Preview: Newman and the Greek Fathers: Mystery

In our discussion on Monday, October 14 of how, according to Father Ian Ker, the Greek Fathers of the Church influenced Saint John Henry Newman on the Son Rise Morning Show, we (Matt Swaim or Anna Mitchell and I) will look at the fifth theme of Mystery. Please tune in at my usual time, about 6:50 a.m. Central DST/7:50 a.m. Eastern DST here or catch the podcast later. 

As a reminder, the first four topics we've discussed are: The Incarnation, The Resurrection and Ascension, the Indwelling of the Spirit/Justification, and the Sacraments. As we've examined them, we've seen the connections among them: the Incarnation makes the Passion, Death, Resurrection, Ascension and Descent of the Holy Spirit possible. The Descent of the Holy Spirit prepares us for the Indwelling of the Spirit, which comes to us through the Sacraments, starting with Baptism, etc.

Perhaps this last of Father Ker's themes connects them all. No matter how the Fathers of the Church sought to understand and put into words what the Catholic Church from Apostolic times believed about the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Indwelling of the Spirit, and the Sacraments, they all remain mysteries, beyond our human ability to thoroughly comprehend and explain. The more we try to explain them and make them comprehensible to our limited human reason, we may stumble into at least a stance of material heresy.

Newman certainly saw that danger in the doctrinal crises the Fathers of the Church faced in the early Church Councils, called to deal with divisive heresies about the Person of Our Incarnate Lord. But as Father Ker notes, he saw those dangers in his own time, among both Evangelicals and High-and-Dry Anglicans, the latter characterized by High theology and Low liturgy. Yes, Newman valued Reason and wanted to develop intellectual excellence (the "Imperial Intellect"), but he recognized its limitations when it comes to God's mysteries.

This is another insight we can trace to Newman's study of Saint Athanasius: "mystery is the necessary note of divine revelation" Newman states in his Selected Treatises of Saint Athanasius, Volume 2, "that is, mystery subjectively to the human mind . . ." continuing with these words of the saint: 

"Such illustrations and such images," says Athanasius, "has Scripture proposed, that, considering the inability of human nature to comprehend God, we might be able to form ideas even from these, however poorly and dimly, as far as is attainable." Orat. ii. 32, [amudros], vid. also [amudra]; ii. 17. (p. 92, under the heading "Economical Language")

If you go to the alphabetical listing of Newman's sermons, Anglican and Catholic, at the newmanreader.org website, you'll see several sermons with word "mystery" or "mysteries" in their title:

PPS1-16 The Christian Mysteries
PPS2-18 Mysteries in Religion
DMC-13 Mysteries of Nature and of Grace
PPS4-19 The Mysteriousness of Our Present Being
DMC-14 The Mystery of Divine Condescension
PPS5-7 The Mystery of Godliness
PPS6-24 The Mystery of the Holy Trinity

Or look at Rickaby's Index on the same site under M for Mysteries!

For example, in "The Mysteriousness of Our Present Being", Newman told his congregation:

There is nothing, according as we are given to see and judge of things, which will make a greater difference in the temper, character, and habits of an individual, than the circumstance of his holding or not holding the Gospel to be mysterious. (p. 292)

This long quotation (excerpted slightly) from "The Gift of the Spirit", offers a summary of what Newman wanted his hearers to understand about Mystery and the Catholic Christian Faith:

Till we {268} understand that the gifts of grace are unseen, supernatural, and mysterious, we have but a choice between explaining away the high and glowing expressions of Scripture, or giving them that rash, irreverent, and self-exalting interpretation, which is one of the chief errors of this time. [Newman then compares "men of awakened and sensitive minds" who are "led to place the life of a Christian, which "is hid with Christ in God," in a sort of religious ecstasy" with "sensible and sober-minded men, offended at such excesses" who think that the Gift of the Spirit "does nothing more than make us decent and orderly members of society"] . . .

For ourselves, in proportion as we realize that higher view of the subject, which we may humbly trust is the true one, let us be careful to act up to it. Let us adore the Sacred Presence within us with all fear, and "rejoice with trembling." Let us offer up our best gifts in sacrifice to Him who, instead of abhorring, has taken up his abode in these sinful hearts of ours. Prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, "good works and alms-deeds," a bold and true confession and a self-denying walk, are the ritual of worship by which we serve Him in these His Temples. How the distinct and particular words of faith avail to our final acceptance, we know not; neither do we know how they are efficacious in changing our wills and characters, which, through God's grace, they certainly do. All we know is, that as we persevere in them, the inward light grows brighter and brighter, and God manifests Himself in us in a way the world knows not of. In this, then, consists our whole duty, first in contemplating Almighty God, as in Heaven, so in our hearts and souls; and next, while we contemplate Him, in acting towards and for Him in the works of every day; in viewing by faith His glory without and within us, and in acknowledging it by our obedience. Thus we {270} shall unite conceptions the most lofty concerning His majesty and bounty towards us, with the most lowly, minute, and unostentatious service to Him.

Father Ker concludes this section on the Influence of the Greek Fathers by noting that this sense of mystery and awe Newman learned of Saint Athanasius and others is why Newman is often so spiritually and morally demanding--as demonstrated in the excerpt above--in his sermons:

If believers are really temples of the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul teaches, then it is practically sacrilegious for a baptized Christian not to be living the life of the Spirit. (p. 41)

I'd suggest that we can see how the "Fathers made [Newman] Catholic" by looking at the last chapter of the Apologia pro Vita Sua, when he explains his religious position after being received in to the Catholic Church. Newman states that he believes, for example, in the Catholic Church's teaching on Transubstantiation to describe how Jesus is sacramentally, really, and substantially present in Holy Communion when it seems like the Host is still like bread and the Blood still like wine, which is still mysterious:

People say that the doctrine of Transubstantiation is difficult to believe; I did not believe the doctrine till I was a Catholic. I had no difficulty in believing it, as soon as I believed that the Catholic Roman Church was the oracle of God, and that she had declared this doctrine to be part of the original revelation. It is difficult, impossible, to imagine, I grant;—but how is it difficult to believe? . . . What do I know of substance or matter? just as much as the greatest philosophers, and {240} that is nothing at all;"—so much is this the case, that there is a rising school of philosophy now, which considers phenomena to constitute the whole of our knowledge in physics. [Think of the "string theories" of recent years!] The Catholic doctrine leaves phenomena alone. It does not say that the phenomena go; on the contrary, it says that they remain; nor does it say that the same phenomena are in several places at once. It deals with what no one on earth knows any thing about, the material substances themselves. [Christ's Real Presence, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in Holy Communion]

He also comments on the Mystery of the Holy Trinity:

And, in like manner, of that majestic Article of the Anglican as well as of the Catholic Creed,—the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity. What do I know of the Essence of the Divine Being? I know that my abstract idea of three is simply incompatible with my idea of one; but when I come to the question of concrete fact, I have no means of proving that there is not a sense in which one and three can equally be predicated of the Incommunicable God.

