Levering's Different Angle on Newman's Development of Doctrine

Professor Matthew Levering spoke at Eighth Day Institute's 2021 Florovsky-Newman Week (now called Ad Fontes) on “Christ the New Joshua: Patristic Reflections on Baptism", and I read his book on Mary's Bodily Assumption after the 2019 Florovsky-Newman Week. Now I see he has new book out about Saint John Henry Newman: Newman on Doctrinal Corruption.

According to the publisher, Word on Fire Academic Dimensions, this book:

examines John Henry Newman’s understanding of history and doctrine in his own context, first as an Oxford student and professor reading Edward Gibbon and influenced by his close friend Hurrell Froude, then as a new Catholic convert in dialogue with his brother Francis, and finally as an eminent Catholic during the controversies over the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception (in dialogue with Edward Pusey) and papal infallibility (in dialogue with Ignaz von Döllinger).

Author Matthew Levering argues that Newman’s career is shaped in large part by concerns about doctrinal corruption. Newman’s understanding of doctrinal development can only be understood when we come to share his concerns about the danger of doctrinal corruption—concerns that explain why Newman vigorously opposed religious liberalism. Particularly significant is Newman’s debate with the great German Church historian Döllinger since, in this final debate, Newman brings to bear all that he has learned about the nature of history, the formation of Church doctrine, the problem with private judgment, and the role of historical research.

• This book is unique in its predominant focus on Newman’s understanding of doctrinal corruption. Most books on this subject focus primarily on his theory of development.

• This book focuses on the development of Newman’s views on corruption over the course of his life by looking at his engagements with a series of key figures.

• The book showcases Newman’s engagements with five key figures: the historian Edward Gibbon; his friend, Hurrell Froude; his brother, Francis Newman; the prominent figure in the Oxford Movement, Edward Pusey; and the Church historian, Ignaz von Döllinger.

Looks fascinating! As soon as I saw that Newman's first interlocutor was Edward Gibbon I thought of Edward Short's chapter on Newman and Gibbon in Newman and History ("Newman, Gibbon, and God's Particular Providence")!

Catholic World Report offers a review by Casey Chalk, and the Newman Review from the National Institute for Newman Studies provides a report on and a recording of Levering's 2020 Spring Newman Symposium lecture on the same theme (which had to be offered online because of COVID-19!!):

The first lecture we will share is one by Dr. Matthew Levering, the James N. and Mary D. Perry Jr. Chair of Theology at Mundelein Seminary at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake. His lecture is entitled, “Newman on Doctrinal Corruption.” In this lecture, Dr. Levering shows that Newman’s work on doctrinal development arose from his Anglican concerns about doctrinal corruption, which at that time he identified in the Church of Rome. Why, however, did doctrinal corruption worry Newman so much? He realized that if one were to grant that doctrinal corruption has occurred in all churches—as Latitudinarians believed—then in fact the doctrinal teachings of the Church in any epoch are simply whatever powerful people, whether ecclesiastical rulers or State rulers, think fit to impose upon the less powerful masses. Far from being excitingly bold or indicating more freedom of thought, doctrinal corruption as a principle held by theologians simply justifies the power of the strong over the weak. . . .

What a line-up of books about Newman I have in the next few months: the festschrift for +Father Ian Ker, the collection of essays and articles by +Mary Katherine Tillman, and this new book!