Since It's Sunday
Two weeks from today, amid the rolling green hillocks of Cofton Park, just outside Birmingham, Benedict XVI will beatify John Henry Cardinal Newman, the nineteenth century scholar, polemicist, and churchman. Conrad Black, writing in the National Post:
Pope Benedict XVI is one of the greatest intellects who has held that office in several centuries, a man of great philosophical scholarship, rigour and originality, as well as an accomplished writer, linguist, practical administrator and musician. His visit to Britain this month is to render homage to a man he regards as an intellectual giant, endowed with a character of comparably exceptional quality, which he believes, on the evidence of ecclesiastical scrutiny, has been recognized and amplified by divine blessings. Those who share that faith are uplifted by Newman’s intelligence and character. Those who do not should at least be aware that in his lifetime and in the 120 years since his death, Newman has carried the British colours in his spheres of endeavour with a brilliance, panache and durability that has put him in, or close to, the company of history’s most distinguished Englishmen, the exalted realm of Shakespeare and Churchill. John Henry Newman is being elevated for a rare fusion of genius and virtue that does great honour to his country, but transcends nationality, denomination and religion itself.
For more on the papal visit to England, click here.
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Jul '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
As anyone who has been to a Catholic Newman Center on any college campus, if that ain't the truth, nothing is.
May '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
Transcends religion itself? In what sense?
One of my professors graduate school opened his course on Newman's philosophy (one of the very best and most formative courses ever) by saying, "What St. Augustine was to the ancient Church, and what St. Thomas Aquinas was to the medieval Church, Newman is to the modern Church."
The more I study him, the more convinced I become of the truth of that statement. Newman encountered modernity at its inception, wrestled with it, assimilated all its truth and refuted all its errors before the rest of the world had woken up from the dream of scientific progressivism.
One of the things he predicted (toward the end of the 19th century), incidentally, is that the Angelican Church would collapse and disappear within 100 years. He also predicted a second great ecumenical council in the Catholic Church.
Aug '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
Perhaps the beatification of John Henry Cardinal Newman signals--with this current pope--the return to selective canonization of serious candidates for capital-"S" Sainthood. The case for Newman is long overdue: at last a man--and a man worth emulating. What's more, Newman left a body of written work that we may all enjoy as it will surely become further popularized. Pope Benedict XVI's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, seemed to have a discouraging vision and penchant, inappropriate in character and excess, for an awkwardly feminized and hyper-maternalized Catholicism that expressed itself in the Church's approach to ecumenism, social justice, globalism and peace. Benedict has failed to completely exonerate himself of similar problems in leadership, as evidenced in his Encyclical, Love in Truth. This selection of Newman is certainly a step in the right direction.
Jul '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
All I'm saying is that his legacy at Universities is not one to be proud of. Newman Centers are typically engaged in Social and Economic Justice. I fail to see the reason "miracle" for his Beatification. In truth, issues such as these are the reason for some conservatives taking issue with Catholicism.
May '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
It happens that JP II, too, was great admirer of Newman, and eagerly looked forward to his beatification. Philosophically, Newman and JP II have many themes in common, including their profound explorations of the mystery of subjectivity and individuality, and their analyses of the right relation between Faith and Reason.
Michael Tee, surely you don't blame Newman for what goes on at centers named after him? Do we blame St. Ignatius for what's become of the Jesuits?
I think if you read Newman's writings, or studied his life, you'd have no difficulty understanding why the Church so honors him.
Aug '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
There is much, indeed, that is correct in what you say. Although it is true, it is no excuse, that the general leadership in these Newman Centers is most likely ignorant of Newman. This is where the predominant influence of certain elements in the Church as-it-is in recent decades--including the large impact that John Paul II, nuns gone wild, "gay" priests and Leftism in general--has seeped into every one of its parts. These are, most likely, the real adversaries of conservatism whom with you contend. But who knows, perhaps as we learn more of Newman in conversation against the backdrop of present events, I will change my opinion of him and see the political behavior of Newman centers as more than accidentally related to their namesake. In this case, maybe it is best to leave Newman as simply beatified. This is further reason for canonization being a very slow process.
Edited on Sep 5, 2010 at 6:02pmMay '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
David and Michael, the travesty occurring at so many Newman Centers is no more "Newman's legacy" than sound pollution around the airport named in his honor is "Reagan's legacy".
Newman considered the central theme of life as a Christian and an leading intellectual in 19th century England a battle against "liberalism in religion".
Aug '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
Good point.
May '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
I'm ashamed to admit I haven't read much Newman aside from the occasional excerpt in First Things. But Father Neuhaus adored him, and that's enough reason for me to be interested. Where would y'all recommend I begin with Newman's writings?
Jun '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
If you have EWTN as part of your cable/satellite TV package:
EWTN To Air Pope’s Historic U.K. Visit Live Exclusive Interviews, Expert Commentary Available ( http://www.ewtn.com/general/press/pr_detail.asp?id=290 )
Irondale, AL (EWTN) – EWTN Global Catholic Network will provide live coverage of every public event during Pope Benedict XVI’s historic visit to England and Scotland Sept. 16-19, numerous original productions on the life and works of Cardinal John Henry Newman, who will be beatified by the Pope during his visit, and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage and interviews. Coverage will be seen and heard on all nine EWTN Television Networks worldwide, and can be heard in English, Spanish, French and German; on EWTN Radio Network, and at www.ewtn.com through live streaming video. (Find EWTN Television at www.ewtn.com/channelfinder and EWTN Radio at http://www.ewtn.com/radio/amfm.htm or on Sirius Satellite Channel 160.) Special live coverage will be provided by EWTN News Anchor Raymond Arroyo,
May '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
His writing is masterly--dense and deep, rich in analogy and allusion, rhetorically brilliant. The unbelieving Matthew Arnold (I think it was) used to memorize whole sermons of his for their literary power and beauty. But it's not easy.