Both are Mysteries we assent to without being able to prove them by human reason alone "through God's grace" and our cooperation with it. That of course, why Newman wrote--after years of wanting to write--An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent as explained in this draft, unpublished preface, to demonstrate that it is not unreasonable to assent to mysteries like them.

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!

Image Credit (Public Domain); The Trinity, Guillaume Le Rouge, 1510 Book of Hours

Tonight: Candlelight Mass at St. Paul's Chapel at WSU: Memorial of Saint John Henry Newman

I am so happy to be able to attend a Mass for the memorial of Saint John Henry Newman in St. Paul's University Parish at WSU, my alma mater, tonight--a candlelight Mass, no less! The Mass is scheduled for 8 p.m. Central time.

In case you, dear reader, are in the USA and not a member of, nor have access to a parish in the Anglican Ordinariate here, the prayers and readings are available from the Website of the Liturgy Office of the Bishop’s Conference of England and Wales.

Last November, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops joined the bishops in England and Wales to ask Pope Francis to declare Saint John Henry Newman a Doctor of the Church, by a vote of 240 to two (no details on why two voted against). The Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales had asked them to support this cause, as they had the bishops' conferences in Scotland and Ireland, who also complied.

I hope I live to see it announced and then to see his feast day added as a Memorial (not an optional memorial) on the USCCB's liturgical calendar. In England and Wales October 9 is celebrated as a Feast now (with the Gloria recited or sung at Mass). There were already three optional memorials on October 9 (St. Denis and Companions, St. John Leonardi, and St. Paulinus of York, an English saint) before his canonization in 2019, meaning that either the Weekday of Ordinary Time, or the memorial of one of those three saints, could be celebrated. The English Bishops moved those three optional memorials to October 10 to make room for Newman's Feast on October 9. (You might recall that Newman died on August 11, 1890, which was already the Memorial of Saint Clare of Assisi, so his feast was scheduled on the date of his reception into the Catholic Church in 1845.)

I'm not going to be greedy enough to propose his feast as a Feast in the USA, but as the Memorial, thus the only feast to be celebrated on October 9--and that St. Denis and St. John Leonardi be moved as optional memorials on October 10.

I propose that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops do something similar to make room for Newman on our Liturgical Calendar and offer four reasons, in ascending order of importance. 

First:

Newman as a Model for Conversion: Especially thinking of the many American converts, especially from the Episcopalian church, who have been influenced by Saint John Henry Newman. Like the late Thomas Howard, Holly Ordway, Father Dwight Longenecker, Deacon Scott Carson, Monsignor Jeffrey Stinson, etc., etc., many have attested to Newman's influence on them. Just peruse the stories collected on the Coming Home Network website and you'll see what he has meant to converts in the 20th and 21st centuries in the United States.

Second: 

Newman and the New Evangelization: After teaching a graduate class on Newman and the New Evangelization for our local Newman University during two of three past two summers (and I might do so again in 2025), I'm convinced that he is an excellent patron saint for this project, which includes the Eucharistic Revival, to renew the faith of Catholics, particularly the laity. 

Newman offers many insights into how to revive and re-enforce Catholics' belief in what they believe and what the Church teaches, and to integrate it more firmly in their lives. He encouraged both growth of knowledge of the truths of the Catholic Faith and the actions that demonstrated that knowledge and belief. 

Third: 

The Newman Centers at secular universities in the USA: Since the first Newman Club was founded at the University of Pennsylvania in 1893--just three years after his death!--Newman Centers at secular universities have provided students with Holy Mass and the other Sacraments, continuing religious education, social activities, a place a study, etc.

So Saint John Henry Newman has had an influence in the USA since the late 19th century through these campus centers for Catholics, even though not all of them still use his name. I attended the Newman Center at Wichita State University and learned about Saint John Henry Newman there (it now does not use his name, but that's still the way I think of it!).

Fourth: 

Newman's Miracles

Both the miracle accepted for his Beatification in 2010, and the miracle accepted for his Canonization in 2019 occurred in the United States of America, and both of them through the influence of EWTN! Deacon Jack Sullivan and Melissa Villalobos prayed for Newman's intercession in their needs because they'd watched a program about Newman with the late Father Ian Ker as the featured guest!

Finally, I do have a very personal reason for this proposal: after studying the works of Saint John Henry Newman since I first learned about him as a college sophomore, writing about him, teaching about him, growing more devoted to him along with my late husband Mark, and praying for his intercession, I'd like to attend a daily Mass on his feast day on October 9--when it doesn't conflict with Sunday's Solemnity of course--on a regular basis.

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!

Image Credit (Public Domain): Photo of John Henry Newman by Herbert Rose Barraud (1845-1896)

Preview: Newman and the Greek Church Fathers: the Sacraments

On Monday, October 7, we're going to continue our Son Rise Morning Show discussion, based on Father Ian Ker's introduction to the Paulist Press collection of Selected Sermons of Saint John Henry Newman, of how his study of the Greek Fathers of the Church influenced Newman in his theology and that influence on his sermons. 

As a reminder, the first three topics we've discussed are: The Incarnation, The Resurrection and Ascension, and the Indwelling of the Spirit/Justification. Our topic on Monday, October 7 is Sacraments. Please tune in at my usual time, about 6:50 a.m. Central DST/7:50 a.m. Eastern DST here or catch the podcast later.

Just to provide some context: As an University of Oxford student and Fellow and Anglican minister, Newman had sworn to uphold the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England. Under those articles, there were only TWO Sacraments: Baptism and The Supper of the Lord, according to Article 25, "Of the Sacraments":

SACRAMENTS ordained of Christ be not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather they be certain sure witnesses, and effectual signs of grace, and God's good will towards us, by the which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our Faith in him.

There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel, that is to say, Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord.

Those five commonly called Sacraments, that is to say, Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and extreme Unction, are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel, being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles, partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures; but yet have not like nature of Sacraments with Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, for that they have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God.

The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried about, but that we should duly use them. And in such only as worthily receive the same they have a wholesome effect or operation: but they that receive them unworthily purchase to themselves damnation, as Saint Paul saith.

This article clearly separates the Church of England from the Catholic Church, East and West and the Eastern Orthodox Churches (where the Sacraments are more commonly called the Mysteries), and also clearly removes the sacrificial aspect of the Supper of the Lord by eliminating the priestly role of its ministers. And the Church of England also rejects the doctrine of Transubstantiation. We've dealt with the issue of how Newman accepted the Catholic Church's doctrines about the Mass, Holy Communion, and Transubstantiation through his conversion before, when we examined Newman's PPS "The Eucharistic Presence" in April this year. 

