John Henry Newman: Heart Speaks to Heart

NEWMAN STUDIES JOURNAL BOOK REVIEW JOHN HENRY NEWMAN: HEART SPEAKS TO HEART BY LAWRENCE CUNNINGHAM 111 John Henry Newman: Heart Speaks to Heart. By Lawrence S. Cunningham. New York: New City Press, 2004. Pp: 127. Paper, $13.95, ISBN 1-56548-193-3. In this anthology of John Henry Newman’s writings, Lawrence S. Cunningham, the John A. O’Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, uses the following words to describe Newman’s great legacy:“In this long life of controversy, aborted schemes, stunning publication, zealous pastoral work, and public honors, it must be kept in mind that Newman worked as a simple priest . . .” (16). Based on Cunningham’s tremendous depth of insight into Newman’s complicated life and thought, and also because of the uncomplicated, imaginative way in which Cunningham organizes and presents selections from Newman’s preaching and writing, this anthology itself deserves to be regarded as nothing less than a “stunning publication.” This modest-sized work is presented in five major parts. The first is Cunningham’s insightful and informative introduction, which displays a thorough familiarity with Newman and Newman studies and prepares the reader to appreciate the original passages that follow. In the introduction, Cunningham accomplishes three important tasks. First, he presents a concise biographical sketch of Newman’s life, which details the major stages of Newman’s spiritual conversions, highlights the activities and controversies that were products of Newman’s personal religious commitments, and contextualizes historically Newman’s many writing projects, including all of his major publications. Second, Cunningham offers penetrating insight into Newman’s personal spirituality, which is the primary focus of the anthology. For Cunningham,“there is something unique about his [Newman’s] spiritual writings” (17).This uniqueness is not so much captured in Newman’s theological and epistemological writings as it is in those he generated in virtue of his roles as “preacher, priest and spiritual writer” (17). Cunningham notes, “It is in his sermons, devotional reflections, occasional prayers,hymnody,letters of direction,and meditations that we must look to glean his attitude toward spirituality” (18). The deep, interior spirituality that Newman experienced personally and that he encouraged others to cultivate“brings a range of changes that makes . . . a person sober, kind, gentle, courteous, candid, without pretense or affection or ambition” (18). Describing the spiritual outcome of living according to these values, Cunningham observes that “Such a person lives with the constant sense of being under God’s eye. Such a person, to borrow from the old monastic vocabulary, possesses ‘purity of heart’” (18). For Cunningham, Newman’s unique brand of spirituality—unlike that of many of his Roman Catholic contemporaries—was not particularly touched by the “methodology of NEWMAN STUDIES JOURNAL 112 scholasticism” (20) or by the “exuberant piety of baroque Catholicism” (23); rather, it was characterized by a genuine “call to holiness,” a spiritual posture more consistent with Newman’s “Anglican days” (25). Finally, Cunningham provides an explanation of the criteria he used for selecting texts from Newman’s original writing:“It is not for the elegance of the language that one feels free to take out parts of these homilies as meditative texts. It is, rather, a matter of lucid exposition, deeply felt religious sentiment, and solid doctrine that make them a resource for anyone who wishes to meditate (which is to say,ruminate) on scriptural reflection that leads to prayer” (26). It is very clear that Cunningham’s primary intention in choosing pieces from Newman’s work was to supply the “meditative reader” with passages that could be used for “devotional reading or selfexamination ” (27). Cunningham’s introduction is followed by four sections that present passages from Newman’s original writings under the following headings:“Hymns and Prayers”; “Prayers and Meditations on the Blessed Virgin Mary”; “Texts for Meditation”; and “Devotion to the Saints.”These pieces are largely drawn from Newman’s Meditations and Devotions and his Plain and Parochial Sermons.There are also passages from The Idea of a University, University Sermons, and Apologia pro Vita Sua. In the Introduction Cunningham details the impressive cross-referencing process he employed to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the original texts. Persons familiar with Newman...