Heart Speaks to Heart: A Toast to St John Henry Newman

St. John Henry Newman has countless wonderful quotations that one could use to open a reflection, but the first one that came to my mind when Erin asked if I would do a short reflection was from Newman’s Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. In introducing the idea of doctrinal development he explains: “In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.” Of course, the principle is not just applicable to living doctrines; the same is true of living persons, particularly St. Newman himself. He is a man famous for many reasons, but none more so than the most significant change in his own life, his entrance into the Catholic Church.

What I want to do now is take just a few minutes to unpack this idea of perfection through change to make the case for using St. John Henry Newman as a model as we begin this Florovsky-Newman Week conference. And let me say at the outset, that I am not a Newman scholar. My own engagement with Newman has been episodic and really more connected with my personal history than my academic work. But, I have always found Newman to be a wonderful dialogue partner, and a number of key themes from his work have become permanent features of how I approach life and my own work as a professor and theologian. I also think they are very fitting principles for all of us to follow in our time together.

The first feature I want to highlight is his relentless pursuit of the truth. In basically every phase of his life and career, Newman is striving to get at the truth, and his tenaciousness was matched only by the breadth of his methods. He was a gifted researcher who immersed himself in the early Church and the Fathers long before it was “cool” (at least within the Catholic world). In addition to his seminal Essay on the Development of Doctrine where we can see the fruit of his vast reading through Church history, he also wrote works focusing on patristics, particularly the Arian controversy and Athanasius. But he didn’t only scour the libraries for truth, he analyzed his own mind, and thought itself, producing the Grammar of Assent, a work full of insights into the very nature of knowledge and belief. And, on top of his pursuit of truth in the library and in philosophical contemplation, he pursued it out in the real world, in the theological and philosophical conversation and controversies of his day. Throughout his career, Newman was an active participant in a wide range of debates, from his time as a pamphleteer in the Oxford Movement to his wrestling with the decrees of Vatican I as a Catholic priest and ultimately cardinal.

Which brings me to the second characteristic I’d like to highlight, the integration of Newman’s thought and life as a whole. Newman was not just an academic who pursued truth from 9-5 within the neat confines of his office and department. Newman taught that all knowledge is connected and that it should all be centered on, and animated by, our knowledge and love of God. This is beautifully expressed in another famous work, his Idea of a University. For Newman there was only one ultimate Truth, but it is not exclusive to any particular discipline or field. Rather, he argues that we need all of the disciplines together in order to pursue it properly. And that is true on both the corporate and individual levels. A university needs all of its departments to join together, and theology needs the insights of science, history, and literature in order to function properly. So too, as individuals, we need a broad grounding in, and engagement with, a range of fields in order to avoid falling into a view of the truth that is distorted by our own limited perspective and preferences. Newman lived this out in a way that most of us could only admire from afar. When he wasn’t writing historical monographs or penetrating analyses on the nature of belief, he was composing beautiful hymns, writing historical fiction, engaging in public debate in the leading journals of his day, and founding universities in Ireland.

And that’s the second type of integration that is so remarkable in Newman. It’s not just that different areas of study within our minds, or universities, need to be integrated. But also, our intellectual pursuit of truth should be integrated with our lives as a whole. Newman doesn’t just write about the importance of a proper education, he actual works on founding a university. He doesn’t just analyze the history of doctrinal development, he jumps into the fray of his own day and takes up his position. And, most famously, he doesn’t just reflect on the nature of belief in academic terms, he wrestles with his own belief and when he becomes convinced that he needs to change, he follows through on that conviction despite enormous costs.

Which brings me to the next key feature, the strength of his convictions. And with due credit to all his other outstanding characteristics, personally I am most struck by this simple fact. When Newman became convinced of a truth, he followed through on it regardless of the consequences. Like many other converts, this made a real impact on me personally as I read his Apologia Pro Vita Sua in the midst of my own entry into the Catholic Church during grad school. But, it was only fairly recently that I was truly struck by the immensity of Newman’s sacrifice. Most converts face challenges in explaining their decisions to family and friends. But, for Newman the stakes were much higher. He was sacrificing a prestigious and comfortable career, fame and respect in British society; basically, the entire lifestyle of the Oxford academic that had been his life’s goal and comfort for many years. It would have been so easy to stake out a compromise, like some other members of the Oxford movement did, and keep all the respect and trappings of Oxford life while striking a quasi-Catholic tone within the Church of England. But Newman’s convictions wouldn’t allow it.

And that’s only the most famous of his conscientious stands. Once he was within the Catholic Church, Newman continued to stand by his convictions, even when it was unpopular. He argued against the most powerful British Catholic of his day, Cardinal Manning, on the issue of papal infallibility. Newman didn’t disagree with the essential idea, but he thought the decree was inopportune and that the ultra-conservative interpretation of the doctrine was untenable. His stand on the issue certainly exacted a toll in the Catholic world of his day, and it is likely that it cost him a delay of many years in the process of his canonization.

But, Newman’s position was not one of intellectual pride or stubbornness. Nor was it even just a case of commitment to individual integrity. Rather, it flowed from Newman’s commitment to the cause of dialogue, both ecumenical and evangelical. Beyond the historical and theological issues, Newman was concerned about the impact the decree might have on hearts of women and men and that it might prove an obstacle in their pursuit of the truth. And that brings me to the final characteristic of Newman I want to highlight: his heart for the salvation of others. When Newman was made a cardinal he took the motto: Cor ad cor loquitur—heart speaks to heart. And to illustrate this, prominently featured on his Coat of Arms are three bright red hearts.

Now for all that I’ve said about the virtues of Newman, if you’ve read him at all you are hardly going to think of him as a warm and cuddly sort of guy. Newman’s work is full of a certain type of passion, but it is not typically thought of as emotional or sentimental. If you set up a sort of theological matching game and asked people to choose a motto and coat of arms to match with his work, I doubt that many people would choose the option that’s all about hearts. That really seems like it should belong to someone like St. Francis or St. Therese, not the brilliant Oxford academic. And yet it is his motto, and I think he chose it because it, in fact, expresses his own heart. What motivates all of the academic tomes, public lectures, and debates in leading periodicals of the day is a real desire to speak to the hearts of his readers. To the end of his life Newman was convinced that the best way for us to seek the truth is in partnership and dialogue with others as we all seek the truth united by a shared belief in God as both the ultimate goal and the foundation of our work.

And so, if you haven’t read much of St. John Henry Newman, I hope his pursuit of the truth, the integration of his life and work, his courageous conviction, and love of others will inspire you to do so. And if you have read Newman, I hope this reminder of his virtues will encourage you to go back to him. Personally I find him to be an inspiring model for my life as a Christian and academic. And, I think he is a wonderful model for all of us as we embark on these next few days in shared pursuit of the truth. I humbly ask for his intercession with the desire that we won’t simply try to win debates but rather that we will truly have heart speak to heart.

*Originally presented at Festal Banquet for the 2021 Florovsky-Newman Week (now called Ad Fontes Academic Week).