Where did Newman find this lesson about the Sacraments or the Mysteries from the Greek Fathers? Certainly the mystagogy of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Saint Ambrose of Milan, and Saint John Chrysostom, etc., played a part. Saints Augustine of Hippo and Maximus the Confessor also presented instructions to the neophytes after their reception of the Sacraments of Initiation. Having received the mysteries/sacraments, they could be told more about what they had received and how to respond to those graces. Living the Mysteries: A Guide for Unfinished Christians by Scott Hahn and Mike Aquilina is an excellent introduction to these catecheses.

In his introduction, Father Ker provides a hinge between the Indwelling of the Spirit and the Sacraments with this question, "But how do we receive this Presence and enter into this loving relationship?" and the answer Newman learned from the Greek Fathers, " . . . the Sacraments were the concrete means of our union with God." (p. 38). 

As he had left behind the Calvinist doctrine of double predestination, Newman had also accepted the doctrine of the salvific, regenerative effect of Baptism (even Infant Baptism! in an 1828 sermon) after he had served as an Anglican deacon at Saint Clement's near Oxford. Thus, he writes in a 1835 PPS, "Regenerating Baptism" that Christ,

Though He now sits on the right hand of God, He has, in one sense, never left the world since He first entered it; for, by the ministration of the Holy Ghost, He is really present with us in an unknown way, and ever imparts Himself to those who seek Him. Even when visibly on earth He, the Son of Man, was still "in heaven;" and now, though He is ascended on high, He is still on earth. And as He is still with us, for all that He is in heaven, so, again, is the hour of His cross and passion ever mystically present, though it be past these eighteen hundred years. Time and space have no portion in the spiritual Kingdom which He has founded; and the rites of His Church are as mysterious spells by which He annuls them both. . . . Thus Christ shines through [the Sacraments], as through transparent bodies, without impediment. He is the Light and Life of the Church, acting through it, dispensing of His fulness, knitting and compacting {278} together every part of it; and these its Mysteries are not mere outward signs, but (as it were) effluences of His grace developing themselves in external forms, as Angels might do when they appeared to men. He has touched them, and breathed upon them, when He ordained them; and thenceforth they have a virtue in them, which issues forth and encircles them round, till the eye of faith sees in them no element of matter at all. Once for all He hung upon the cross, and blood and water issued from His pierced side, but by the Spirit's ministration, the blood and water are ever flowing, as though His cross were really set up among us, and the baptismal water were but an outward image meeting our senses. Thus in a true sense that water is not what it was before, but is gifted with new and spiritual qualities. Not as if its material substance were changed, which our eyes see, or as if any new nature were imparted to it, but that the lifegiving Spirit, who could make bread of stones, and sustain animal life on dust and ashes, applies the blood of Christ through it; or according to the doctrine of the text, that He, and not man, is the baptizer.

Father Ker quotes this long passage from "Worship, A Preparation for Christ's Coming", calling it "magnificently mysterious":

And what is true of the ordinary services of religion, public and private, holds in a still higher or rather in a special way, as regards the sacramental ordinances of the Church. In these is manifested in greater or less degree, according to the measure of each, that Incarnate Saviour, who is one day to be our Judge, and who is enabling us to bear His presence then, by imparting it to us in measure now. A thick black veil is spread between this world and the next. We mortal men range up and down it, to and fro, and see nothing. There is no access through it into the next world. In the Gospel this veil is not removed; it remains, but every now and then marvellous disclosures are made to us of what is behind it. At times we seem to catch a glimpse of a Form which we shall hereafter see face to face. We approach, and in spite of the darkness, our hands, or our head, or our brow, or our lips become, as it were, sensible of the contact of something more than earthly. We know not where we are, but we have been bathing in water, and a voice tells us that it is blood. {11} Or we have a mark signed upon our foreheads, and it spake of Calvary. Or we recollect a hand laid upon our heads, and surely it had the print of nails in it, and resembled His who with a touch gave sight to the blind and raised the dead. Or we have been eating and drinking; and it was not a dream surely, that One fed us from His wounded side, and renewed our nature by the heavenly meat He gave. Thus in many ways He, who is Judge to us, prepares us to be judged,—He, who is to glorify us, prepares us to be glorified, that He may not take us unawares; but that when the voice of the Archangel sounds, and we are called to meet the Bridegroom, we may be ready.

In addition to the bolded passages in which Newman emphasizes the presence of Jesus in the Sacraments, I've highlighted in italics how Newman emphasized what we Catholics usually call the Precious Blood of Christ and how It washes us clean. 

In the two Sacraments accepted by the Church of England Newman saw--through his study of the Fathers--how personally and fully God reaches out to the Christian. He even notes a distinction between the Holy Bible as "a common possession" that "speaks to one man as much and as little to his neighbor" and the Sacraments as "sensible tokens of God's favour", personally received as required by human nature (which God created). (Justification, 323)

Once a Catholic Newman began to receive the other Sacraments, starting with his Confession to Blessed Dominic Barberi, his first Holy Communion, his Confirmation (1845), his Ordination (1847), and Extreme Unction on his deathbed (1890). And as a Catholic priest, he celebrated Holy Mass, baptized infants and others, heard Confessions, officiated at weddings, and anointed the sick and the dying. The Fathers prepared him for the fullness of these "concrete means of our union with God."

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, pray for us!

Saint Ambrose of Milan, pray for us!

Saint John Chrysostom, pray for us!

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!

Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us!

Just Released: "Newman and His Critics" by Edward Short

From Gracewing Publishers:

The third volume of Edward Short’s trilogy on Newman, following on the much acclaimed Newman and His Contemporaries and Newman and His Family, which Gracewing now publishes in a handsome uniform edition. ‘An enthralling and intricate picture of Newman the saint, the friend, the priest, the intellectual, the apologist and the controversialist…This capstone volume brings the author’s trilogy to a masterly close. It is full of judiciously chosen quotations from a paradigmatic range on interlocutors, critics in the best and highest sense of the word, and interlaced with passages from Newman’s own works, all adroitly orchestrated and suffused with deep understanding of Newman and a thorough command of his texts…Bracing, rewarding reading.’ Dr Reinhard Hűtter

Edward Short is the author of Newman and his Contemporaries, and Newman and his Family, both now reissued by Gracewing in uniform editions to the present volume, as well as Newman and History. The first volume of his collected essays and reviews, as Adventures in the Book Pages, was acclaimed by the Catholic Herald as "wise, witty and entertaining." His critical edition of the first volume of Newman's Difficulties of Anglicans introduces and annotates the lectures that Newman delivered in London in 1850, which, taken together, constitute a dress rehearsal for his Apologia Pro Vita Sua. Edward Short Short also edited the Saint Mary's Book of Christian Verse (2022), which Prof. Emma Mason of Warwick University called "a mesmerizingly beautiful anthology." His latest collection, What the Bells Sang: Essays and Reviews (2023) includes far-ranging pieces on poets, novelists, moralists and historians. Lord Andrew Roberts, Churchill's biographer, called the book "beautifully written," "brave" and "wise."

