Catholicity and Heresy in the Early Church by Mark Edwards (review)

322 BOOK REVIEWS might also avail oneself of works of the Finnish school. Alister McGrath, more trenchant the more he reflects on the Lectures, observes, as does Sheridan, critical flaws in Newman's reading of Lutheran positions. Some elements are "seriously inaccurate," demonstrating "a standard of intellectual integrity which falls short of what one might have hoped to encounter" (McGrath, "Newman on Justification," 94). John Perry concludes similarly Gohn F. Perry, "Newman's Treatment of Luther in the Lectures on Justification," Journal of Ecumenical Studies 36 [1999]: 303-17). One sympathizes with McGrath's and Perry's criticisms of Newman's scholarship on Luther. To be clear, these criticisms cut in two directions. They both mitigate some of Newman's accusations against Luther (he did not wish to interpose faith, much less as some feeling, between Christ and the soul) and distance Luther from Newman's occasional reading of him in support of the Lectures' conciliating thesis: Luther indeed taught justificatio sola fide, contrary to Newman's attempt to call him to his aid (against sola fide) with a citation that omits by ellipsis Luther's most important precision (Lectures, XII, n. 11 [Longmans ed., 300£.]; see McGrath, "Newman on Justification," 101-5). Essentially the first of its kind, Jaki's monograph is a helpful Catholic complement to the scholarship of Perry, McGrath, and Sheridan. It is a marvelous commentary on the Lectures from a leading disciple of Newman who does not neglect a (once again, sympathetic) critique from the Catholic doctrinal perspective. It may prove more substantiated than some Catholic efforts to wield Newman without due regard for Tridentine doctrine. Most importantly, the monograph's scholarly erudition, theological acumen, and literary-interpretative skill make this work important reading for those involved or interested in ecumenical dialogues on justification. It is to be hoped that Jaki's labor will be given the attention it deserves and thereby direct even greater attention to Newman's own Lectures. The University ofDallas Irving, Texas CHRISTOPHER J. MALLOY Catholicity and Heresy in the Early Church. By MARK EDWARDS. Surrey, U.K.: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2009. Pp. 201. $29.95 (paper). ISBN: 9780 -7546-6297-6. "The phenomenon, admitted on all hands," writes John Henry Newman, "is this: That great portion of what is generally received as Christian truth is, in its rudiments or in its separate parts, to be found in heathen philosophies and religions" (Essays, vol. 2, as repeated in his Development ofDoctrine 2.8.2.12). BOOK REVIEWS 323 Newman's examples include the doctrine of the divine Word being Platonic and the doctrine of the Incarnation being Indian. If much of Christian truth can be found piecemeal outside of Christianity, would it be so disturbing to argue that various elements of that same truth were in heresy prior to orthodoxy? Mark Edwards, Lecturer in Patristics at Christ Church, Oxford, has written a challenging book that seems meant to disturb. It re-examines the role of heresy in the formation of early Christianity. Rather than simply being a catalyst for future development, Edwards argues, heresy actually served a positive role in formulating teachings that would be appropriated by future catholicity. Conversely, some tenets proposed by catholic writers to counter heretical claims would later be considered beyond orthodoxy's limits. It is a book, I think, that Newman would have read with interest. Contrasting his own approach with that found in the Essay on the Development ofDoctrine, Edwards faults Newman for preferring the notes of preservation of type and continuity of principle. For Edwards, neither one is satisfactory "since there is no early Christian movement which is demonstrably unfaithful to the type laid down by Jesus, and there is no hermeneutic or philosophic principle which yielded only heterodox logomachies without enlarging the catholic proclamation" (2). In place of Newman's preference, Edwards argues for the test of the assimilation of teachings "which to Newman himself seemed aberrant and unworthy of the name 'Christian"' (ibid.). Edwards does not explain himself more on this point, which is a pity as Newman offers the power of assimilation as the third note of true development. Writing on assimilation, Newman himself borrows an image from Jerome: "The Church...