Vulnerability and perfection: the failures of St. John Henry Newman

Abstract

J. H. Newman, canonized in October 2019, is remembered as a prominent cleric of the Anglican Church who converted to Catholicism at the peak of his career. Many are acquainted with his Idea of a University and his theological insights. However, a detailed look at his life reveals another facet: a profoundly human man. Newman’s writings portray his liability to suffering and how he embraced it in his relationships with God, others and the institutions he served. Most of the projects he undertook were met with strong opposition; he did not recant from his ideas nor resolutions, but neither did he see them come to fruition. He was sustained by the awareness of God’s life within his, along with an unwavering commitment to truth. The appreciation of his life and works from a 150-year perspective, along with the recent public recognition of the holiness of his life, provides a robust platform for a deeper understanding of vulnerability and failure as the birthplace of perfection in the Christian life.

Keywords:

• disability studies
• practical theology
• religion

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge Fr. James Pribek, SJ whose article at the 2019 Conference of the Newman Association of America was the catalyst for these reflections. Our gratitude also goes to Tom Dougherty who graciously revised the manuscript and to Talitha Cooreman Guittin for her invitation to contribute an article to this special issue of the Journal of Disability and Religion.

Notes

1 When he was 76 years old Newman received an Honorary Fellowship from Oxford and two years later he was made a Cardinal in the Catholic Church, both are considerable honors for someone in his position. The day after his death the editorial of The Times remarked: “Will Newman’s memory survive in the estimation of his country? […] That is a question which may be asked today, but which the future only can answer. Of one thing we may be sure, that the memory of his pure and noble life, untouched by worldliness, unsoured by any trace of fanaticism, will endure, and that whether Rome canonizes him or not he will be canonized in the thoughts of pious people of many creeds in England” (Glancey, 1890, p. 250).

2 Brené Brown PhD, LMSW (1965–present) has conducted extensive research on the nature of vulnerability over the past decade; she has authored seven books on related subjects and her TED 2010 and 2012 talks have been viewed over 60 million times. For her part, Nancy Eiesland PhD (1964–2009) is considered a pioneer of the theology of disability; her major work being The Disabled God (1994).

3 A letter from Msgr. George Talbot, secretary of Pope Pius IX, to Card. Henry Manning, primate of England, relates the opinion that some men in the Hierarchy had of Newman: “Dr Newman is the most dangerous man in England, and you will see that he will make use of the laity against Your Grace” (as cited in Purcell, 1896, vol. 2, p. 318). For most of his life as a Catholic, Newman patiently endured the misunderstanding of the Episcopate.

4 Different approaches to the concept of holiness, which complement one another, seem to coexist in the Judeo-Christian tradition. A first approach is found in the priestly institution of the Leviticus, which is closely bound with ritual purity and physical perfection. A second approach is that of transcendental holiness, in which holiness can only be attributed to God Himself (cf. Isaiah 6:3). A third approach entails a moral conception of holiness, which God Himself asks of his people: “Be holy – perfect – as your Heavenly Father is holy” (Matthew 5:48). The merits and limitations of each of these approaches are beyond the scope of this article. Acknowledging that any approach is insufficient when understood in isolation, the approach in this paper is that of Leviticus, as it seems to be the one chosen by Eiesland.

5 Describing weakness as “the experience of a peculiar liability to suffering. A profound sense of inability, both to do and protect even after great effort, to author, perform, effect what we have wanted or with the success we would have wanted, an inability to secure one’s own future, to protect oneself, to live with clarity and assurance or to ward off shame and suffering” Buckley asserts that weakness is part of the essential structure of a life of service and self-giving to others (2016, p. 84).

6 Newman’s doctrine regarding the mystery of God and its accessibility to reason bring to mind Gabriel Marcel’s understanding of the person’s limits and possibilities to know the truth (Marcel, 1965, p. 117).