I read several chapters in manuscript form and look forward to reading the whole work and reviewing it. Note that I've read and reviewed the first two volumes in the trilogy, Newman and His Contemporaries and Newman and His Family, which will now be re-issued by Gracewing Publishers (available next month).

Short provides biographical sketches of each of Newman's critics (unfavorable or favorable), describes his interactions with them (except for the late Father Ian Ker, his twentieth century biographer), and Newman's responses to their criticisms, where applicable. Short gives both the critics and Newman fair space to present their cases. There's a wonderful spirit of sympathy and compassion throughout the book (based on my reading of the chapters submitted to me.)

On the back cover--rather hard to read here, but better on amazon--the blurbs are most complimentary, from Dr. Andrew Meszaros, Reverend Gerald E. Murray (he's often on EWTN's World Over program and writes for The Catholic Thing), and Dr. Reinhard Hutter.

It's definitely a book any student of Newman should read.

Random Excerpts from Newman's PPS and Catholic Sermons

At the end of my post on the Indwelling of the Spirit, Part II on Friday, September 27 for my Son Rise Morning Show spot this morning, I commented:

What Newman learned from the Fathers of the Church about the Indwelling of the Spirit and deification he poured into his sermons and his pastoral care as both an Anglican minister and a Catholic priest, urging his congregations to be aware of this indwelling and be willing to cooperate with its Grace and inspiration for the faith, hope, and charity it imparted.

After doing so, I thought of examples I could post to demonstrate that assertion and went to four sermons from the first four volumes of eight published Parochial and Plain Sermons, finding these statements:

Example One: PPS Volume 1, Sermon 16. The Christian Mysteries

Therefore, if we feel the necessity of coming to Christ, yet the difficulty, let us recollect that the gift of coming is in God's hands, and that we must pray Him to give it to us. Christ does not merely tell us, that we cannot come of ourselves (though this He does tell us), but He tells us also with whom the power of coming is lodged, with His Father,—that we may seek it of Him. It is true, religion has an austere appearance to those who never have tried it; its doctrines full of mystery, its precepts of harshness; so that it is uninviting, offending different men in different ways, but in some way offending all. When then we feel within us the risings of this opposition to Christ, proud aversion to His Gospel, or {214} a low-minded longing after this world, let us pray God to draw us; and though we cannot move a step without Him, at least let us try to move. He looks into our hearts and sees our strivings even before we strive, and He blesses and strengthens even our feebleness. Let us get rid of curious and presumptuous thoughts by going about our business, whatever it is; and let us mock and baffle the doubts which Satan whispers to us by acting against them. No matter whether we believe doubtingly or not, or know clearly or not, so that we act upon our belief. The rest will follow in time; part in this world, part in the next. Doubts may pain, but they cannot harm, unless we give way to them; and that we ought not to give way, our conscience tells us, so that our course is plain. And the more we are in earnest to "work out our salvation," the less shall we care to know how those things really are, which perplex us. At length, when our hearts are in our work, we shall be indisposed to take the trouble of listening to curious truths (if they are but curious), though we might have them explained to us. For what says the Holy Scripture? that of speculations "there is no end," and they are "a weariness to the flesh;" but that we must "fear God and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man." [Eccles. xii. 12, 13.]

Example Two: PPS Volume 2, Sermon 14. Saving Knowledge

To know God is life eternal, and to believe in the Gospel manifestation of Him is to know Him; but how are we to "know that we know Him?" How are we to be sure that we are not mistaking some dream of our own for the true and clear Vision? How can we tell we are not like gazers upon a distant prospect through a misty atmosphere, who mistake one object for another? The text answers us clearly and intelligibly; though some Christians have recourse to other proofs of it, or will not have patience to ask themselves the question. They say they are quite certain that they have true faith; for faith carries with it its own evidence, and admits of no mistaking, the true spiritual conviction being unlike all others. On the other hand, St. John says, "Hereby do we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments." Obedience is the test of Faith.

Thus the whole duty and work of a Christian is made up of these two parts, Faith and Obedience; "looking unto Jesus," the Divine Object as well as Author of our faith, and acting according to His will. Not as if a certain frame of mind, certain notions, affections, feelings, and tempers, were not a necessary condition of a saving state; but, so it is, the Apostle does not insist upon it, as if it were sure to follow, if our hearts do but grow into these two chief objects, the view of God in Christ and the diligent aim to obey Him in our conduct. {154}

 Example Three: PPS Volume 3, Sermon 9. A Particular Providence as Revealed in the Gospel

These are the meditations which come upon the Christian to console him, while he is with Christ upon the holy mount. And, when he descends to his daily duties, they are still his inward strength, though he is not allowed to tell the vision to those around him. They make his countenance to shine, make him cheerful, collected, serene, and firm in the midst of all temptation, persecution, or bereavement. And with such thoughts before us, how base and miserable does the world appear in all its pursuits and doctrines! How truly miserable does it seem to seek good from the creature; to covet station, wealth, or credit; to choose for ourselves, in fancy, this or that mode of life; to affect the manners and fashions of the great; to spend our time in follies; to be discontented, quarrelsome, jealous or envious, censorious or resentful; fond of unprofitable talk, and eager for the news of the day; busy about public matters which concern us not; hot in the cause of this or that interest or party; or set upon gain; or devoted to the {127} increase of barren knowledge! And at the end of our days, when flesh and heart fail, what will be our consolation, though we have made ourselves rich, or have served an office, or been the first man among our equals, or have depressed a rival, or managed things our own way, or have settled splendidly, or have been intimate with the great, or have fared sumptuously, or have gained a name! Say, even if we obtain that which lasts longest, a place in history, yet, after all, what ashes shall we have eaten for bread! And, in that awful hour, when death is in sight, will He, whose eye is now so loving towards us, and whose hand falls on us so gently, will He acknowledge us any more? or, if He still speaks, will His voice have any power to stir us? rather will it not repel us, as it did Judas, by the very tenderness with which it would invite us to Him?

