Prophets, Guardians, and Saints: Shapers of Modern Catholic History by Owen F. Cummings (review)

NEWMAN STUDIES JOURNAL 88 understand who a person really is and especially how that person develops his or her ideas.1 On the outside as bishop—a role which he accepted reluctantly but to which he gave himself unstintingly—he was caricatured as “the blunt, outspoken, snufftaking Yorkshireman, who dropped his h’s and stood firmly on a rather rigid set of self-imposed principles” (508); there is no doubt he was and needed to be a tough bird. However, he was a consummately pastoral bishop, who was on top of things and called for proper order in the life of his diocese. He responded to some situations not only by doing, but also by writing books, that demonstrated his knowledge and respect of the Church Fathers. He was a man of action but also a man of prayer, and advised others on the importance of prayer. The Benedictine life as ruled by Benedict himself combined the missionary and the contemplative; Ullathorne deeply involved himself in both. As one would expect, Ullathorne interrelated with—either in person or in writing to or about—many of the famous of the time: politicians like O’Connell and Gladstone;churchmen such as Pope Pius IX,Henry Edward Manning,Paul Cullen,and John Henry Newman; and other lights like Pugin, and perhaps Mary Ann Evans— better known as George Eliot,some of whose books he read—just to name a few. The great and the small of Australian and English life were integral to the biography of William Bernard Ullathorne, OSB. He had his battles as well as cordial relations with many of these and other persons of his time, especially Newman with whom there was mutual love and respect and influence. Rather than give away anymore details of Ullathorne’s life, the reviewer urges as many as possible to read Champ’s portrayal. It is a very balanced account of the man—much better than Butler’s biography2 —that does not hold back on critiques both of Ullathorne or of those who misjudged him. Champ has given the reader much of Ullathorne’s own words, whether personal or professional, so that one can get to know him in all his dimensions. She has used her primary and secondary resources very well and offers readers the necessary technical apparatus for these resources to pursue further their own research in the life of this fascinating man. Edward J. Enright, OSA Villanova University Prophets, Guardians, and Saints: Shapers of Modern Catholic History. By Owen F. Cummings. New York: Paulist Press, 2007. Pages: viii+ 197. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 978–0–8091–4446–4. In 1969, Meriol Trevor published Prophets and Guardians: Renewal and Tradition in the Church, an examination of the modern liberal tradition in the Church. Modernists and ultramontanes came under scrutiny as the author mixed biographical sketches with theological views. Owen Cummings, Regents Professor of Theology at Mount Angel Seminary in St. 1 Newman to Jemima Newman (18 May 1863) in Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman, ed. C. Stephen Dessain et al. (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 20:443; also John Henry Newman, Historical Sketches, 3 vols. (London: Longmans, Green and Co.) 2: 221. 2 Don Cuthbert Butler, The Life & Times of Bishop Ullathorne, 1806–1889 (New York, Benziger, 1926). 89 Benedict, Oregon, directly acknowledges his debt to Trevor as he adopts her methodology, point of view and many of the same topics. Believing that Church history can be understood by a study of individuals, he devotes chapters to: Johann Adam Möhler; Isaac Hecker; Baron von Hügel; Popes Pius IX, Leo XIII, Pius X; St. Therese and of course, John Henry Newman. Cummings’ interest is how these nineteenth-century Catholics did or did not advance ideas for reform and renewal in the Church. His principle of selection—why one individual is chosen and not another—is unclear. For Cummings,the church is a communion embracing prophets (progressives) and guardians (conservatives). The author’s sympathies clearly are with the former. Of the eleven chapters, two are devoted to Newman: one with a biographical sketch and sections on Newman as an educator, churchman and a man; a second chapter joins Newman,the preacher,to...