A great many writers have dealt with the towering figure of John Henry Newman, and he is often held up by commentators as a champion of ecumenism. In a sense, this is true: there are few Catholic writers of the nineteenth century who demonstrate as much sympathy and undestanding for the difficulties faced by Anglicans and other Christians when faced with the claims of Rome.
However, it seems that misguided attempts to appropriate Newman for the cause of relativistic ecumenism, have led many to believe that his conversion to Catholicism was simply that of a High Anglican taking with him all his beliefs and devotions, and then making a painful submission to Roman authority.
In this new study written by a former Anglican clergyman who has been a Catholic for several years, the development of Newman's mariological ideas is seen as a key to understanding his conversion.
The background of nineteenth century Protestantism dictated that Newman would approach the Catholic faith with a deep suspicion of the role which the Roman Church attributed to the Mother of God. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception and the title of Mediatrix clearly presented Newman with what seemed like unsurmountable obstacles.
As he read more and more writings of the Church Fathers, he came to realise that the Church of England was a long way from their theology; and yet initially it seemed to him that the Church of Rome - though closer in many respects - had also fallen away. It was this difficulty which spurred him into exploring his theory of the development of dogma: the notion that truth, although revealed completely to the Apostles, may become more profoundly understood over time.
Originally part of a postgraduate Bachelor of Divinity thesis at the University of Oxford, Perrott's fascinating study will prove challenging and rewarding to anybody interested in Newman's life, and also to those following current debates relating to the possible definition of another Marian dogma.
Newman’s Mariology, by Michael J.L. Perrott.
104 pages, paperback. ISBN 1 901157 45 8.
£8.95 ; $15.95 in the U.S.A.
Published by The Saint Austin Press.
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