Example Four: PPS Volume 4, Sermon 12. The Church a Home for the Lonely

May thoughts like these, my brethren, sink deep into your hearts, and bring forth good fruit in holiness and {199} constancy of obedience. Whatever has been your past life, whether (blessed be God) you have never trusted aught but God's sacred light within you, or whether you have trusted the world and it has failed you, God's mercies in Christ are here offered to you in full abundance. Come to Him for them; approach him in the way He has appointed, and you shall find Him, as He has said, upon His Holy Hill of Zion. Let not your past sins keep you from Him. Whatever they be, they cannot interfere with His grace stored up for all who come to Him for it. If you have in past years neglected Him, perchance you will have to suffer for it; but fear not; He will give you grace and strength to bear such punishment as He may be pleased to inflict. Let not the thought of His just severity keep you at a distance. He can make even pain pleasant to you. Keeping from Him is not to escape from His power, only from His love. Surrender yourselves to him in faith and holy fear. He is All-merciful, though All-righteous; and though He is awful in His judgments, He is nevertheless more wonderfully pitiful, and of tender compassion above our largest expectations; and in the case of all who humbly seek him, He will in "wrath remember mercy."

And then, looking at a couple of the Catholic sermons he wrote (otherwise, he used notes for his homilies at the Birmingham Oratory):

Example One: Faith and Prejudice, The Calls of Grace:

And if you are conscious that your hearts are hard, and are desirous that they should be softened, do not despair. All things are possible to you, through God's grace. Come to Him for the will and the power to do that to which He calls you. He never forsakes anyone who calls upon him. He never puts any trial on a man but He gives Him grace to overcome it. Do not despair then; nay do not despond, even though you do come to Him, yet are not at once exalted to overcome yourselves. He gives grace by little and little. It is by coming daily into His presence, that by degrees we find ourselves awed by that presence and able to believe and obey Him. Therefore if any one desires illumination to know God's will as well as strength to do it, let him come to Mass daily, if he possibly can. At least let him present himself daily before the Blessed Sacrament, and, as it were, offer his heart to His Incarnate Saviour, presenting it as a reasonable offering to be influenced, changed and sanctified under the eye and by the grace of the Eternal Son. And let him every now and then through the day make some {51} short prayer or ejaculation, to the Lord and Saviour, and again to His Blessed Mother, the immaculate most Blessed Virgin Mary, or again to his guardian Angel, or to his Patron Saint. Let him now and then collect his mind and place himself, as if in heaven, in the presence of God; as if before God's throne; let him fancy he sees the All-Holy Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. These are the means by which, with God's grace, he will be able in course of time to soften his heart—not all at once, but by degrees; not by his own power or wisdom, but by the grace of God blessing his endeavour. Thus it is that Saints have begun. They have begun by these little things, and so become at length Saints. They were not saints all at once, but by little and little. And so we, who are not saints, must still proceed by the same road; by lowliness, patience, trust in God, recollection that we are in His presence, and thankfulness for His mercies.

Example Two: Discourses to Mixed Congregations, God's Will the End of Life:

The end of a thing is the test. It was our Lord's rejoicing in His last solemn hour, that He had done the work for which He was sent. "I have glorified Thee on earth," He says in His prayer, "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do; I have manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou hast given Me out of the world." It was St. Paul's consolation also; "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord shall render to me in that day, the just Judge". Alas! alas! how different will be our view of things when we come to die, or when we have passed into eternity, from the dreams and pretences with which we beguile ourselves now! What will Babel do for us then? Will it rescue our souls from the purgatory or the hell to which it sends them? If we were created, it was that we might serve God; if we have His gifts, it is that we may glorify Him; if we have a conscience, it is that we may obey it; if we have the prospect of heaven, it is that we may keep it before {122} us; if we have light, that we may follow it; if we have grace, that we may save ourselves by means of it. Alas! alas! for those who die without fulfilling their mission! who were called to be holy, and lived in sin; who were called to worship Christ, and who plunged into this giddy and unbelieving world; who were called to fight, and who remained idle; who were called to be Catholics, and who did but remain in the religion of their birth! Alas for those who have had gifts and talent, and have not used, or have misused, or abused them; who have had wealth, and have spent it on themselves; who have had abilities, and have advocated what was sinful, or ridiculed what was true, or scattered doubts against what was sacred; who have had leisure, and have wasted it on wicked companions, or evil books, or foolish amusements! Alas! for those, of whom the best that can be said is, that they are harmless and naturally blameless, while they never have attempted to cleanse their hearts or to live in God's sight!

In each excerpt there is a common call to acknowledge the objective truth of "God's mercies in Christ . . . here offered to you in full abundance" and our need to respond to those mercies with belief and obedience by "lowliness, patience, trust in God, recollection that we are in His presence, and thankfulness for His mercies." Newman warns his readers about the choices they face and the consequences of their choices, but emphasizes the mercy and forgiveness God has for the repentant sinner who believes and tries again.

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!

Preview: Newman and the Greek Fathers: Indwelling of the Spirit, Part II

On Monday, September 30, we'll conclude our discussion of Newman's discovery of the Greek Fathers's teaching on the Indwelling of the Spirit on the Son Rise Morning Show. Please tune in at my usual time, about 6:50 a.m. Central DST/7:50 a.m. Eastern DST here or catch the podcast later.

Reading the last paragraphs of Father Ker's discussion of how the Greek Fathers led Newman to the doctrine of the Indwelling of the Spirit reminded me of a July 2017 Eighth Day Institute event timed to coincide with the 500th anniversary of what is regarded as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation (Martin Luther's posting of his 95 Theses). 

The topic was "The Patristic View of Salvation: Justification by Faith Alone?" A Protestant (Lutheran) scholar, a Catholic scholar, and an Orthodox Christian scholar each presented and then responded to each other's academic papers on this subject, and other related papers were offered.

The odd thing was that we never really discussed, nor did anyone cogently defend, Martin Luther's doctrine of "Justification by Faith Alone"--in fact, we hardly mentioned it. That was because the representative speakers were reflecting on the "patristic view of salvation" so they spoke about Deification, not "Justification". The Director of Eighth Day Institute commented to members/attendees after the conference:

[The plenary speakers] all found the same emphasis of participation in Christ, or deification, as the Orthodox put it. . . . So while it was remarkable to see the united understanding of salvation as participation in Christ, that emphasis distracted us from the question of justification. I think there are two ways to look at this failure. On the one hand, it’s really not such a failure. The speakers heeded the admonition to return to the Fathers. And they just didn’t find much on the issue of justification. Instead, they found participation, union, and deification. And I mostly agree with all three speakers who indicated that this pre-Reformation emphasis on participation might be the way to get past the dividing issue of justification. . . .

