Customer Reviews

Newman's Challenge

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John Henry Newman (1801-1890) was one of the leaders of the so-called «Oxford Movement» (begun in 1833) which sought to «catholicize» the Church of England (or, in Jaki's own words, to «recover the supernatural»), authoring 24 of the 90 Tracts that defined its program. Influenced by his study of the Church Fathers, Newman was led to the conclusion that the Catholic Church, to which he converted in 1845, was the one true fold, the only recognizable extension of the Patristic Church, and the only Ark of salvation. Ultimately, he was made a cardinal-deacon by Pope Leo XIII in 1879.

Stanley Jaki's book, *Newman's Challenge*, is neither a biography, nor an introduction to Newman's thought. It is a collection of Newman-related essays, lectures and extracts from books which Jaki produced over the years. The latter include his introduction to his re-edition of Newman's *Anglican Difficulties* and the chapter on Newman from *Theology of Priestly Celibacy*.

The author's main purpose in publishing this volume on Newman seems to have been to rescue him from tendentious misappropriations by his former co-religionists and by «Catholic» neo-modernists who have hailed him as «the chief inspiration of Vatican II», a title which, if true, and given what the «spirit of Vatican II» is supposed to be, would have been to me reason enough to shun Newman and bar him from my library shelves.

In addition to opening windows on Newman's thinking about such themes as original sin, miracles, papal authority, epistemology or evolution, the book is valuable as an opportunity for Fr. Jaki to air his acerbic criticisms of the intellectual poison circularing in the bloodstreams of the post-Conciliar Church, from Teilhardism (with a particularly damning comment by Etienne Gilson on page 285) ; to the (im)moral dissent of Charles Curran ; the «anti-papal revolt of so many theological faculties over the world» (which I have had firsthand experience of in the «Catholic» University of Lille, which is doing Satan's work under the guise of rigorous, up-to-date, Conciliar scholarship) ; the «deep-seated intolerance of the supernatural» in liberal circles ; the modern, Kantianized version of Thomism which he calls «Aquikantism» ; the «theological fad» of believing «that in saving the environment we will have saved our very souls» ; or the «glorification of private judgment» that lurks behind the «newfangled boosting of the laity.»

Though no traditionalist himself (he alludes at one point to those who confuse «fidelity with immobility») Fr. Jaki is one of those rare modern Catholics I have yet to catch in an unorthodox utterance, and he does recognize that the current crisis is of a severity that «has not been seen in the Church for a long time». Knowing that there still are such Catholics outside of the ranks of the Lefebvrists and sedevacantists (who, too often, are themselves often guilty of Biblical literalism and Young-Earth Creationism) is one of the few signs I can find that the post-Conciliar Church may still be the Catholic Church after all, and not some late-comer in the post-Reformation proliferation of churches, defending a faith born in the early 1960s which I personally call «deuterovaticanism», as opposed to Catholicism. Indeed, I could not help wondering if Newman would have converted to Catholicism if the Church he had been presented with had been the post-Conciliar Church. Would «Athanasius and Ambrose... recognize today in the Church of Rome the Church of the Apostles» ? Or would they shake their heads and worship at a traditionalist chapel ?

The book failed to arouse in me a real interest in Newman the thinker, mostly because of his Englishness. I tend to share Eric von Kuehnelt-Leddihn's perception of English Catholicism as a quaint breed indeed. However heroic Newman's extricating himself from the Anglican Church may have been, it failed to move me, because Anglicanism appears to me as a kind of silliness only a born and bred Englishman would ever have to extricate himself from in the first place. As for Newman's epistemology, shaped as it was by John Stuart Mill, John Locke and Francis Bacon, it seemed to me rather fuzzy and unreliable. I did like Newman's position on evolution though, but virtually all he ever wrote on the subject is quoted or summarized here in a 25-page chapter which whetted my appetite for St George Jackson Mivart rather than for Newman himself.

I am not over with the Cardinal though, because I intend to read everything Fr. Jaki has ever written or edited, and there are several more volumes awaiting me in this connection. Apart from Newman's *Anglican Difficulties*, Fr. Jaki has also re-edited his *Letter to the Duke of Norfolk* (under the title *Conscience and the Papacy*), *The Mother of God* and *The Development of Christian Doctrine*; and he has written a volume entitled *Newman to Converts : An Existential Ecclesiology*, which he describes as a thorough inquiry into the instructions Newman gave in letters to prospective converts (a 30-page overview of which is given in chapter 5 of the present book.) So over the next few months, I might get to know more about this major figure of the 19th century whom Jaki considers a saint and one of the three great theologians of the 19th century (together with Matthias Joseph Scheeben and Johann Adam Moehler). And maybe, in the process, I shall gain more appreciation for the British mind.

This book consists of a number of essays by S.L. Jaki on the thought of John Henry Newman. My knowledge of Newman is quite limited, so I can't comment on the subtance of this book. However, I found that the articles provided an interesting overview of Newman's thought on a variety of subjects. Jaki has a polemical style that gets in the way at times, but he has interesting things to say about the ecumenical movement, scholastic theology and evolution, among other things.

It is obvious that Stanley Jaki" latest book, "Newman's Challenge" is a labor of love. The two men are soul mates. Jaki has been interested in, and writiing about Newman for a long time. In fact, "Newman's Challenge" is a compilation of lectures and previously published chapters from other books written by the prolific Benedictine priest. For the serious, searching Christian, and especialoly for Anglicans and Catholics,there is much in this volume to ponder. Newman's challenge in defending the supernatural took him on a stringently logical path that could only lead him to embrace Rome as the church of the apostles, the inheritance of the early Church Fathers. Thus, Newman's most remembered quote, "The Fathers made me a Catholic," is based on what he considered two striking parallels: the refusal of the Fathers to conform to the thinking of the ancient pagan world, and the refusal of the post-Patristic Church, led by the Popes, to "cave in to the relentless demands of an ever more aggressive secular world." "Newman's Challenge" is a readable presentation of a brilliant man's self imposed moral obligation to seek and find truth. After many years, his journey led him to the Church handed down by Christ to Peter. Enormously sensitive to the voice of his conscience, Newman's supernaturalism was sound, the author declares, because it rested on the natural. Jaki knows whereof he speaks. He is the author of more than 40 books and articles on the history and the philosophy of science. Readers searching for logic and reason amid today's bewildering interpretations of the spiritual will find this book rich in discernment and even richer in provocative thinking.

To try to answer Thomasthawaii's question in review #4: Newman was distrusted by some Roman and English bishops because they were clericalists, i.e. they tended to think that the clergy are what the Church is all about. Newman, for his part, agreed that the clergy have an important and distinct role; but he insisted that this role was not an end in itself, but rather an instrument to a higher end: the attainment of holiness by all Catholics, lay and clerical alike. But the attainment of holiness is unavoidably a supernatural project. Hence, Fr. Jaki's emphasis on Newman's emphasis on the supernatural.

Jaki's book has a thesis well summarized by the first reviewer. The polemic to support this thesis gets in the way for this reader. Newman is not an easy companion for either pro-curialists like Jaki on the one hand or the liberal sorts who try to claim Newman. Jaki sees Newman totally on his side and to do that you have to ignore Newman's own problems with Rome and the English and Irish hierarchies. If Newman was as ultramontane (super Roman) as Jaki says, why did the conservative hierarchy at the time distrust him so?