Newman’s Parochial and Plain Sermons “Found a Response in the Hearts and Minds and Consciences of Those to Whom They Were Addressed”

EDITORIAL PREFACE 3 NewmaN’s PAROCHIAL AND PLAIN SERMONS “fouNd a respoNse iN the hearts aNd miNds aNd coNscieNces of those to whom they were addressed.” W. J. COPELAND (15 MAY 1868) After the success of his Apologia pro Vita Sua (1864), John Henry Newman decided to republish some of his Anglican writings. Such republication, however, prompted an editorial question: should he republish his Anglican writings as they were originally written, even though they expressed positions that he no longer held? Or should he re-write those publications, which would mean significant modifications to their original form? He chose the later option in the case of An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845), which he extensively revised before its republication in 1878.1 In contrast,he was able to exercise the first option by prevailing upon his Anglican friend,William John Copeland (1804–1885), to serve as editor of both his Parochial and Plain Sermons and his Sermons on Subjects of the Day. Copeland, a Scholar and Fellow of Trinity College—Newman’s undergraduate college at Oxford—began serving as Newman’s curate at Littlemore in 1840. A committed Tractarian, as well as an excellent Latinist, Copland published Hymns for the Week, and Hymns for the Seasons, Translated from the Latin in 1848.2 The following year, he was named Rector of the Anglican Church at Farnham in Essex, where he served for the rest of his life. After saying farewell to Newman at Oxford in February 1846, a chance meeting in London on 3 June 1862 led to the renewal of their friendship and eventually to Copeland’s editorship of Newman’s sermons.3 As Copeland remarked in his editorial preface to the first volume of Newman’s Parochial and Plain Sermons, the republication of these Sermons by the Editor is not to be considered as equivalent to a reassertion by their Author of all that they contain; inasmuch as, being printed entire and unaltered, except in the most insignificant particulars, they cannot be free from passages which he certainly now would wish were otherwise, or would, one may be sure, desire to see altered or omitted.4 However, what was much more important than a new edition of Newman’s sermons was the rationale for their republication. Copeland eloquently described the threefold appeal of Newman’s sermons: 1 See Gerard McCarren, “Are Newman’s ‘Tests’ or ‘Notes’ of Genuine Doctrinal Development Useful Today?,” Newman Studies Journal 1:2 (Fall 2004): 48–61. 2 See: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/c/o/p/copeland_wj.htm. 3 For brief biographical information on Copeland, see The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman 3:338, 11:337. 4 Parochial and Plain Sermons 1:viii–ix,available at:http://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/ volume1/index.html#preface; hereafter cited: PPS. NEWMAN STUDIES JOURNAL 4 They met, at that time, very real and great moral, intellectual, and spiritual needs of man,—in giving depth and precision and largeness to his belief and apprehension of the mysteries of God,and seriousness and accuracy to his study and knowledge of himself, of his own nature, with its manifold powers, capacities, and responsibilities, and of his whole relation to the supernatural and unseen.They found a response in the hearts and minds and consciences of those to whom they were addressed, in marvellous proportion to the affectionate and stirring earnestness with which their Author appealed to the conscious or dormant sense of their needs, and his zealous and energetic endeavours, under God’s blessing,to show,in every variety of light,how the grand central Verities of the Christian Dispensation, entrusted as the good “Deposit,” to the Church, were revealed and adapted to supply them.5 While the spiritual richness and moral persuasiveness of Newman’s sermons have long been recognized, at times their essentially theological foundation has been neglected. As Copeland emphasized, Newman’s sermons were grounded on “the grand central Verities of the Christian Dispensation”—the central truths of Christian revelation. Thus, readers of Newman’s sermons are invited, indeed challenged, not only to sense the spiritual message, not only to conform their lives to the dictates of conscience, but also...