From Implicit and Explicit Reason to Inference and Assent: The Significance of John Henry Newman’s Seminary Studies in Rome

The present article focuses on the significance of John Henry Newman’s Roman seminary studies in 1846-7 for the development of his reflections on faith. As an Anglican, Newman envisaged faith from the conceptual binary of ‘implicit’ and ‘explicit reason’. After encountering scholastic categories on...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Shea, C. Michael (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Oxford University Press [2016]
In: The journal of theological studies
Year: 2016, Volume: 67, Issue: 1, Pages: 143-171
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Newman, John Henry, Saint 1801-1890 / Faith / Reason / Vatican Palace / Theological studies / History 1846-1847
IxTheo Classification:CB Christian life; spirituality
FB Theological education
KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history
KDB Roman Catholic Church
VA Philosophy
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
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Summary:The present article focuses on the significance of John Henry Newman’s Roman seminary studies in 1846-7 for the development of his reflections on faith. As an Anglican, Newman envisaged faith from the conceptual binary of ‘implicit’ and ‘explicit reason’. After encountering scholastic categories on the question as a Roman Catholic neophyte, Newman came to regard his earlier approach as insufficient in accounting for the various features of faith, such as the notion of human free will. In Rome, the Jesuit professor of dogmatic theology Giovanni Perrone helped Newman to revise his earlier position. Perrone’s standard theological textbook, the Praelectiones Theologicae , defined faith as a specific type of intellectual assent. Newman regarded Perrone and his textbook as authoritatively expressing Roman Catholic orthodoxy on the question of faith, and it is during this period that one encounters Newman’s first full-scale reconsideration of his earlier views and first explicit definition of faith as an intellectual assent. Consequently, Newman’s later contributions to the problem of faith, including his magnum opus An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (1870), owe a significant debt to this watershed period in his life.
ISSN:1477-4607
Contains:Enthalten in: The journal of theological studies
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/jts/flw078