Frank Sheed and Maisie Ward: Spiritual Writings by David Meconi, S.J. (review)

NEWMAN STUDIES JOURNAL 94 Newman’s life as a young Oriel fellow—his “cognitive conversion to AngloCatholicism ” (26–50)—which was a transition from the Noetic influence of his early Oriel mentors, Richard Whately and Edward Hawkins, to the guidance of the future co-leaders of the Tractarian movement: John Keble, Edward Pusey, and Hurrell Froude. Anglo-Catholicism might well have become Newman’s permanent home—as it was for Keble and Pusey—had it not been for a combination of ghosts from the past—his reflections on the Arian and Monophysite controversies—which helped convince Newman that the Roman Catholic Church was the true via media between Anglicanism and Protestantism; in addition were blows in the present—the virtual condemnation of Tract XC and the establishment of an Anglican-Lutheran bishopric in Jerusalem—which also helped convince Newman that Anglicanism had opted for Protestantism rather than Catholicism. Using well-selected excerpts from Newman’s Apologia, Autobiographical Writings, and Letters and Diaries, Conn expertly chronicles Newman’s “ecclesial conversion” which is “best understood as a moral (religious) decision responding to a judgment of personal conscience” (95). This description leads to a brief discussion of Newman’s life as a Roman Catholic with particular attention given to his views about conscience in his Grammar of Assent (1870) and Letter to the Duke of Norfolk (1875). Conn enumerates three dimensions of Newman’s view of conscience—desire, discernment, demand—while conceding that Newman “did not explicitly bring all three dimensions together into one integrated understanding of conscience as the fundamental cognitive-moralaffective -religious reality of the self reaching beyond self”(121). The book concludes with a short appendix that compares and contrasts the views of Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, James Fowler, and Robert Kegan in regard to conscience. On the whole, this short but well-researched and engagingly written book displays an admirable familiarity with both Newman’s writings and related secondary literature—evidenced by the wealth of bibliographical information in the endnotes. Although this book travels the well-known journey of Newman’s Anglican years, Newmanists will still find reading this book both informative and insightful. Yet, while Conn’s description of Newman’s multiple conversions is convincingly based on Newman’s own writings, the attempt to interpret his conversions in modern psychological paradigms of personal development at times seems a bit procrustean, or at least problematic. Conn, of course, seems quite aware of such a problem; as he concedes at the outset:“Conversion patterns vary significantly in different persons” (7). To say the least, Newman’s conversion journey was extraordinarily unique— which is why his Apologia continues to be fascinating reading; accordingly, Conn’s book is a worthwhile companion-piece. John T. Ford c.s.c. The Catholic University of America Frank Sheed and Maisie Ward: Spiritual Writings. Selected with an Introduction by David Meconi, S.J. Modern Spiritual Masters Series. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2010. Pages 190. Paper: ISBN 978–1–57075–887–4. $20.00. The Ward family had a three-generational connection with John Henry Newman. William George Ward (1812–1882), an exuberant advocate of the Oxford 95 Movement, was the author of The Ideal of a Christian Church (1844),1 whose proRoman Catholic stance resulted in the deprivation of both his Balliol fellowship and his Oxford degrees. Entering the Roman Catholic Church a month before Newman, Ward taught at St. Edmund’s,Ware and served as editor of the Dublin Review, whose Ultramontane positions sometimes collided with those of Newman. W. G. Ward’s son, Wilfrid (1856–1916), like his father, an editor of the Dublin Review, effected a posthumous rapprochement between his father and Newman through his biographies: William George Ward and the Oxford Movement2 plus William George Ward and the Catholic Revival3 and The Life of John Henry Cardinal Newman.4 Wilfrid Ward’s daughter Mary Josephine, universally known as “Maisie”(1889–1975),not only continued the Ward family’s literary vocation,but also its affiliation with Newman through her biography, Young Mr. Newman, a volume of nearly 500 pages that still provides engaging reading.5 A gifted writer and speaker, Maisie met Frank (Francis Joseph) Sheed (1897–1981), an Australian visitor...