The Oxford University Sermons, preached when he was only 28 or so, are the first, fresh public expression of many of the philosophical themes he would work out later in his life. You can find them here: http://www.newmanreader.org/works/oxford/index.html
If you want a taste of his religious writings, maybe try this Holy Thursday sermon: http://www.newmanreader.org/works/discourses/discourse16.html
The Apologia Pro Vita Sua is his telling of the story of his conversion to Catholicism, which is to say, the story of the first half of his life. It's great enough to read over and over, but challenging in parts for those unfamiliar with the history and characters of the Oxford Movement.
The Idea of a University is maybe the most accessible of his major books. All of them can be read online here: http://www.newmanreader.org/
Aug '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
I thought that I made that point myself. No matter, I very much appreciate your tips on reading. I am certainly no Newman scholar and very much look forward to this. Thanks.
May '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
Thanks, Katie.
I hadn't heard of Newman Centers, but I guess they're not affiliated with the Cardinal Newman Society. Mine was one of the many Catholic universities that they hope to restore to fidelity.
May '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
Newman Centers are for Catholic students at non-Catholic colleges. Their original mission was inspired by Newman, but, like so many other Catholic institutions since Vat. II, most have drifted.
Let me paste a famous passage from the Apologia that shows the distinctively modern character of Newman's thinking--why he speaks so particularly to our age. Note the stress on personal subjectivity.
Were it not for this voice, speaking so clearly in my conscience and my heart, I should be an atheist, or a pantheist, or a polytheist when I looked into the world. I am speaking for myself only; and I am far from denying the real force of the arguments in proof of a God, drawn from the general facts of human society and the course of history, but these do not warm me or enlighten me; they do not take away the winter of my desolation, or make the buds unfold and the leaves grow within me, and my moral being rejoice. The sight of the world is nothing else than the prophet's scroll, full of "lamentations, and mourning, and woe."
Aug '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
You're teaching me again. I have always been a bit puzzled by the "personalist" stuff. Perhaps it is like this. Driving back from the Oklahoma panhandle with a couple of our engineers, one asked me how I could be an evolutionary biologist and still believe in God. "Doesn't your science destroy your awe of the creation?" he asked. Hardly. For me, it is not pretty sunrises, graceful eagles, or star-filled skies that set my heart a twitter with the religious thrill. I am moved, yes, but these things do not give me surety of God's existence, if that is what one means. Rather, it is the exhilaration of loving and sacrificing, even anonymously--or especially so. It's the meeting of two persons: friends, former enemies, loved ones, flawed people made receptive--who are otherwise isolated in a very dark and lonely universe made up of, what, protons, neutrons and electrons? This is what unfailingly convinces me of God and that personhood is absolutely important to him. (Warning: "Hallmark moment"): Everything else follows, including the love thing.
Edited on Sep 6, 2010 at 2:40pmAug '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
Now that you did such a good job with "personalism," I sure hope you can find a way (without getting off-topic) that you could 'splain me--and anyone else--what "phenomenology" is.
I gather that it is a phenomenon which renders its most avid and well-versed students incapable of 'splainin' phenomenology itself. If not here, then maybe the next blog where you can justify it as on-topic.
May '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
Phenomenology is difficult to explain just because it has so many different meanings. Also because it's somewhat misleading in itself.
I studied in what's known as the "realist phenomenology" school, whose motto is "back to things in themselves." In this sense, it is a reassertion (against Kant) of the idea that knowledge is essentially receptive; that we are capable of attaining reality; that Reality (i.e. truth as such, as opposed to "the contents of consciousness") is the center of attention in philosophy. In other words, it's radical anti-subjectivism.
It's also described as a "method" of doing philosophy. The gist of the method is to divest ourselves of all prejudices and theoretical preconceptions when approaching an object philosophically, to allow it to "unfold" or disclose itself to us as we find it in experience.
When Karol Wojtyla set about elucidating the nature and meaning of human sexuality, he did it by a close, phenomenological examination of the experience of shame. This is very different from the more traditional philosophical method of constructing a conceptual framework and working to fit things into it.
The focus on experience is a link between realist philosophy and personalism.
Aug '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
Katievs, Okay. I am going to have to let this explanation of "phenomenology percolate." I understand the words but am having a hard time attaching them to anything yet. My brain is not even pretending to "fill in. Poulos' recent n socialism and sexuality was welcomed. It is clear that in the workplace and academy--filled with people in all sorts of states of theological and philosophical confusion, not to mention an indoctrinated mishmash of disintegrated skepticism and viral marxist feminism--that there is a demand for everybody to buy into the culture of sex-buddies. It's the non-personalist grease that is supposed to keep the wheels of the feminist bureaucracy turning and the American Lion castrated. But the Christian response has been largely tepid because it is unsure of itself. I am glad that you pointed out that JPII's locus of departure was shame, particularly over sexual matters. Until this is encountered individuals and society will suffer the split-mind pendulum swings of dealing with sex. Good, bad, good, bad... The advertising and consumer product industries have found themselves in a mutualistic symbiosis with marxist feminism ideology preying together on society's fragmentation--even exacerbating it.
Aug '10
Re: Since It's Sunday
Katievs, now--how does phenomenology come in here? Am I doing it without realizing I am being phenomenological? Can one selectively be Kantian-esque when it is helpful, then methodologically be phenomenological when necessary--and so on? To tie this back to Newman (an awkward attempt to remain, "on-thread"), what might Newman say about phenomenology?