Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman(1801-1890)
is famous for his effect on the Catholic Church. He was an English convert from
Anglicanism into Catholicism. His conversion was very popular and watched from
the entire world: cheered on by Catholics and frowned upon by Anglicans. After
his humble conversion following where God called him to go, he received
criticism in the form of a novel. The novel featured the story of a monk and
sister who had converted to Roman Catholicism and had regretted their decision
upon their death. The “authority of Rome” so the novel claimed had crushed these
follower’s intellect and will. Wittily determining that a satirical book and
conversion story would give the Oxford movement’s side of the story, presents
us with the background for Loss and Gain. The book is 404 pages total but almost
50 pages are commentaries or criticisms from other writers.
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| Blessed John Henry Newman |
The story of Loss and Gain focuses
on a young man beginning his university education at Oxford college. Charles
Reding is a pastor’s son who doesn’t have dogmatic resolutions about what he
believes about Christianity. Through many friendships, mentors, and lectures he
begins to feel drawn towards the idea
of truth. An early friend introduces him to the idea of disliking “shams” of
ideas in the opinions of those around him. He notices the inconsistencies in
people’s train of thought and belief systems all within the framework of the
Anglican Church. Through the book, a story of Reding’s conversion to
Catholicism, Catholic theology isn’t much discussed. Instead, a form of
thought, and more concretely the notion
of what Christianity should be, is formed: the love of dogmatic truth instead
of lati-tudinarianism. Lati-tudinarianism is the belief that God cares for
souls without caring for Church structure, leadership, or liturgy.[1] He meets individuals such
as Mr. Vincent who to Charles, “minces words, does not think soundly, fails to
follow the logical consequences of ideas, and lacks ‘clearness of intellect
enough to pursue a truth to its limits nor boldness enough to hold it in its
simplicity’”[2]
He finds that many he encounters are willing to stay in the shallows when they
should instead search deeply for truth. Reding comes to the conviction that his
own Church, which has such a wide net of what Christianity is, allows for liberals, evangelicals, low and high
church Anglican to contradict each other. He decides that the yoke of Rome
which denounces other churches as incorrect yet stays consistent in its
doctrine might provide him with Truth. He sadly must wrestle with losing
everything Oxford has offered him as well as his staunchly Anglican family. Loss and Gain is a witty book on the
inner struggles of Charles Redding, which mirror in a way, Cardinal Newman’s
own.
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Oxford in Antiquity
Pictures accessed at http://ethicscenter.nd.edu/assets/169263/9c712f6115b426b6081d1f94edc217d9.jpg and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Agas#/media/File:Ralph_Agas_map_of_Oxford_1578.gif
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[1]
John Henry Newman.
Loss and Gain. (Ignatius
Critical Editions, San Francisco: 2012) 404.
[2]
John Henry Newman.
Loss and Gain. 69.
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