Murray. 1993. Pp. xii, 418.) The Convert Cardinals is a fascinating and admirable double biographical study. David Newsome has previously distinguished himselfin the biographical 128BOOK REVIEWS genre with studies of die WUberforces and ofA. C. Benson. But die formidable goal of treating botii Newman and Manning, both long-lived giant-figures of great achievements, in die same volume makes Newsome's success here aU the more remarkable. He undertook this study in part because the reputations of the two English cardinals have for many been "finalized" and polarized for over a century. It is an indictment of die disciples of botii men diat Newsome was compelled to write an introductory chapter of twenty-one pages to establish the validity of sketches that are neidier abuse nor panegyric. Some Newmanians in recent decades have made objective, balanced scholarship difficult with their insistence on almost unqualified adulation and protectiveness and reliance almost exclusively on Newman's own words and selfjudgments . David Newsome is neither a Newmanian, nor a Manningite, nor a Roman Cadiolic, but a balanced admirer and critic of botii Newman and Manning. And he uses many other sources than diese two men for his characterizations and judgments. They are nicely placed in tiieir historical contexts, which the reader is surprised to find are often very simUar. This joint study is broadly and...