The Third Spring: Chesterton, Greene, Dawson, Jones by Adam Schwartz (review)

The Third Spring is an informative,thoroughly researched introduction to the four writers in the title. Presented as an account of a movement towards Catholicism NEWMAN STUDIES JOURNAL 88 Hughes, “Newman and the Particularity of Conscience,” the reader is considering arguments between John Finnis and “an Aristotelian like Newman” (72). Terrence Merrigan later brings to expression“Newman’sAugustinianism”(112). But against the temptation to carry such tidy categorization too far, Merrigan focuses his essay, “Newman on Faith in the Trinity,” on arguing that Newman’s insights must be primarily treated as“seminal”(93) and on counseling against the temptation to place Newman in any tradition of systematic thought. Taking this path himself, Merrigan shows that the Grammar of Assent proves that Newman was an original thinker with respect to the doctrine of the Trinity and that his insistence that it is God’s threeness that properly enjoys a real assent from the believer frees Newman from Rahner’s claim that the faith of most Christians, and the character of most theology, is monotheistic. Newman is not just a follower of the Fathers of the Church; he“dared to be different” (116). This book is then a success according to its stated goals,but this is not to say that the success will be appreciated by everyone. These essays are the works of leaders in Newman studies and other related disciplines and, as such, represent the best research being done, but not necessarily the most accessible research. Backgrounds in Church history, philosophy, and modernism are supposed at various times. Furthermore, the lack of a bibliography and the fact, for example, that the first time the Apologia pro Vita Sua is cited, it is given as “Apo” in a footnote with no further comment, shows that this book is meant for an audience already familiar with the world of John Henry Newman. For those conversant in these areas, Newman and Faith is exemplary in its demonstration of how to bring Newman into present day discussions. This book is generally very well edited and thoroughly proofread, although several improvements could be made; for example, it would be respectful to assign a consistent if not correct spelling to Professor Jay’s first name, Elisabeth. Yet, on the whole Newman and Faith is an interesting read and a valuable research tool for scholars interested in Newman’s importance today in philosophy, theology, history, and literature. Michael Hickson The Catholic University of America The Third Spring: Chesterton, Greene, Dawson, Jones. Adam Schwartz. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2005. Pages xv + 414. Cloth, $64.95, ISBN 08132 -1387-8. THE THIRD SPRING: CHESTERTON, GREENE, DAWSON, JONES ADAM SCHWARTZ 89 from post-Christian modernism, the book is rather a collection of intellectual biographies of four twentieth-century Anglican converts to Catholicism. Schwartz emphasizes their conversions and subsequent syntheses of Catholicism with their own intellectual projects: the journalistic literary campaign of Chesterton, the novels of Greene, Dawson’s historical and cultural studies, and the aesthetic theories and poetry of Jones. The four sections, all of about equal length, are not mutually dependent; of them, the discussion of Dawson is most relevant to Newman studies, as Dawson was himself an important Newman scholar. Newman's conversion from the Church of England is invoked in each biography, but in a general way; Schwartz refers to “real” and “notional” knowledge occasionally and mentions some Newman titles, but makes no detailed analysis of Newman’s influence. Workmanlike framing devices link the studies: Schwartz examines each author's resistance to post-Christian culture in its utilitarian, progressivist, positivist, antitraditional , and dehumanizing disrespect for spiritual matters. Although materials for a full biography are not provided (Schwartz does not tell, for instance, if David Jones ever married or how he made his living), Schwartz describes the conversion of each subject in its origins and effects,according to the framework provided by“conversion theorists,” such as Walter Conn and Emilie Griffin. Schwartz then discusses each person as a“rebel”and a“prophet”—terms that need more profound definition—and then examines the way his attitude toward dogma affects each convert’s subsequent intellectual work.After telling how each celebrates the stability of Catholic teaching...