Autor: Crowe, Frederich E., S.J.

Buch: Theology of the Christian Word

Titel: Theology of the Christian Word

Stichwort: Newman: An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine; Entwicklung des Dogmas; Problem d. logischen Erklärung

Kurzinhalt: evangelistic success; logical explanation

Textausschnitt: 92c In modern times, according to Chadwick, there have been two efforts to deal with the data that Newman will later analyze more successfully. Bossuet held that variation in the teaching of the faith must be a sign of error. Progress of doctrine in this case means, not deeper understanding, but evangelistic success. As for the definitions of faith promulgated by the church, they are simply a matter of clarification and explication; that is, they translate into clear language what the church already knows in other terms. The second theory is that of logical explanation: Definition of a doctrine is explicating what was implicit, and in this way also medieval scholastics could defend the unity of faith in Old Testament and New; the former implicitly contained the latter. But when theologians after Trent began to analyze this "logical explanation," they ran into such difficulties that the theory broke down. For one thing, they had to explain how a "natural" premise could join forces with a premise from revelation to yield a conclusion that must be believed with divine faith. For another, such "logic" made historical inquiry superfluous. Various eccentric theories now began to emerge, but it was only with Newman that a third force came into play besides Bossuet and the scholastics. (Fs) (notabene)
93a The specific influence on Newman derived from the culture and thinking of the 19th rather than the 17th century. Darwin's The Origin of Species came out only in 1859, but his voyages on the Beagle took place between 1831 and 1836, he was publishing long before his book appeared, and the cast of mind to which it gave expression in the field of biology was already forming more widely. In the historical field too, maybe even more than in the biological, the idea of development was in the air. In the Catholic faculty of theology at Tübingen it found expression in the idea of tradition as a living force instead of a set of doctrines handed on secretly. Möhler's Die Einheit der Kirche [...] was published in 1825, and Möhler himself had been preceded by Drey. There does not seem to have been direct dependence of Newman on Tübingen, but one may say that their very independence of one another is a witness to the way the idea had permeated the culture and thinking of the time. (Fs) (notabene)

93b Newman broached his idea in a sermon on the feast of the Purification in 1843, and the work that everyone knows, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, came out two years later. The book is a kind of apologetic for the Catholic church, at least in the sense of a self-understanding by which one takes account of one's faith. Newman is dealing with the problem of continuity and change not in a programmatic way, but to meet a difficulty. He did not doubt the fact of continuity in change, but he had to explain it to himself in order to be at peace with his conscience. There were, he saw, "apparent variations," "apparent inconsistencies and alterations" in the doctrine and worship of the church. He accepted these variations as simple historical fact, not therefore to be challenged as fact. But he labored to explain the fact, and his concentration was on the virtualities of any great idea that was contained in revelation and was susceptible of development: (Fs)
When an idea [...] is of a nature to arrest and possess the mind, it may be said to [...] live in the mind which is its recipient. (Fs)
[The] process [...] by which the aspects of an idea are brought into consistency and form, I call its development, being the germination and maturation of some truth or apparent truth on a large mental field. (Fs)

94a The condition of possibility of such development is the virtuality contained in the idea: "Its beginnings are no measure of its capabilities, nor of its scope. At first no one knows what it is, or what it is worth." (Fs)

94b But the proof of such a mental pudding is in its elaboration and application to the concrete, and Newman must tackle that. Weigel outlines his tactics for us: (Fs)
In the light of an unsystematic social psychology he sets up certain patterns for change within an identical flow. First, identity in change preserves its substantial form throughout all the changes. Second, the same principles of life and thought are continuously dynamic. Third, the identical thing in change organically assimilates into itself new elements. Fourth, it draws forth from its own principles new conclusions rendered imperative by its own growth. Fifth, the earlier stage already shows anticipations of later developments. Sixth, newer patterns of being are the result of clinging faithfully to original principles thrust into new contexts. Seventh, at any moment the identical continuum is present with the vigor of life. (Fs)
Then, through seven chapters, Newman applies the elements of this pattern to the life and doctrine of the early church. (Fs)

95a By and large the work of Newman, viewed with suspicion at home and with indifference abroad, fell to the ground with a dull thud. Those who did take up his idea at the turn of the century did not help his cause very much, for they themselves were branded modernist. But two extremist movements on the continent may be said to have clarified the development question by overstepping the boundaries. In 1919 Tuyaerts published a book that carried the logical idea to its logical extreme. Theological conclusions seemed to be for him the sort of thing one could derive from feeding premises into a logic-machine; on the material side, almost every article of the Summa theologiae of Saint Thomas could become a dogma. There was an inevitable reaction to the opposite extreme. In 1938 L. Charlier published a book in which he showed himself to be a deadly enemy of theological conclusions. Given that Christ is a man, we cannot conclude at all that he has a human will, etc. There is development, and a law of development, but we do not know this law, nor can we discover the present faith implicit in the past. All we can do is trust the magisterium of the church. The magisterium responded to this theory by putting Charlier's volume on its index of prohibited books. (Fs)

95b In the end, however, Newman came into his own as a theologian. France, the Lowlands, and Germany began to take an interest in his ideas and, when three International Newman Conferences had been held, his followers in England felt it was time "to bring Newman home"; the result in 1966 was the first Oxford Newman Symposium.38 He is assured, then, of his own place in the history of doctrine that he loved and knew so well. That does not mean that his ideas are accepted uncritically. After a period of suspicion and a wave of enthusiasm, it is possible to take a more moderate view: The fact of development that he brought to our attention is acknowledged, and it explains a good deal of doctrinal history. But it by no means explains it all. Chapters six and seven will show other forces that must be brought to bear on the complex history of the Christian word. (Fs)