Saint John Henry Newman


Book Description

This volume of essays, sponsored by the Newman Association of America, serves to identify, preserve, and promote the legacy of John Henry Newman. It argues that eleven major elements of Newman’s life and work speak to us today, and, in fact, are very important resources for believers in their confrontation with the challenges of an increasingly secular world. They also resonate loudly to a church in crisis both internally and externally in its confrontation with that world. Ten authors, included among them some of the world’s most noted Newman scholars, as well as several emerging ones, address various aspects of Newman’s legacy on a host of subjects. These include the nature and challenges of faith both for believers and contemporary “nones” with no religious affiliations, an analysis of what and how we know things, particularly bearing on religious matters, the experience of conversions, the place and meaning of relationships in our search for God, especially those of family, home, and friendships, the indispensable role of the church in our drive for holiness, the nature and importance of education and its personal dimension, and the correct application of history in studying and learning from Newman’s legacy. Those who have questions and who think about these subjects, academics and non-academics alike, will find much to ponder in these essays.




Communities of Science in Nineteenth-Century Ireland


Book Description

The nineteenth century was an important period for both the proliferation of "popular" science and for the demarcation of a group of professionals that we now term scientists. Of course for Ireland, largely in contrast to the rest of Britain, the prominence of Catholicism posed various philosophical questions regarding research. Adelman's study examines the practical educational impact of the growth of science in these communities, and the impact of this on the country's economy; the role of museums and exhibitions in spreading scientific knowledge; and the role that science had to play in Ireland's turbulent political context. Adelman challenges historians to reassess the relationship between science and society, showing that the unique situation in Victorian Ireland can nonetheless have important implications for wider European interpretations of the development of this relationship during a period of significant change.




Philosophical Habit of Mind


Book Description




John Henry Newman


Book Description

‘In another world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.’ From An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1903) Saint John Henry Newman was one of the most controversial and influential thinkers of his day, and his many writings have remained highly influential since his death in August 1890. He is also widely regarded as one of the finest prose stylists of modern times, as well as a popular poet and hymn-writer. Published to coincide with Newman’s canonization by Pope Francis in October 2019, this engaging and judicious introduction to Newman’ life and legacy will be welcomed by newcomers and seasoned enthusiasts alike.




Religious Morality in John Henry Newman


Book Description

This book is a systematic study of religious morality in the works of John Henry Newman (1801-1890). The work considers Newman’s widely discussed views on conscience and assent, analyzing his understanding of moral law and its relation to the development of moral doctrine in Church tradition. By integrating Newman’s religious epistemology and theological method, the author explores the hermeneutics of the imagination in moral decision-making: the imagination enables us to interpret complex reality in a practical manner, to relate belief with action. The analysis bridges philosophical and religious discourse, discussing three related categories. The first deals with Newman’s commitment to truth and holiness whereby he connects the realm of doctrine with the realm of salvation. The second category considers theoretical foundations of religious morality, and the third category explores Newman’s hermeneutics of the imagination to clarify his view of moral law, moral conscience, and Church tradition as practical foundations of religious morality. The author explains how secular reason in moral discernment can elicit religious significance. As a result, Church tradition should develop doctrine and foster holiness by being receptive to emerging experiences and cultural change. John Henry Newman was a highly controversial figure and his insightful writings continue to challenge and influence scholarship today. This book is a significant contribution to that scholarship and the analysis and literature comprise a detailed research guide for graduates and scholars.




Apologia Pro Vita Sua and Six Sermons


Book Description

This newly edited version of John Henry Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua sheds new light on Newman's celebrated account of his passage from the Church of England to the Roman Catholic Church and repositions his narrative within the context of transformative religious journeys of other Victorian intellectuals. Frank M. Turner is the first historian of Victorian thought, religion, and culture to edit Newman's classic autobiographical narrative. Drawing on extensive research in contemporary printed materials and archives, Turner's powerfully revisionist Introduction reevaluates and challenges the historical adequacy of previous interpretations of Newman's life and of the Apologia itself. He further presents Newman's volume as a response to ultramontane assertions of papal authority in the l860s. In addition to numerous explanatory textual annotations, the volume includes an Appendix featuring six important Anglican sermons that providesignificant insights into Newman's thought during the years recounted in the Apologia.




An Intellectual History of Liberal Catholicism in Western Europe, 1789-1870


Book Description

This volume probes and deciphers the tensions and contradictions that underlie modern European Liberal Catholicism. Beginning with the French revolution and looking at dialogues between European 'public moralists', the book discusses the ways in which liberal Catholics loosened their bonds with religion, all the while relying on it. It reflects on how and why they promoted a post-revolutionary state and society based on religious dogma and morality, and what new liberal order and socio-political and religious models they proposed. Beyond the analysis of the work of these Catholic intellectuals, the question of their conceiving a specific liberal approach through Catholicism is also investigated. More generally, it prompts a vital reappraisal of the political, ideological and philosophical pressures that the religious question caused in the redefinition of Western European post-revolutionary liberalism.




Thomas Meagher


Book Description

Thomas Meagher is the biography of the father of one of Ireland’s most famous patriots, Thomas Francis Meagher. Overshadowed by his son, he was a man of deeply held political and religious principles, who, through his philanthropic works and political career, helped shape the character of nineteenth-century Ireland and deserves to be remembered in his own right. The book charts the complete story of Meagher, from his birth to Irish parents in Newfoundland, to his death in Bray in 1874. Most of his life was spent in Waterford city and it was there that he would establish himself as champion of political and religious equality, holding mayoral and parliamentary offices, while also working for the alleviation of suffering for the working classes, particularly during the Great Famine. A staunch follower of Daniel O’Connell, his career was strongly linked to the ongoing fight for repeal and Catholic rights. Broderick also looks at the fascinating and complex relationship Meagher had with his son, Thomas Francis, which mirrored the age-old conflict between constitutional and revolutionary nationalism in Ireland. Illuminating the history, not only of the man, but also the times in which he lived, this is a very human story set against the backdrop of great political turbulence.




Population, providence and empire


Book Description

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. Over seven million people left Ireland over the course of the nineteenth century. This book is the first to put that huge population change in its religious context, by asking how the Irish Catholic, Anglican and Presbyterian churches responded to mass emigration. Did they facilitate it, object to it, or limit it? Were the three Irish churches themelves changed by this demographic upheaval? Focusing on the effects of emigration on Ireland rather than its diaspora, and merging two of the most important phenomena in the story of modern Ireland – mass emigration and religious change – this study offers new insights into both nineteenth-century Irish history and historical migration studies in general. Its five thematic chapters lead to a conclusion that, on balance, emigration determined the churches’ fates to a far greater extent than the churches determined emigrants’ fates.