Blessed John Henry Newman

Details: 08 October 2010

The ‘Apologia’

An authority on the life and work of the recently beatified Blessed John Henry Newman has noted that “Most readers today will find his “Apologia” an obscure work without a considerable apparatus of explanatory matter”. However, once that apparatus or a substantial part of it is in hand, a reader will be in possession of a splendid and memorable treasure. Philip Hughes, the famous church historian, remarked about this work of Newman, the official and full title of which is: “Apologia pro Vita Sua, being a History of His Religious Opinions”, that it is “unquestionably one of the literary and spiritual classics of all time. In it one of the finest masters of the English language tells in majestic and eloquent prose the story of his change of religious opinions from his first childhood experiences until finally, after years of study and deliberation, all doubts resolved, in perfect peace and contentment, he entered the Catholic Church.” “Such are its (the book’s) force and power that people of every religious persuasion have acknowledged this dynamic account of spiritual conversion as an extraordinary record of self-revelation and as a superb piece of controversial writing. Its sheer power of style, its remarkable absence of pose, its simple dignity as it reveals the intimate self of a very sensitive and reserved man, its almost unrivaled logical powers, the meticulous care for accuracy, all combine to make this a masterpiece of autobiography and a powerful defense of Catholicism. Cardinal Newman was a thinker of the first rank who has influenced the course of English thought more perhaps than any of his contemporaries. His intellectual gifts have made the “Apologia” one of the most influential (English language) religious books of Western civilization.”

How Began

The occasion for the writing The ‘Apologia’ An authority on the life and work of the recently beatified Blessed John Henry Newman has noted that “Most readers today will find his “Apologia” an obscure work without a considerable apparatus of explanatory matter”. However, once that apparatus or a substantial part of it is in hand, a reader will be in possession of a splendid and memorable treasure. Philip Hughes, the famous church historian, remarked about this work of Newman, the official and full title of which is: “Apologia pro Vita Sua, being a History of His Religious Opinions”, that it is “unquestionably one of the literary and spiritual classics of all time. In it one of the finest masters of the English language tells in majestic and eloquent prose the story of his change of religious opinions from his first childhood experiences until finally, after years of study and deliberation, all doubts resolved, in perfect peace and contentment, he entered the Catholic Church.” “Such are its (the book’s) force and power that people of every religious persuasion have acknowledged this dynamic account of spiritual conversion as an extraordinary record of self-revelation and as a superb piece of controversial writing. Its sheer power of style, its remarkable absence of pose, its simple dignity as it reveals the intimate self of a very sensitive and reserved man, its almost unrivaled logical powers, the meticulous care for accuracy, all combine to make this a masterpiece of autobiography and a powerful defense of Catholicism. Cardinal Newman was a thinker of the first rank who has influenced the course of English thought more perhaps than any of his contemporaries. His intellectual gifts have made the “Apologia” one of the most influential (English language) religious books of Western civilization.”

How Began

The occasion for the writing and publishing of Newman’s “Apologia” arose from a vicious 1864 written attack upon him and upon the Catholic Church by Charles Kingsley, an Anglican vicar, professor of modern history at Cambridge University in England, and something of a writer. His works include “Hypatia”, “The Water Babies”, and “Westward Ho”. Kingsley gratuitously (in a published magazine book review) said that Newman, like other Catholic priests, promotes and practices lying. In a published exchange of letters between Kingsley and Newman about the Kingsley’s slander in his book review, Newman easily got the better of him and clearly won the argument in public opinion. Kingsley then published a pamphlet entitled “What Then Does Doctor Newman Mean ?” Newman noted that the pamphlet’s “ultimate point is an attack upon the Catholic Religion.” Newman said that although “it is indeed I whom he is immediately insulting, he desires to impress upon the public mind the conviction that I am a crafty scheming man, simply untrustworthy; that in becoming a Catholic I have found just my right place...” Newman noticed, he said, that Kingsley is throwing dirt upon him. “Some dirt sticks longer than others, but no dirt is immortal.” He said that Kingsley’s “foul calumnies” and “base and cruel method of controversy” did not deserve his attention, but that he owed it to the Catholic Church and to the Catholic priesthood to contradict the accusation of untruthfulness and systematic lying. As Newman describes Kingsley’s view, it was a claim, Newman wrote, “that I was secretly a Catholic while I was openly professing to be a clergyman of the Established Church, that so far from bringing, by means of my conversion, when at length it openly took place, any strength to the Catholic cause, I am a burden to it, an additional evidence of the fact that to be a pure, genuine Catholic, a man must be either a knave or a fool.” But Newman describes how carrying out what he saw to be his obligation in refuting Kingsley would have its pains. “It is not pleasant to be giving to every shallow and flippant disputant the advantage over me of knowing my most private thoughts...but I do not like to be called to my face or to my name a liar and a knave, not should I be doing my duty to my faith or my name, I were to suffer it. I know I have done nothing to deserve such an insult and if I prove this, as I hope to do, I must not care for such incidental annoyances as are involved in the process.”

The Work

Newman said initially that he would only concern himself with refuting the Kingsley charge of untruthfulness. However, as the publication of his defense went forward, it was met with so much approval not only by Catholics but by the English public in general that at the end he presented a “General Answer to Mr. Kingsley” as well as a “Detailed Answer to Mr. Kingsley’s Accusations.” He also added an Appendix with a collection of quotations from Catholic moral teachers and authors with other information that not only vindicated his own conduct and views but also presented in an unexpectedly beautiful and respectable light Catholic history and teaching in many areas. The sincerity and honesty of Newman won people over and his book became in those days, what would be called today a “best-seller”. The autobiographical section of the work was the most appealing and delightful to read, but the way Newman then politely but clearly demolished the writing of Kingsley, with a series of precise and logical refutations destroying what he called the “blots” in those Kingsley writings, was a source of amusement for the public in England and a source of satisfaction and contentment for the Catholics of that time and place. As he began his own work, Newman wrote: “And now I am in a train of thought higher and more secure than any which slanders can disturb. Away with you, Mr. Kingsley, and fly into space. Your name shall occur again as little as I can help, in the course of these pages. I shall henceforth occupy myself not with you, but with your charges.” After his public conflict with Newman, Kingsley, who was obviously and totally defeated, retreated into deserved oblivion, denounced by all, except a tiny following of hateful and irrational anti-Catholics, as an ignorant bigot.

The Book

Newman divided the autobiographical part of his work according to a timetable of years. He began with “History of My Religious Opinions Up to 1833”, then went on to sections from 1833 to 1839, then 1839 to 1841, then 1841 to 1845. He noted for the first years to 1839, “I honestly wished to benefit the Church of England at the expense of the Church of Rome. For the second four years I wished to benefit the Church of England without prejudice to the Church of Rome. At the beginning of 1843 I began to despair of the Church of England and gave up all clerical duty.....and was influenced by a mere wish not to injure (the Church of England) it.” Then Newman wrote he contemplated leaving the Anglican Church and told his friends about his intention. Finally, it was only when he was writing his “Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine” that he began in his intentions to be in favor of the Roman Church and indirectly against the Anglican Church. He said of Kingsley’s pamphlet, “It is as slovenly and random and futile in its definite charges as it is iniquitous in its method of disputation.” However, it did occasion a great work of literature as all now agree.