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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