Newman, John Henry [addendum]
Since 1967, the publication of new primary source material has generated an expanding resource pool for secondary scholarship on Newman, particularly with the appearance of 24 new volumes to complete the thirty-one volume collection of Newman's Letters and Diaries. In addition, two volumes of Newman's Theological Notebook (1970), two volumes of his Theological Papers (on Faith and Certainty [1976], and on Biblical Inspiration and Infallibility [1979]), and an annotated bibliography of his Tract and Pamphlet Collection (1984) have been published. A new critical edition of the Grammar of Assent was produced by Ian Ker in 1985, and new editions of several of Newman's works appeared: Oxford University Sermons (1970), Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1993), and Arians (2001). The celebration in 1990 of the centenary of Newman's death was the occasion for two new biographies by Ian Ker (1989) and Sheridan Gilley (1990). Moreover, the journal International Cardinal Newman-Studien (known until 1987 as Newman-Studien) continues to appear annually. The result of these increased resources has been a wide variety of secondary literature documenting Newman's contributions to classical themes, as well as the opening up of some new directions in scholarship.
Of particular relevance to philosophy is the continuing discussion of Newman's understanding of the relation between faith and reason and the relation between faith and doubt. Debates that locate Newman in the history of responses to skepticism (including Wittgensteinian responses) continue about the plausibility of Newman's claims that there are no degrees of assent, that assent (including the reflex assent of certitude) is an act of the will, that indubitability (the absence of "reasonable" doubt) can be achieved through convergent, nondemonstrative reasoning, and that certitude is indefectible. In particular, the period from 1969 to 1980 saw increased attention to a debate about whether Newman was a "volitionalist" (aligned with people like René Descartes and Søren Kierkegaard)—that is, whether assent was an act of the will distinguished from and following on the reasoning process, according to a "logic of decision." While there continue to be advocates of Newman's volitionalism, this debate opened up a new direction for research—namely, the theme of Newman and rhetoric. In addition to three book-length studies of Newman as a rhetorician, in the sense of classical rhetoric, three new studies of his preaching appeared. A collection of essays on romanticism and rhetoric in Newman's thought was complemented by the beginning of significant discussion of the role of imagination in Newman's proposals concerning concrete reasoning and the illative sense.
Theological interest in Newman's thought has resulted in works on his ecclesiology, and the topics of liturgy and revelation. Another interesting new direction in Newman studies has been an increased emphasis on spirituality. Although there were earlier works on Newman's spirituality, such as Hilda Graef's The Spirituality of John Henry Newman (1968), the late 1980s and early 1990s saw the publication of three additional works on Newman's spirituality, his "spiritual theology" and Newman's teaching on "Christian holiness." Perhaps this increased interest in spirituality is related to the initiation of the process of beatification and canonization of Newman begun by the Roman Catholic Church in 1980; in 1991 the first official step in that process was taken when Pope John Paul II declared Newman "Venerable."
While there has been no notable book-length feminist study of Newman's thought, there has been some interest in Newman's relation to women (Joyce Sugg, Ever Yours Affly: John Henry Newman and His Female Circle, 1996), as well as the influence of Mariology (Philip Boyce, Mary: The Virgin Mary in the Life and Writings of John Henry Newman, 2001).
Finally, in addition to publications in church history, in which Newman is related to the Oxford Movement and to Modernism, the centenary celebration of Newman's death brought about a number of retrospectives in the form of edited volumes of essays by specialists, for example, Ian Ker and Alan Hill's 1990 Newman After a Hundred Years. There followed a decade of increased interest in Newman, including two collections of interdisciplinary studies in which scholars consider Newman from the perspectives of literature, history, and education (edited by Magill, 1993 and 1994).
Descartes, René; Doubt; Faith; Kierkegaard, Søren Aabye; Modernism; Reason; Skepticism; Volition; Wittgenstein, Ludwig Josef Johann.
Bibliography
Biemer, Günter, and Heinrich Fries. Christliche Heiligkeit Als Lehre Und Praxis Nach John Henry Newman—Newman's Teaching on Christian Holiness. Sigmaringendorf, Germany: Regio Verlag Glock und Lutz, 1988.
Blehl, Vincent Ferrer. The White Stone: The Spiritual Theology of John Henry Newman. Petersham, MA: St. Bede's, 1994.
Boyce, Philip, ed. Mary: The Virgin Mary in the Life and Writings of John Henry Newman. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001.
Britt, John. John Henry Newman's Rhetoric: Becoming a Discriminating Reader. New York: Peter Lang, 1989.
Coulson, John. Religion and Imagination: "In Aid of a Grammar of Assent." Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981.
Ferreira, M. Jamie. Doubt and Religious Commitment: The Role of the Will in Newman's Thought. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.
Gilley, Sheridan. Newman and His Age. London: Darton Longman and Todd, 1990.
Graef, Hilda. God and Myself: The Spirituality of John Henry Newman. New York: Hawthorn, 1968.
Jost, Walter. Rhetorical Thought in John Henry Newman. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989.
Ker, Ian. The Achievement of John Henry Newman. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990.
Ker, Ian. Healing the Wound of Humanity: The Spirituality of John Henry Newman. London: Darton, 1993.
Ker, Ian, and Alan Hill, eds. Newman after a Hundred Years. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Kerr, Fergus, and David Nicholls. John Henry Newman: Reason, Rhetoric and Romanticism. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1991.
Magill, Gerard. Discourse and Context: An Interdisciplinary Study of John Henry Newman. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1993.
Magill, Gerard. Personality and Belief: Interdisciplinary Essays on John Henry Newman. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1994.
Pailin, David A. The Way to Faith: An Examination of Newman's "Grammar of Assent" as a Response to the Search for Certainty in Faith. London: Epworth Press, 1969.
Sugg, Joyce. Ever Yours Affly: John Henry Newman and His Female Circle. Leominster, U.K.: Gracewing, 1996.
Tolhurst, James. The Church—A Communion in the Preaching and Thought of John Henry Newman. Leominster: Fowler Wright, 1988.
Whalen, David M. The Consolation of Rhetoric: John Henry Newman and the Realism of Personalist Thought. San Francisco: International Scholars Publications, 1994.
Willi, Peter. Sünde Und Bekehrung in Den Predigten Und Tagebüchern John Henry Newmans. St Ottilien: Eos, 1992.
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