Father Ker concurs that Newman found something similar when he studied the Greek Fathers. Newman had already changed his mind about the Calvinist doctrine of double predestination; moreover, Ker states that Newman "disagrees with Evangelicals who consider [the justification of the sinner] as a state, not of holiness or righteousness, but merely or mainly of acceptance with God'." (p. 36)

In addition to quoting several sermons ("The Law of the Spirit", "The State of Salvation", "The New Works of the Gospel", etc) Father Ker cites Newman's 1838 Lectures on Justification (reissued with an advertisement and corrective notes in 1874).

In a 1985 article for Christendom College, Richard Penaskovic called them a "forgotten classic" arguing that not only did Newman outline a Via Media for Tractarians between the Evangelical view and what he thought of as the "Romanist" view of Justification but he also offered a "powerful new synthesis of St. Paul and the Greek Fathers, especially St. Athanasius" to speak "of grace in highly personal categories" as it is present in the Christian heart and soul. Saint Augustine of Hippo, one of the four great Western Fathers, through his interpretations of Saint Paul's letters, was also an important influence on Newman.

Quoting these lectures, Father Ker sums up Newman's view on the indwelling of the Spirit as the source of the sanctification of the Christian, noting that he had rediscovered the "central New Testament doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, a doctrine that was second nature to the Eastern Fathers who knew nothing of the modern problem of justification":

"The presence of the Holy Ghost shed abroad in our hearts, the Author both of faith and renewal, this is really that which makes us righteous, and . . . our righteousness is the possession of that presence." Justification, then "is wrought by the power of the Spirit, or rather by His presence within us" while "faith and renewal are both present also, but as fruits of it" (Justification, pp. 137-138) . . . justification and renewal are "both included in that one great gift of God, the  indwelling of Christ" through the Holy Spirit "in the Christian soul" which constitutes "our justification and sanctification, as its necessary results" (ibid, p. 112) (Selected Sermons, p. 37)

What Newman learned from the Fathers of the Church about the Indwelling of the Spirit and deification he poured into his sermons and his pastoral care as both an Anglican minister and a Catholic priest, urging his congregations to be aware of this indwelling and be willing to cooperate with its Grace and inspiration for the faith, hope, and charity it imparted.

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!

Preview: Newman and the Greek Fathers: Indwelling of the Spirit, part I

On Monday, September 23, we'll continue our Son Rise Morning Show series on Newman and the Fathers of the Church. In this episode, we'll take a look at another of the lessons Newman learned by reading the Greek Fathers of the Church at my usual time, about 6:50 a.m. Central DST/7:50 a.m. Eastern DST. Please listen live here or on the podcast later.

The late Father Ian Ker edited Selected Sermons by Newman for the Paulist Press "Classics of Western Spirituality" series. In the section of his Introduction titled "The Influence of the Greek Fathers", Father Ker highlights the impact they had on Newman's thought as demonstrated by excerpts from the Parochial and Plain Sermons and other works. 

The first two areas we looked at were 1. The Incarnation and 2. The Resurrection and Pentecost.

The third area he identifies is Newman's emphasis on the Indwelling of the Spirit. 

We'll treat this topic in two episodes: the first focused on what Newman learned from the Greek Fathers about the Indwelling of the Spirit and the second (on September 30) on what this meant for his understanding of the doctrine of Justification.

Father Ker states:

Newman had discovered for himself in the New Testament and the Fathers the great forgotten doctrine of the indwelling in the soul of the Holy Spirit, and through the Spirit of the Father and the Son as well . . . (p. 34)

and cites PPS "The Communion of Saints":

{168}IT was the great promise of the Gospel, that the Lord of all, who had hitherto manifested himself externally to His servants, should take up His abode in their hearts. This, as you must recollect, is frequently the language of the Prophets; and it was the language of our Saviour when He came on earth: "I will love him," He says, speaking of those who love and obey Him, "and will manifest Myself to him ... We will come unto him, and make our abode with him." [John xiv. 21, 23.] Though He had come in our flesh, so as to be seen and handled, even this was not enough. Still He was external and separate; but after His ascension He descended again by and in His Spirit, and then at length the promise was fulfilled.

There must indeed be a union between all creatures and their Almighty Creator even for their very existence; for it is said, "In Him we live, and move, and {169} have our being;" and in one of the Psalms, "When Thou lettest Thy breath go forth, they shall be made." [Psalm civ. 30.] But far higher, more intimate, and more sacred is the indwelling of God in the hearts of His elect people;—so intimate, that compared with it, He may well be said not to inhabit other men at all; His presence being specified as the characteristic privilege of His own redeemed servants.

In one of Newman's Sermons on Subjects of the Day (another Anglican collection) on "Christian Nobleness" he describes again the effects of the Ascension and Pentecost on the Church as Jesus has returned

to His redeemed in the power of the Spirit, with a Presence more pervading because more intimate, and more real because more hidden. And as the manner of His coming was new, so was His gift. It was peace, but a new peace, "not as the world giveth;" not the exultation of the young, light-hearted, and simple, easily created, easily lost: but a serious, sober, lasting comfort, full of reverence, deep in contemplation.

Ker comments that Newman considers the true sign of a Christian is her awareness of this Presence, as it "should be at the heart of [her] moral and spiritual life". Without this Presence, "human life in its fullness is impossible . . ." (p 35), for without Christ in the shrine of our hearts we have "a self where God is not":

a home within [us] which is not a temple, a chamber which is not a confessional, a tribunal without a judge, a throne without a king;—that self may be king and judge; and that the Creator may rather be dealt with and approached as though a second party, instead of His being that true and better self of which self itself should be but an instrument and minister. ("Sincerity and Hypocrisy" p. 226)

Before mentioning tribunal and judge, Newman already spoke of the indwelling of the Spirit in the Christian's "innermost heart, or in his conscience"--which tempts me to discussing the connections between this theme and Newman's excellent statements about the formation, authority, and centrality of Conscience--but I have resisted that temptation (almost)! 

Nevertheless, mention of the heart recalls Newman's motto as Cardinal, "Cor ad Cor Loquitor" (Heart Speaks to Heart), and Ker concludes this part of his discussion of the "Indwelling of the Spirit" in the Christian heart with an excerpt from what he calls a "remarkable sermon", "The Thought of God, the Stay of the Soul" as Newman "makes the heart the focal point of human life and argues that only a personal God can fulfil its longings" and warns that "Human affection and love can only center the heart on what is 'perishable'" because:

Life passes, riches fly away, popularity is fickle, the senses decay, the world changes, friends die. One alone is constant; One alone is true to us; One alone can be true; One alone can be all things to us; One alone can supply our needs; One alone can train us up to our full perfection; One alone can give a meaning to our complex and intricate nature; One alone can give us tune and harmony; One alone can form and possess us.*

Quoting yet another PPS, "The Law of the Spirit", Ker states that Newman insists we were completely redeemed "only when the 'dreadful reality' of original sin was overtaken by a 'new righteousness,' a 'real righteousness' which 'comes from the Holy and Divine Spirit,' so that our 'works, done in the Spirit of Christ'", done out of obedience are hallowed and made holy. (p. 36)

Then Father Ker turns to how this doctrine of the Indwelling of the Spirit helped Newman as an Anglican see the contrast between an Evangelical theory of Justification and the Catholic Christian view of Deification or Divinisation as taught by the Greek or Eastern Fathers of the Church. That's argument we'll trace on the last Monday in September.

