Ex Umbris et Imaginibus in Veritatem “From Shadows and Images Into Truth”

EDITORIAL PREFACE 3 EX UMBRIS ET IMAGINIBUS IN VERITATEM “FROM SHADOWS AND IMAGES INTO TRUTH” JOHN HENRY NEWMAN’S MEMORIAL EPITAPH As his memorial epitaph,Newman selected the phrase—Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem—commonly translated: “From shadows and images into truth.”1 This epitaph, which was inscribed on his memorial plaque at the Birmingham Oratory, has, since 2001, the bicentennial of Newman’s birth, appeared on the “Newman Window” in Oriel College Chapel, Oxford, at the very place where Newman often prayed.2 This phrase also seems particularly significant on the occasion of Newman’s beatification—a recognition of his spirituality and sanctity. Anticipating his pastoral visit to the United Kingdom in mid-September, Pope Benedict XVI spoke to the bishops of England and Wales on February 1,2010,on the occasion of their visit ad limina to Rome and emphasized the contemporary challenge of Newman’s spiritual legacy: It is the truth revealed through Scripture and Tradition and articulated by the Church’s Magisterium that sets us free. Cardinal Newman realized this, and he left us an outstanding example of faithfulness to revealed truth by following that “kindly light” wherever it led him, even at considerable personal cost. Great writers and communicators of his stature and integrity are needed in the Church today, and it is my hope that devotion to him will inspire many to follow in his footsteps.3 After noting that considerable “attention has rightly been given to Newman’s scholarship and to his extensive writings,” Benedict emphasized Newman’s priestly ministry as an exemplar for today: I urge you to hold up to your priests his example of dedication to prayer,pastoral sensitivity towards the needs of his flock, and passion for preaching the Gospel. You yourselves should set a similar example. Be close to your priests, and rekindle their sense of the enormous privilege and joy of standing among the people of God as alter Christus [another Christ]. In Newman’s words, “Christ’s priests have no priesthood but His ...what they do,He does;when they baptize, He is baptizing; when they bless, He is blessing” (Parochial and Plain Sermons, 6:242).4 This,of course,is not the first time that Pope Benedict has paid tribute to Newman’s dual achievement as a person of reason and faith,a person whose life combined both the pursuit of truth and the pursuit of holiness.5 Newman’s life and thought 1 Many variations in translations are possible, since imagines can be translated: appearances, approximations, ideas, likenesses, phantoms, phantasms, symbols, etc. 2 Information about the “Newman Window” is available at: http://www.oriel.ox.ac.uk/content/161. 3 http://www.theanglocatholic.com/2010/02/pope-benedict-xvi-to-the-english-bishops/. 4 Ibid. 5 See Benedict XVI and Cardinal Newman,edited by Peter Jennings (Oxford:Family Publications,2005), reviewed in NSJ 4:2 (Fall 2007): 92–97. NEWMAN STUDIES JOURNAL 4 continue to speak to many people today; as his other famous motto states—cor ad cor loquitur—“heart speaks to heart.”6 CONTENTS The first pair of articles in this issue brings Newman into dialogue with two different partners. Adam Stewart revisits Newman’s dialogue with Andrew Martin Fairbairn about reason and skepticism that occurred in their articles published in The Contemporary Review in 1885. Then Robert Saley brings Newman into dialogue with Henri de Lubac in regard to the problem of reconciling contingent historical facts and immutable dogma. Saley points out that the historiographical models presented by Newman in his Essay on Development and by de Lubac in his Catholicism are contrasting, but complementary. The second pair of articles examines Newman’s Parochial and Plain Sermons. Marcin Kuczok’s essay begins with an overview of metaphor in cognitive linguistics as a way of understanding religious experiences and then illustrates Newman’s use of metaphor as a way of explaining the transcendental character of the Christian life in the first volume of his Parochial and Plain Sermons (1834). Alexander Miller then compares “the reasonableness of faith” in Newman’s Anglican sermon, “Religious Faith Rational” (1829), and his discussion of “simple assent” in his Grammar of Assent (1870); Miller thus suggests...