Newman and the Alexandrian Fathers: Shaping Doctrine in Nineteenth-Century England (Changing Paradigms in Historical and Systematic Theology)

308 Pages·2009·0.99 MB·English

by  Benjamin J. King

CHANGING PARADIGMS IN HISTORICAL
AND SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY
GeneralEditors
SARAH COAKLEY RICHARD CROSS
CHANGING PARADIGMS IN HISTORICAL
AND SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY
GeneralEditors:SarahCoakley(Norris-HulseProfessorof
Divinity,UniversityofCambridge)andRichardCross
(JohnA.O’BrienProfessorofPhilosophy,University
ofNotreDame)
Thisseriessetsouttoreconsiderthemoderndistinctionbetween‘historical’
and‘systematic’theology.Thescholarshiprepresentedintheseriesismarked
byattentiontothewayinwhichhistoriographicandtheologicalpresump-
tions (‘paradigms’) necessarily inform the work of historians of Christian
thought, and thus aVect their application to contemporary concerns. At
certainkeyjuncturessuchparadigmsarerecast,causingare-consideration
of the methods, hermeneutics, geographical boundaries, or chronological
caesuraswhichhavepreviouslyguidedthetheologicalnarrative.Thebegin-
ningofthetwenty-Wrstcenturymarksaperiodofsuchnotablereassessment
oftheChristiandoctrinalheritage,andinvolvesaquestioningofthepara-
digms that have sustained the classic ‘history-of-ideas’ textbook accounts
ofthemodernera.Eachofthevolumesinthisseriesbringssuchcontem-
porarymethodologicalandhistoriographicalconcernstoconsciousconsid-
eration. Each tackles a period or key Wgure whose signiWcance is ripe
for reconsideration, and each analyses the implicit historiography that
hassustainedexistingscholarshiponthetopic.Avarietyoffreshmethodo-
logical concerns are considered, without reducing the theological to other
categories. The emphasis is on an awareness of the history of ‘reception’:
thepossibilitiesforcontemporarytheologyareboundupwithacarefulre-
writingofthehistoricalnarrative.Inthissense,‘historical’and‘systematic’
theologyarenecessarilyconjoined,yetalsocloselyconnectedtoadiscerning
interdisciplinaryengagement.
ThismonographseriesaccompaniestheprojectofTheOxfordHandbookof
theReceptionofChristianTheology(OUP,inprogress),alsoeditedbySarah
CoakleyandRichardCross.
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FORTHCOMING
TheHolySpirit
LewisAyres
Newman
and the
Alexandrian Fathers
Shaping Doctrine in
Nineteenth-Century England
BENJAMIN JOHN KING
1
3
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Preface and Acknowledgements
The British and Americans, it has been said, are predisposed to be
Whigs with regard to the past. Because of their own political and
economichistory,theytendtoseeallhistoryaseverchangingand,in
spiteofsetbacks,growingbetter.Theonlyquestioniswhethertobea
‘fastWhig’ora‘slowWhig’.
John Henry Newman, a Tory in most of his attitudes, was a
‘slow Whig’ in his view of Christian doctrine. On the face of it,
Newman was no believer in progress, for things were as likely to
growcorruptastodevelop;yetNewman’sfrequentfocusonchange
and renewal reXects a lifetime that spanned the nineteenth century
andwitnessedenormousreligious,political,andeconomicchangein
Britain.Newman’sWrstbookshowedthatChristiandoctrinewasnot
static but had a history: the Council of Nicaea changed what had
gonebefore,insomewaysfortheworse(movingfromthedayswhen
noformulawasneededtodeWnethefaith)andinotherwaysforthe
better (enabling the Church to confound heretics). Then, in the
middle of his life, Newman became the most famous proponent
of the development of doctrine in Britain and America. Finally,
towards the end of his life, in the introduction to The Via Media,
hewroteoftheCatholicChurch:‘itisherspecialduty...tokeepup
and to increase her various populations in this ever-dying, ever
nascent world, in which to be stationary is to lose ground, and to
reposeistofail’(VMi,pp. lxxx–lxxxi).Newmanwas,therefore,aslow
Whig,whosaworganicgrowthasinevitable,ifnotalwaysanimprove-
ment.Andateachstage—youngTractarian,middle-agedproponent
ofdoctrinaldevelopment,elderlyCardinal—itwastotheAlexandrian
FathersthatNewmanturnedtomakesurethatcontemporarygrowth
was rooted in orthodox truth. Yet, he adapted his understanding of
thoseFatherstoeachstageofhislife.
ThisbookisWhiggish,too,asmightbeexpectedfromsomething
researched and written in Britain and America. It recognizes four
important things about Newman’s own growth and renewal: Wrst,
viii PrefaceandAcknowledgements
thathisthinkingabouttheFatherschanged,bothinhiswritingsand
in his sermons; second, that consequently his understanding of
whatwasandwas not‘orthodox’changed;third,that thesechanges
unfoldedgraduallyinthreemajorstagesofhislifeandnotcataclys-
mically at his conversion to Catholicism; fourth, that when writing
ahistoryofdoctrine,Newmanwasboththerecipientofatraditionof
patristic interpretation and also someone who changed the way
the Fathers were read after him. Newman is therefore a key Wgure
in thegrowthand development of patristic scholarship, particularly
intheAnglophoneworld.
There are so many ways in which this book would not have been
possible without help on both sides of the Atlantic. The book’s
greatest debt is to Sarah Coakley, one of the series editors, who has
givenunceasingsupportandhelptothisresearchsinceitbegan.The
other series editor, Richard Cross, has provided me with invaluable
insights.MysecondgreatestdebtistotheencouragementofAndrew
Louth,whomIamproudtocallmyDoktorvater.AttheBirmingham
Oratory, IwouldliketothankFrancisMcGrathFMSforhishelpin
the Cardinal’s Library; at Yale, I would like to thank Frank Turner
bothforconversationandforhelpwiththemicroWlmversionofthe
Oratoryarchive.Iowegreatthankstothosewhohavereadversions
of the whole manuscript: David Brown, Nicholas Lash, and Peter
Nockles, whose suggestions have changed this book for the better.
Thosewhoreadparts,andaskedcrucialquestionsofwhattheyread,
are John Behr, Todd Billings, Brian Daley SJ, Michael Himes, Fred
Lawrence, and Mark McIntosh. Khaled Anatolios, Brigitte Hoege-
mann FSO, and Ian Ker responded generously to questions. David
Cunningham showed me how to begin to write a book; Charles
HeXing showed me how to Wnish one; and Kathleen Coleman
showed me how to cope with the proofs. Joseph Chapman and
DonaldLarsenwerekenoticwiththeirtimeandthelatePollyWarren
wasmy‘othersupervisor’.
My constant conversation partners, without whom I could not
have written a book at all, are Dominic Doyle, Philip McCosker,
EdmundNewey,andMatthewTreherne.Leyla,myWance´e,isthebest
PrefaceandAcknowledgements ix
editorahusbandcouldwant.TomPerridge,LizzyRobottomandall
atOxfordUniversityPresshavebeenkindnessitself.Thestudentsat
Harvardhavebeenendlesslyencouraging;allerrorsaremyownand,
as Daniel Okobi among those students particularly knows, I make
many!
Cambridge,Mass.
FeastoftheTransWguration,2008