St. J.H. Newman on Life and Change, Corruption and Correction

For my final discussion (scheduled for August 29) on the Son Rise Morning Show of Saint John Henry Newman's development in accepting, understanding, and defending the Marian Doctrine of the Catholic Church and the devotion of Catholics to Mary, I've been reading Newman's reply to E. B. Pusey's Eirenicon for the first time ever! I've read excerpts from it, as in Scepter's The Mystical Rose collection, but never the entire work.

Pusey wrote a public letter to John Keble, one of the other great leaders of the Oxford or Tractarian Movement after the proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. In the letter, in which Pusey discussed the obstacles preventing the union of the Catholic Church and Church of England, he mentioned their former colleague in that effort to revive the Apostolic authority of the bishops in the Anglican Church, namely, Newman. 

I have not read Pusey's Eirenicon, but evidently he discussed Father Newman's position in the Catholic Church as a convert; he made comments about statements he mistakenly attributed to Father Newman (shades of Charles Kingsley!); and quoted passages from various Continental Catholic writers in devotional works on the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In January of 1866, Newman replied with his own public letter in five chapters:

1. Introductory Remarks
2. Various Statements introduced into the Eirenicon
3. The Belief of Catholics concerning the Blessed Virgin, as distinct from their Devotion to her
4. The Belief of Catholics concerning the Blessed Virgin, as coloured by their Devotion to Her
5. Anglican Misconceptions and Catholic Excesses in Devotion to the Blessed Virgin

Fortunately, Gracewing Publishers will be bringing out a new edition of this work, with Newman's Letter to the Duke of Norfolk, as the companion volume to Edward Short's critical edition of Lectures on Difficulties Felt by Anglicans in Submitting to the Catholic Church which I reviewed here and here.

The second chapter this Letter reads like a mini-Apologia pro Vita Sua, as Newman corrects Pusey's errors about things he or didn't say, about what it must be like to accept the Church's authority over one as a convert, and about certain authors and how they wrote about Marian devotions. Thus he states at the end of that chapter:

I write afresh nevertheless, and that for three reasons; first, because I wish to contribute to the accurate statement and the full exposition of the argument in question; next, because I may gain a more patient hearing than has sometimes been granted to better men than myself; lastly, because there just now seems a call on me, under my circumstances, to avow plainly what I do and what I do not hold about the Blessed Virgin, that others may know, did they come to stand where I stand, what they would, and what they would not, be bound to hold concerning her.

In chapter 4, one passage reminded me of one of the most famous quotations taken from Newman's works, "In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often." (from Chapter 1. On the Development of Ideas, Section 1. On the Process of Development in Ideas, paragraph 7 in An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine).

In context:

But whatever be the risk of corruption from intercourse with the world around, such a risk must be encountered {40} if a great idea is duly to be understood, and much more if it is to be fully exhibited. It is elicited and expanded by trial, and battles into perfection and supremacy. Nor does it escape the collision of opinion even in its earlier years, nor does it remain truer to itself, and with a better claim to be considered one and the same, though externally protected from vicissitude and change. It is indeed sometimes said that the stream is clearest near the spring. Whatever use may fairly be made of this image, it does not apply to the history of a philosophy or belief, which on the contrary is more equable, and purer, and stronger, when its bed has become deep, and broad, and full. It necessarily rises out of an existing state of things, and for a time savours of the soil. Its vital element needs disengaging from what is foreign and temporary, and is employed in efforts after freedom which become wore vigorous and hopeful as its years increase. Its beginnings are no measure of its capabilities, nor of its scope. At first no one knows what it is, or what it is worth. It remains perhaps for a time quiescent; it tries, as it were, its limbs, and proves the ground under it, and feels its way. From time to time it makes essays which fail, and are in consequence abandoned. It seems in suspense which way to go; it wavers, and at length strikes out in one definite direction. In time it enters upon strange territory; points of controversy alter their bearing; parties rise and around it; dangers and hopes appear in new relations; and old principles reappear under new forms. It changes with them in order to remain the same. In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.

[Sometimes that quotation is taken out of context and interpreted to mean that change for change sake is perfection and that change means that "a great idea" is not the same. But the notice the sentence before as Newman is speaking of "a great idea" and its development: "It changes with them [challenges, controversy, etc] in order to remain the same."

As Newman wrote to Pusey in his letter's second chapter, you can't "cherry-pick" quotations (accurately stated or not) from his works, make them say what you want them to say, and be true to what he really said.]

In this passage, as Newman begins to describe the "Belief of Catholics concerning the Blessed Virgin, as coloured by their Devotion to her", Newman returns to the theme of "great ideas" and change:

Life in this world is motion, and involves a continual process of change. Living things grow into their perfection, into their decline, into their death. No rule of art will suffice to stop the operation of this natural law, whether in the material world or in the human mind. We can indeed encounter disorders, when they occur, by external antagonism and remedies; but we cannot eradicate the process itself, out of which they arise. Life has the same right to decay, as it has to wax strong. This is specially the case with great ideas. You may stifle them; or you may refuse them elbow-room; or again, you may torment them with your continual meddling; or you may let them have free course and range, and be content, instead of anticipating their excesses, to expose and restrain those excesses after they have occurred. But you have only this alternative; and for myself, I prefer much wherever it is possible, to be first generous and then just; to grant full liberty of thought, and to call it to account when abused.

So even the "great idea" of Marian devotion has a right to change and develop, wax and wane, go wrong for a time and be corrected:

If what I have been saying be true of energetic ideas generally, much more is it the case in matters of religion. Religion acts on the affections; who is to hinder these, when once roused, from gathering in their strength and running wild? . . .  And of all passions love is the most unmanageable; nay more, I would not give much for that love which is never extravagant, which always observes the proprieties, and can move about in perfect good taste, under all emergencies. What mother, what husband or wife, what youth or maiden in love, but says a thousand foolish things, in the way of endearment, which the speaker would be sorry for strangers to hear; yet they are not on that account unwelcome to the parties to whom they are addressed. Sometimes by bad luck they are written down, sometimes they get into the newspapers; and what might be even graceful, when it was fresh from the heart, and interpreted by the voice and the countenance, presents but a melancholy exhibition when served up cold for the public eye. So it is with devotional feelings. Burning thoughts and words are as open to criticism as they are beyond it. What is abstractedly extravagant, may in particular persons be becoming and beautiful, and only fall under blame when it is found in others who imitate them. When it is formalized into meditations or exercises, it is as repulsive as love-letters in a police report. 

I'll stop there with the love-letters in the police report! 

I will post one more passage from this work that really impressed me before I prepare my preview for the August 29 Son Rise Morning Show discussion on Newman's response to Pusey on Marian doctrine and devotion in the Catholic Church.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us!

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!