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Receptions of Newman. Edited by Frederick D. Aquino and Benjamin J. King . Pp. xi + 264. New York–Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. £65. 978 0 19 968758 9

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Receptions of Newman. Edited by Frederick D. Aquino and Benjamin J. King . Pp. xi + 264. New York–Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. £65. 978 0 19 968758 9

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2016

James Pereiro*
Affiliation:
University of Navarra
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Abstract

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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

The editors of Receptions of Newman, while disclaiming the intention of presenting an exhaustive account of the reception of Newman's thought, offer a wide panorama of the different interpretations of Newman's ideas. The volume is divided into five sections: the first three cover different readings of the Essay on development, the Grammar of assent, and the Idea of a university; the fourth section analyses his reception in diverse religious traditions; and the fifth deals with rival views of his ideas on revelation and sainthood. The two chapters on the Essay consider Protestant and Catholic reactions to Newman's theory of development (although without including a detailed analysis of it). The former shows how the resolute early rejection of the Essay's ideas by most sections of the Anglican spectrum was followed in time by its general acceptance, although on epistemological bases different from Newman's. The latter shows how initial Catholic criticism of the Essay was soon followed by authoritative Catholic support for its ideas: the theory of development being used to promote the definition of papal infallibility. However, the Thomistic Revival in the late nineteenth century and the abuse by Modernism of Newman's theory led, or so it is claimed, to the neglect of the ideas of the Essay until the early 1960s – a generalisation somewhat questionable. The two chapters on the philosophical and theological influence of the Grammar of assent rightly maintain that the Grammar is not an analysis only of religious belief, but of the whole range of human enquiry: Newman expanded the definition of rationality ‘beyond the narrow confines of formal inference and syllogistic reasoning’. It is perhaps in these chapters and those on the Idea of a university where one can find a limitation common in Newman studies: lack of context, whether historical or textual. The latter tends to be the result of a tendency to study the main works of the Newman canon in isolation from the rest of his corpus. Newman himself was aware of this problem and, to obviate it, he wished his University sermons to be translated to let Catholic readers into the intellectual context of the Essay and avoid unnecessary misunderstandings. What was true of the Essay is even truer of the Grammar; some of the philosophers and theologians mentioned in these chapters would have benefited from a closer acquaintance with Newman's ideas on knowledge in general, and religious knowledge in particular, expressed in other of his works and underpinning the works under study. The editors clearly state their intention of challenging the ‘official’ interpretations of Newman and uncovering areas where he has been misunderstood: these are large claims which the present volume does not fully justify. The editors do not say what the ‘official’ interpretations are, although they seem to have in mind those which maintain that the coherence of Newman's ideas necessarily led to Rome. Nevertheless, the volume is a useful overview of receptions or interpretations of some key Newman works, showing also how he is still influential in diverse fields of enquiry and praxis. The editors deserve our gratitude for it.