Category: Theology
Fr. John Lingard (1771-1851): Between Enlightened Catholicism and the Newmanian Second Spring
This essay will introduce readers to Lingard, one of the major intellectual lights of the English Catholic community when Newman joined it in 1845 at Littlemore.
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“Knowing God, Being Made holy,” A Lecture by Jennifer Newsome Martin
This lecture addresses the theme in St. John Henry Newman of the gradual—some would even say ordinary—pursuit of holiness throughout the course of the course of our human lives.
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Newman and Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius
Composed in 1900, a decade after the Cardinal’s death, Elgar’s Gerontius is not a collaboration but a new interpretation. What, then, did Newman’s poem mean to Elgar, and how did the composer articulate Newman’s vision musically?
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Newman, Probability, and Truth
The Grammar of Assent, published in 1870, represents Newman’s last major work. As a religious epistemology, it provides systematically thought-through answers to questions that had preoccupied him since his early twenties
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Enemy or Sacrament? Newman on Wealth and Holiness
Newman tended to talk about wealth and commerce in two ways: one prophetic and denunciatory, particularly of nations of shopkeepers, and one with applause—this is the nation of free enterprise.
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The Healing of the Liturgical Imagination: The Sweet Rhetoric of John Henry Newman’s Liturgical Sermons
Dr. Timothy O’Malley presented this lecture as the keynote address for the National Institute for Newman Studies Spring 2020 Newman Symposium. The full lecture is posted at the end of the blog article.
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“The Fire which Makes Gold Shine”: On Benefiting from Calamity
This article does not take a firm stance on the question of whether the COVID-19 pandemic should be seen as a chastisement sent by God. If we were to follow John Henry Newman’s lead, we would certainly have to remain open to that idea.
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2020 Spring Newman Symposium Recap: Newman on Doctrinal Corruption. Presented by Dr. Matthew Levering
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?
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Unlearning the Love of This World: Newman’s Sermons as Spiritual Reading during Lent
If you are anything like me, you have on at least one occasion squandered the holy season of Lent. The Church has established such times on the liturgical calendar so that we might enter more deeply into the mysteries of Christ’s life.
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Theologians for a Post-Westphalian Church
This was a public lecture given on the occasion of a Conference in celebration of the Twentieth Anniversary of the Theology Ph.D. Program at the University of Dayton, held on 28 September 2019.
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The Cry of Repentance Versus the Bitter Cry of Regret
It’s easy to read this account from Scripture and to cast aspersions on Esau. “How could he have been so foolish?” we wonder. “I’d never act that rashly,” we tell ourselves. Yet how often in our own lives do we make a similar, yet graver mistake by squandering the gifts of God—in our case, the graces that we receive through the sacraments—in exchange for some lesser good?
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Unlearning Ourselves in Lent: Newman on Fasting
For Newman, the disciplines of Lent—in this case, fasting—are a way for the Christian to participate mystically in the life of Christ. By intensifying our self-denial for these forty days of Lent, we come to know, in part, what Christ experienced in full measure:
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Recent Articles
Considering Online Education through Newman’s PrinciplesFebruary 24, 2021Newman's The Idea of a University outlines his theory and ideal of university education and can offer us some important principles to guide our thinking about the possibilities of online education. […]
Newman’s University Journal and Its SignificanceFebruary 17, 2021The journal is perhaps one of Newman's most practical texts on education due to the intimate voice that Newman uses to describe the difficulties and particularities of founding a university. […]
Letters from a Scientist: Newman’s Correspondence with St. George Jackson MivartFebruary 11, 2021While the unravelling of Mivart’s reputation among the Catholic leadership primarily occurred after Newman’s death in 1890, a correspondence between Newman and Mivart is housed in the NINS Digital Collections. […]
Letter from a Poet: Gerard Manley Hopkins to Ignatius RyderJanuary 27, 2021Just seven months before his death, the now famous poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ, penned the following letter to Henry “Ignatius” Ryder. […]
Newman in America: Correspondence with J. B. Purcell, Archbishop of CincinnatiJanuary 19, 2021In 1875 John Baptist Purcell wrote to Newman that some in the United States were opposed to a pamphlet he published in a Catholic Liverpool paper. […]