Who was cardinal newman?

Answer 1

Cardinal Newman (not to be confused with Saint John Neumann) was a famous Anglican thinker who converted to Roman Catholicism.

Cardinal Newman was born on February 21, 1801 and died on August 11, 1890. He was present at Vatican I.

Cardinal Newman has many writing's. His writings are so numerous that it is reported that scholars have chosen not to undertake the task of translating them into Latin. (Latin is the universal language of the Church.)

Essentially Cardinal Newman set out to prove that the Anglican Church is the Church which Jesus Christ founded. Paradoxically his research lead him in the direction of the Roman Catholic Church. Eventually he converted to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism.

Newman's most famous work was his work on "An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine." In this work he sets out to explain how and why the Roman Catholic Church of the first centuries looks and acts very different then the Roman Catholic Church of modern times.

For example- in the early Church there was no set number of the Sacraments at 7. The Sacramental celebrations themselves took different forms from the modern Catholic Church. Confirmation and Baptism for example were administered as one Sacrament. Penance was much more public, the idea of private penance and that the sacrament was repeatable had not yet been developed. Papal Primacy was much less a juridic primacy so much as it was a primacy of communion and union.

Newman helps to explain how this can be- how the Church can be the same Church, yet look different, with his theory of development of doctrine. The analogy of Acorn to Oak Tree is often employed. An Acorn looks nothing like an Oak Tree, but a fully grown Oak Tree is not different in essence from a Acorn, but rather a fuller expression of it's nature.

Cardinal Newman's idea of development was not necessarily new. The theory had a hearing among theologians for quite some time. What Newman did was to popularize the concept and also make a distinction between development and evolution. Evolution implies change. Acorn becomes a Cat. The essence of something changes into something else. The thing not only appears different, but IS in it's essence different from what it was prior. Development implies a change in FORM, but not essence as in the case of the Acorn. The essence of the Acorn is OAK, the essence of the Oak Tree is OAK though it takes a different form.

Newman believes that the core of Roman Catholic Theology is the concept of the Incarnation. Everything the Church teaches in some way is a formulation of the doctrine of the Incarnation. Even the concept of Infallibility. (which Newman was initially opposed, only after Vatican I did he submit, and even then under obedience) If we take seriously the idea that Christ is truly the Head of the Body the Church, and Christ is truly, really, and substantially joined to the Church, how can the Church be anything BUT infallible? If the Church participates in the life of Christ, and Christ sustains the Church, then obviously Christ will prevent the Church from ever teaching error at the universal level. To say the Church is infallible is another way of saying Christ is the head of the Body the Church, and the Church possess in itself the life of Christ because of it's true, real, and substantial communion with him. By way of his human nature, Christ is joined to the Church.

Protestants by contrast see essence of the Gospel as Justification by Faith Alone. All of their theology is essentially a formulation of Justification by Faith Alone. This is perhaps a large part of why Catholics and Protestants arrive at different conclusions when reading Scripture. For Catholics, the material of Scripture is formed and informed by the principle of the Incarnation. For Protestants, the material of Scripture is formed and informed by the principle of Justification by Faith Alone.