The Modernist Errors of Cardinal John Henry Newman

By Bro. Peter Dimond

Cardinal John Henry Newman Examined - 1 [Video discussion]

Cardinal John Henry Newman Examined - 2 [Video discussion]

I recently completed a study of Cardinal John Henry Newman’s well-known work, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1878). I will now discuss the passages in his work which are incompatible with Catholic teaching.

NEWMAN DENIES THAT DIVINE REVELATION ENDED WITH THE DEATH OF THE LAST APOSTLE

Cardinal John Henry Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, p. 68 or Chap. 2 #12: “ Moreover, while it is certain that developments of Revelation proceeded all through the Old Dispensation {68} down to the very end of our Lord's ministry, on the other hand, if we turn our attention to the beginnings of Apostolical teaching after His ascension, we shall find ourselves unable to fix an historical point at which the growth of doctrine ceased, and the rule of faith was once for all settled. Not on the day of Pentecost, for St. Peter had still to learn at Joppa that he was to baptize Cornelius; not at Joppa and Cæsarea, for St. Paul had to write his Epistles; not on the death of the last Apostle, for St. Ignatius had to establish the doctrine of Episcopacy; not then, nor for centuries after, for the Canon of the New Testament was still undetermined. Not in the Creed, which is no collection of definitions, but a summary of certain credenda, an incomplete summary, and, like the Lord's Prayer or the Decalogue, a mere sample of divine truths, especially of the more elementary. No one doctrine can be named which starts complete at first, and gains nothing afterwards from the investigations of faith and the attacks of heresy. The Church went forth from the old world in haste, as the Israelites from Egypt "with their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders." (p. 68, Univ. of Notre Dame Press)

Newman says that we are unable to fix a point at which the growth of doctrine ceased, and the rule of faith was settled or finalized. He adds that this did not occur “on the death of the last Apostle, for St. Ignatius had to establish the doctrine of Episcopacy.” This is directly contrary to the teaching of the Church. The idea that divine revelation did not end with the death of the last apostle was one of the errors of the modernists condemned by Pope St. Pius X.

Pope St. Pius X, Lamentabile, July 3, 1907, The Errors of the Modernists #22: “Revelation, constituting the object of Catholic faith, was not completed with the apostles.” – Condemned (Denz. 2021)

This is a clear example of how Newman’s theology on the development of Christian Doctrine is inherently flawed; indeed, his explanation is precisely what was condemned as a modernist error.

To be continued, as time permits…

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