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!

*See Gaudium et Spes, paragraph 22:

22. The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come,(20) namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear.

Helen Constance White: Hildebrand, Matilda, and the Tudors

After my foray into the works of Josephine Ward, I've discovered another rather forgotten Catholic woman writer, the English professor and historical novelist, Helen Constance White. Cluny Media has published several of her historical novels. I just finished reading Not Built With Hands: A Novel. Cluny describes it thus:

Not Built with Hands tells of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, whose valor and vision proved invaluable in resolving the Investiture Controversy of eleventh-century Christendom. As the staunchest of Pope Gregory VII’s lay advisers, Matilda is called to constant service of the Church’s mission to build the City of God, even at the expense of her own kingdom. Despite the rampant political confusion and domestic strife that threatens to consume her realm, Matilda assumes the role of mediator between Church and State; in that role, she must work with (and against) such giants of history as Pope Gregory and Emperor Henry IV, Hugh of Cluny and Desiderius (the great Benedictine abbot who would become Pope Victor III), to achieve a concordant that will permit the two swords of society, the secular and the spiritual, to together rule in peace and amity.

“If, in fear of violence or through sloth, we suffer the power of the kingdom of God to pass into the hands of the princes of this world, then is the light of the world gone out, and chaos come again.”

Excepting her Norwegian contemporary Sigrid Undset, Helen C. White was peerless in her ability to bring the people and places of the past to brilliant life in the form of historical novels. That ability is on full display in Not Built with Hands (the second of her six novels), with its spirited and gracious heroine the embodiment of her author’s grand style and vision.

White tells a vivid story about Matilda's efforts to negotiate between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor during the Investiture Controversy over who should name bishops: the Pope or the Emperor; and of what was the purpose of bishops: to be priests and leaders of their diocese in the Catholic religion or be supporters of the secular aims of the ruler. There are meetings, and synods, and discussions, and battles, and all manner of skirmishes in this long tale and White keeps the pace going as Matilda works with her mother, her (first) husbands, soldiers, monks, bishops, and vassals. The limited omniscient narrator knows Matilda's thoughts and feelings, particularly her care and concern for her friend the pope, formerly Hildebrand, but also for the peace of Church and State in her encounters with Henry IV, a worthy foe, mercurial, powerful, and dangerous. The novel is divided into six Books: Rome, The Fullness of the Year, Another City, Canossa, A Gold Cup, and The Green Fields. White does not miss the opportunities for vivid descriptions of households, landscapes, churches, cities, travel, and battles. 

I also have Cluny's edition of To the End of the World, but instead of jumping from 11th century Tuscany and Rome to late 18th century France, I'm going to pause with one of two Tudor era studies she wrote: Tudor Books of Saints and Martyrs. I have also acquired another withdrawn library book, her Tudor Books of Private Devotion.

Helen Constance White was the first woman Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and there are several on-line tributes to her, including this one by a former graduate student, writing her dissertation on John Donne. Professor White specialized in the Metaphysical poets. You may find a list of her titles in the Library of Congress here.

Preview: Newman and the Greek Fathers on the Resurrection and Pentecost

On Monday, September 16, we'll continue our Son Rise Morning Show series on Newman and the Fathers of the Church. In this episode, we'll take a look at another of the lessons Newman learned by reading the Fathers of the Church at my usual time, about 6:50 a.m. Central DST/7:50 a.m. Eastern DST. Please listen live here or on the podcast later.

The late Father Ian Ker edited Selected Sermons by Newman for the Paulist Press "Classics of Western Spirituality" series. In the section of his Introduction titled "The Influence of the Greek Fathers", Father Ker highlights the impact they had on Newman's thought as demonstrated by excerpts from the Parochial and Plain Sermons and other works. The second area he identifies is Newman's emphasis on the Resurrection (the Ascension?) and Pentecost.

As he did when considering the "high Christology" Newman learned from the Greek Fathers, Ker notes that Newman was doing something different:

It was not until the second half of the twentieth century that Western theology began to regard the resurrection as more than simply the proof that Christ was divine and through his crucifixion he had conquered sin and death. . . . (p. 30)

Father Ker contends that in Newman's time the focus was on the crucifixion and that both Catholic and Protestant theologians in the nineteenth century thought "the resurrection not so much essential to redemption. as a kind of happy conclusion to the real drama that took place on the cross." (p. 30) Reading the Greek Fathers made Newman see that Our Lord's Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost are "one single divine act unfolding in several closely connected stages", a view commonly accepted by modern theologians. (p.31)

Ker quotes Newman's essay "The Theology of St. Ignatius [of Antioch]" (the second century Apostolic Father and martyr) from 1839 to show what Newman learned:

It would seem then to be certain, that Ignatius considers our life and salvation to lie, not in the Atonement by itself, but in the Incarnation; but neither in the Incarnation nor Atonement as past events, but, as present facts, in an existing mode, in which our Saviour comes to us; or, to speak more plainly, in our Saviour Himself who is God in our flesh, and not only so, but in flesh which has been offered up on the Cross in sacrifice, which has died and has risen. The being made man, the being crucified in atonement, the being raised again, are the three past events to which the Eternal Son has vouchsafed to become to us what He is, a Saviour; and those who omit the Resurrection in their view of the divine economy, are as really defective in faith as if they omitted the Crucifixion. On the Cross He paid the debt of the world, but as He could not have been crucified without first taking flesh, so again He could not, as it would seem, apply His atonement without first rising again. Accordingly, St. Ignatius speaks of our being saved and living not simply in the Atonement, but . . . in the {248} flesh and blood of the risen Lord, first sacrificed for us, then communicated to us.

