John Henry Newman: The Challenge to Evangelical Religion (review)

The continued interest in the life of John Henry Newman (1801-1890) is remarkable. One wonders why a nineteenth-century author should continue to attract so many biographers, who sometimes seem obsessive about investigating and interpreting even the most minor details of his life. Such microscopic interest has not been evident in the case of the other leaders of the Oxford Movement: John Keble (1792-1866), Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1882), or Richard Hurrell Froude (1803-1836). Nor has comparable attention been given to the lives of other Anglicans, who like Newman became Roman Catholics: Frederick Faber (1814-1863), William George Ward (1812-1882), and Newman's fellow cardinal, Henry Edward Manning (1808-1892). Yet in the century-plus since Newman's death (1890), dozens and dozens of biographers have drawn portraits of him—portraits varying from one biographer to the next.

One biography that is still very engaging is the two-volume work of Meriol Trevor (Newman: The Pillar of the Cloud, 1962; Newman: Light in Winter, 1963; and a one-volume condensation, Newman's Journey, 1974), whose fascination with the faith-journey of a fellow convert produced a compellingly readable narrative, though one lacking scholarly apparatus and critique. The latter lacuna has recently been supplied by the late Vincent Ferrer Blehl (Pilgrim Journey: John Henry Newman, 1801-1845, 2001), an editor of Newman's letters and a vice-postulator of his cause for beatification. In a more popular vein, Brian Martin (John Henry Newman: His Life and Work, 1982) has provided a short well-written biography, whose attractive narrative is enhanced by ample illustrations. Yet, if there is a definitive biography, it is probably that of Ian Ker (John Henry Newman:A Biography, 1988), who used Newman's own writings, especially his letters and diaries, to piece together a remarkable portrait of Newman as he would have wanted to be painted. Nonetheless, Newman continues to attract biographers, who wish to portray him from new and changing perspectives and so to the continually expanding list of Newman biographies is now added that of Frank M. Turner.

As a scholarly work, Turner's extensive endnotes (pp. 645-724) are exceptionally impressive in citing historical material of all types: both published and archival, both rare and well known, both nineteenth-century and recent. While regretting the absence of a bibliography, Newmanists will find a wealth of useful references in these notes. Nonetheless, there are some slips; for example: Lawrence Joseph Henry, whose dissertation at the University of Texas is described as "the most extensive discussion of the reception" of Newman's Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845), is misidentified as Henry Lawrence Joseph (p. 718, fn. 89). Also, the opinion that "... Newman's theology similarly led certain Roman Catholic clergy toward condemnation [as Modernists] by the highest authorities of their church" (p. 716, n. 61) is certainly debatable; rather, the so-called Roman Catholic Modernists seem to have elaborated their innovative theologies first and only then appealed to Newman's writings for support. A similar problematic appeal is detectable in Turner's work, whose citations sometimes do not really substantiate the interpretations in the text; but such flaws are part of a more substantial fault that ultimately undermines the scholarship of this volume.

At first sight, Turner's subtitle, "The Challenge to Evangelical Religion," seemingly promises a revisionist approach to the study of Newman's Anglican years (1801-1845); accordingly, readers may anticipate an elucidation of Newman's early espousal of evangelicalism, from which he later parted company, even though the separation was never total; readers may also expect an analysis of the different evangelical reactions to Newman and the Oxford Movement and vice versa, the attitudes of Newman and his fellow Tractarians toward various evangelicals. Such a treatment would have been a definite and distinctive contribution to Newman studies, since consideration...