Book Review: Lead Kindly Light: Essays for Ian Ker

One thing reading this book has done is help me decide what to read next. While I'll continue to dip in to read a chapter from Mary Katherine Tillman's John Henry Newman: Man of Letters, after reading the penultimate essay in this book New Years Eve, Stephen Morgan's "The Combat of Truth and Error: Newman and Chesterton on Heresy", I know I'll pick up Matthew Levering's Newman on Doctrinal Corruption next.

I have too many stars beside the 18 essays and articles in Lead Kindly Light to discuss them all. Of course, I appreciated the three biographical offerings in the first section, "Along the Way of Life: Reminiscences", especially Bishop James Conley's, since he was our pastor at both the Newman Center at WSU and at Blessed Sacrament.

Of "The Trinity of Cardinals", I enjoyed hearing the "voice" of Cardinal Pell so clearly in his contribution, adapted from his Saint Thomas More Lecture in Oxford in November of 2021.

All four essays in the "Some Devotional Theology" section were excellent: Father Geissler, FSO on Newman's appreciation of the great charisms of Saint Paul, Father Beaumont, CO, on Newman's patron as an Oratorian, St. Philip Neri; Sister Dietz, FSO (another Newman scholar Bishop Conley brought to Wichita, and who returned to give a Newman Lecture at Newman University several years later; she also met me, my late husband Mark and the late Father William Carr at one of the fountains on St. Peters's Square in 2002 to lead us to the bus for a visit to the Newman Centre of the Spiritual Family the Work in Rome!!) on Newman's growth in belief and devotion to the Holy Eucharist; and Father Jones, OP, tracing Newman's exploration of Mary, the Mother of God, as the New Eve.

In the "Man of Letters" section, the only essay I thought lacked a certain focus was Father James Reidy's on Newman and Henry James, explaining how both Newman and James were ambivalent about the virtues of the "gentleman" and how a gentleman practices those virtues with all their limitations. I was already familiar with Edward Short's works on Newman and Gibbon from other sources (Newman and History, for example). Andrew Nash corrects another canard about Newman that it was only once Newman became a Catholic that he wielded the weapon of satire with his pen. And, speaking of satire, Serenhedd James surveys how the magazine Punch treated Newman through the years.

Both articles in the "Contributions to the Academy" section (Andrew Meszaros on "A Philosophical Habit of Mind: Newman and the University" and Paul Shrimpton on "Newman and the Idea of a Tutor") helped me understand Newman's Idea of a University and his vision for a university tutor better. I think too often Newman's famous vision of a university is taken merely as a plea for a "liberal arts education", but Meszaros reminded me that an important part of Newman's work is to form a habit of mind and an ability to think about issues clearly. Meszaros' seven principles on which to found a philosophical habit of mind are very helpful. For examples, the first three:

1. Reality is intelligible.

2. The intellect is made for reality and capable of knowledge of the whole.

3. Truth does not contradict truth. (see pages 258-259

Paul Shrimpton's essays reveals how Newman wanted a tutor--at both Oriel in Oxford and the Catholic University in Dublin--to guide his students individually in their studies, helping each student in the way the particular student needed; more guidance for slower students, teaching them how to study, hear lectures, read and write academically, etc., while more adept students needed encouragement in other ways. Perhaps they needed help to avoid what Newman even had to repent of, valuing intellectual excellence above all else, even moral excellence and growth.

I've already mentioned how Stephen Morgan's essay encouraged me to pick Levering's book next--for certainly "doctrinal corruptions" are a form of heresy, are they not?--but the late Father Dermot Fenlon's bracing "De-Christianizing England: Newman, Mill, and the Stationary State" is also a great reminder of how Newman's lifelong battle against liberalism, which always becomes a form of tyranny even as it pretends to toleration and diversity, offers us a guide in our century for remaining true to nature, reality, and the Catholic Faith which helps us understand them. I only regret that my decision to read Levering's book next puts off my reading of Fenlon on Cardinal Pole. But I've already moved my Newman holy card/bookmark to the next book; the die is cast!

Highly recommended as both a tribute to Father Ian Ker, may he rest in peace, and Saint John Henry Newman, may he pray for us! 

Please note that I purchased this book at Eighth Day Books.