In the same way, Father Ker notes that Newman, influenced by Greek Fathers (like Saint Basil the Great and Saint John Chrysostom for example), saw that after the Resurrection and the Ascension, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was a necessary part of our salvation, and, quoting a passage from PPS "Righteousness not of us, but in us", says "Newman's theology of the work of the Holy Spirit in Christ's redemption is eloquently comprehensive" (p. 32):

But there is another ground for saying that Christ did not finish His gracious economy by His death; viz. because the Holy Spirit came in order to finish it. When He ascended, He did not leave us to ourselves, so far the work was not done. He sent His Spirit. Were all finished as regards individuals, why should the Holy Ghost have condescended to come? But the Spirit came to finish in us, what Christ had finished in Himself, but left unfinished as regards us. To Him it is committed to apply to us severally all that Christ had done for us. As then His mission proves on the one hand that salvation is not from ourselves, so does it on the other that it must be wrought in us. For if all gifts of grace are with the Spirit, and the presence of the Spirit is within us, it follows that these gifts are to be manifested and wrought in us. If Christ is our sole hope, and Christ is given to us by the Spirit, and the Spirit be an inward presence, our sole hope is in an inward change. As a light placed in a room pours out its rays on all sides, so the presence of the Holy Ghost imbues us with life, strength, holiness, love, acceptableness, righteousness. God looks on us in mercy, because He sees in us "the mind of the Spirit," for whoso has this mind has holiness and righteousness within him. Henceforth all his thoughts, words, and works as done in the Spirit, are acceptable, pleasing, just before God; and whatever remaining infirmity there be in him, that the presence of the Spirit hides. That divine influence, which has the fulness of Christ's grace to purify us, has also the power of Christ's blood to justify. {138}

 Newman further describes how through the Holy Spirit

Christ Himself vouchsafes to repeat in each of us in figure and mystery all that He did and suffered in the flesh. He is formed in us, born in us, suffers in us, rises again in us, lives in us; and this not by a succession of events, but all at once: for He comes to us as a Spirit, all dying, all rising again, all living. We are ever receiving our birth, our justification, our renewal, ever dying to sin, ever rising to righteousness. His whole economy in all its parts is ever in us all at once; and this divine presence constitutes the title of each of us to {140} heaven; this is what He will acknowledge and accept at the last day. He will acknowledge Himself,—His image in us,—as though we reflected Him, and He, on looking round about, discerned at once who were His; those, namely, who gave back to Him His image. . . . .

If you go back to the first post in this series on Father Ker's commentary on Newman and the influence of the Greek Fathers, you can see how these themes are related: from the Incarnation to the Crucifixion; from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection; from the Resurrection (and Ascension) to Pentecost. 

Next week's topic, the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, certainly builds upon this one.

Saint Ignatius of Antioch, pray for us!

Saint Basil the Great, pray for us!

Saint John Chrysostom, pray for us!

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!

Preview: Father Ian Ker on what Newman Learned from the Church Fathers

On Monday, September 9, we'll continue our Son Rise Morning Show series on Newman and the Fathers of the Church. In this episode, we'll take a look at one of the lessons Newman learned by reading the Fathers of the Church at my usual time, about 6:50 a.m. Central DST/7:50 a.m. Eastern DST. Please listen live here or on the podcast later.

The late Father Ian Ker edited Selected Sermons by Newman for the Paulist Press "Classics of Western Spirituality" series. In the section of his Introduction titled "The Influence of the Greek Fathers", Father Ker highlights the impact they had on Newman's thought as demonstrated by excerpts from the Parochial and Plain Sermons. 

The five areas he identifies are:

1). The Incarnation

2). The Resurrection and Pentecost

3). The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit

4). The Sacraments

5). Mystery

He declares:

It was the thought of the Greek Fathers that shaped and guided Newman's reading of Scripture, out of which emerged that great corpus of sermons, the Parochial and Plain Sermons, one of the enduring classics of Christian spirituality. (p. 28)

We'll start with the first area of emphasis: The Incarnation. One thing Father Ker does not do in discussing these influences is to identify which Greek Father or Fathers influenced Newman to certain doctrinal and theological views. I think it's easy to identify at least one of the Fathers that influenced Newman to emphasize the Incarnation. It's Saint Athanasius of Alexandria. 

As noted before, Newman had studied the Arian crisis in the fourth century and Saint Athanasius was one of the great defenders of the Church's teaching about the Incarnation against the Arian heresy. Joseph Carola, S.J. points out in Engaging the Church Fathers in Nineteenth Century Catholicism: The Patristic Legacy of the Scuola Romana (Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Academic, 2023), Newman began his book publishing career with a book featuring Saint Athanasius (The Arians of the Fourth Century) in 1832 and ended it with another book about him in 1877, the final edition of his translation of Select Treatises of Saint Athanasius, first published in the  Library of the Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church in 1844. (p. 91)

Ker emphasizes that Newman gave priority to the Incarnation at a time when the doctrine of the Atonement received more emphasis because it "sets him apart from what was then at least the predominant tradition of Western Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant, and is to be traced to the profound influence exerted on him by the Greek Fathers." (p. 29) As Father Ker states, Newman's "high Christology" matches the Christology of those Greek Fathers. As an example, he quotes Newman's 1834 sermon ("The Incarnation") on Christmas Day, as he reminds his congregation of "the Catholic doctrine of the Incarnation":

Thus the Son of God became the Son of Man; mortal, but not a sinner; heir of our infirmities, not of our guiltiness; the offspring of the old race, yet {32} "the beginning of the" new "creation of God." . . . Thus He came, selecting and setting apart for Himself the elements of body and soul; then, uniting them, to Himself from their first origin of existence, pervading them, hallowing them by His own Divinity, spiritualizing them, and filling them with light and purity, the while they continued to be human, and for a time mortal and exposed to infirmity. . . .Great is our Lord, and great is His power, Jesus the Son of God and Son of man. Ten thousand times more dazzling bright than the highest Archangel, is our Lord and Christ. By birth the Only-begotten and Express image of God; and in taking our flesh, not sullied thereby, but raising human nature with Him, as He rose from the lowly manger to the right hand of power,—raising human nature, for Man has redeemed us, Man is set above all creatures, as one with the Creator, Man shall judge man at the last day. So honoured is this earth, that no stranger {40} shall judge us, but He who is our fellow, who will sustain our interests, and has full sympathy in all our imperfections.

For readers of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, this "high Christology" of Newman's is no surprise. As paragraph #460 declares, quoting St. Athanasius among other sources:

The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature":⁷⁸ "For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God."⁷⁹ "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."⁸⁰ "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods."⁸¹

78 2 Pt 1:4.
79 St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 3, 19, 1: PG 7/1, 939.
80 St. Athanasius, De inc. 54, 3: PG 25, 192B.
81 St. Thomas Aquinas, Opusc. 57, 1-4.

And as we'll see next week on September 16, Newman's emphasis on the Resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost demonstrates that Newman saw the whole of Christ's Incarnate life as "one single divine act unfolding in several closely connected stages." (p. 31)

Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, pray for us!

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!

 

Image Source (Public Domain): Saint Athanasius. By Francesco Bartolozzi after Domenichino.