Was John Henry Newman a Conservative or a Liberal?

Abstract

Was John Henry Newman a Conservative or a Liberal? Rev. Dr. Ian Ker (bio) The extreme clarity and trenchancy with which John Henry Newman expressed himself has had the unfortunate result of his being easily claimed by both conservative and liberal Catholics as their champion by means of misleadingly selective quotation. Thus one can quote his forthright statement in the Apologia that dogma was "the fundamental principle" of religion—"I know no other religion"—or his insistence in the speech he delivered on being made a cardinal that "For thirty, forty, fifty years I have resisted to the best of my powers the spirit of liberalism in religion" (that "great mischief")—and conclude that Newman was an extremely conservative and traditionalist thinker.1 On the other hand, one can quote his famous words, "I shall drink – to the Pope, if you please – still to Conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards," or his apparently uncompromising assertion that "Theology is the fundamental and regulating principle of the whole Church system"—and conclude that Newman was a forerunner of the liberal, "spirit of Vatican II" kind of theologian who justified dissent from the Church's teachings on the ground that theologians exercise a magisterium parallel to that of Church authority.2 For, while indeed Newman was in many ways a radical thinker and reformer, he was also no less a conservative traditionalist. Neither simply conservative nor liberal, he is best described as a conservative radical. And this comes out most clearly in his theory of doctrinal development, where he maintains that Christianity or the Church changes to remain the same. [End Page 183] A good example of this theory would be the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Religious Freedom, which upholds the traditional teaching while at the same time ensuring that it is not misunderstood in the new context of a pluralistic society. Rev. Dr. Ian Ker University of Oxford Ian Ker Ian Turnbull Ker (1942 - 2022) was a Roman Catholic priest and leading scholar on John Henry Newman, writing over twenty books and significantly contributing to the cause of Newman's beatification in 2010. Fr. Ker taught at various universities in the United States and the United Kingdom, and served as a Senior Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. His publications include his seminal biography on John Henry Newman (Oxford University Press, 1988); The Catholic Revival in English Literature: 1845–1961 (Gracewing, 2003); G. K. Chesterton: A Biography (Oxford University Press, 2011); Newman on Vatican II (Oxford University Press, 2014); and The Cambridge Companion to John Henry Newman (Cambridge University Press, 2009), which he co-edited. NOTES 1. See Newman, Apologia, 67; Newman, "Biglietto Speech," 64. 2. Newman, "A Letter," 261; Newman, Preface, xlvii. BIBLIOGRAPHY Newman, John Henry. Apologia Pro Vita Sua. London: J.M Dent & Sons Ltd., 1921. https://digitalcollections.newmanstudies.org/document/bx4705_n5a3_1912/apologia_pro_vita_sua__john_henry_cardinal_newman/1912-01-01. Google Scholar ———. "Biglietto Speech, Rome." In Addresses to Cardinal Newman with His Replies, etc., 1879-1881, edited by Rev. W.P. Neville, 61–70. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1905. https://digitalcollections.newmanstudies.org/document/bx4705_n5a4_1905/addresses_to_cardinal_newman_with_his_replies_etc_1879-81__with_2_illustrations__edited_by_the_rev_wp_neville/1905-00-00. Google Scholar ———. "A Letter Addressed to the Duke of Norfolk on Occasion of Mr. Gladstone's Recent Expostulation." In Certain Difficulties Felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching, 179–378. Vol. 2. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1900. https://www.newmanreader.org/works/anglicans/volume2/gladstone/index.html. Google Scholar ———. Preface to the Third Edition of The Via Media of the Anglican Church, edited by H.D. Weidner, xv–xciv. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016 (first published 1990). Google Scholar Copyright © 2023 University of Notre Dame