Can our passional nature play a legitimate epistemic role in our lives? In this article, we argue that John Henry Newman was right to think that our passional nature can indeed play such a role. First, we unpack the standard objection to Newman’s understanding of the relationship between our passional nature and the evidential basis of faith. We use “passional nature” as an umbrella term to cover the affective side of the person (passions, affections, emotions) that often bears on the pursuit of epistemic goods like true belief, knowledge, and wisdom. Second, we argue that the standard objection to Newman operates with a narrow definition of evidence (where evidence is synonymous with arguments and a third-person perspective). After challenging this notion, we then offer a broader and more humane understanding of evidence. Third, we survey recent scholarship arguing that emotions, a key aspect of our passional nature, are cognitive. In this light, they plausibly have a proper epistemic role. Fourth, we defend Newman’s reliance on the passional nature in epistemic matters by showing how reasonable it is in light of this recent work on evidence and the nature of emotions. Newman’s insistence that the formation of a right state of heart and mind is crucial for epistemic success is far from untenable.
{"title":"On the Epistemic Role of Our Passional Nature","authors":"F. Aquino, L. Gage","doi":"10.1353/nsj.2020.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/nsj.2020.0019","url":null,"abstract":"Can our passional nature play a legitimate epistemic role in our lives? In this article, we argue that John Henry Newman was right to think that our passional nature can indeed play such a role. First, we unpack the standard objection to Newman’s understanding of the relationship between our passional nature and the evidential basis of faith. We use “passional nature” as an umbrella term to cover the affective side of the person (passions, affections, emotions) that often bears on the pursuit of epistemic goods like true belief, knowledge, and wisdom. Second, we argue that the standard objection to Newman operates with a narrow definition of evidence (where evidence is synonymous with arguments and a third-person perspective). After challenging this notion, we then offer a broader and more humane understanding of evidence. Third, we survey recent scholarship arguing that emotions, a key aspect of our passional nature, are cognitive. In this light, they plausibly have a proper epistemic role. Fourth, we defend Newman’s reliance on the passional nature in epistemic matters by showing how reasonable it is in light of this recent work on evidence and the nature of emotions. Newman’s insistence that the formation of a right state of heart and mind is crucial for epistemic success is far from untenable.","PeriodicalId":41065,"journal":{"name":"Newman Studies Journal","volume":"17 1","pages":"41 - 58"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/nsj.2020.0019","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43711129","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Los principios del cristianismo: Una Teología Fundamental según Newman by Fernando María Cavaller (review)","authors":"John T. Ford","doi":"10.1353/nsj.2020.0025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/nsj.2020.0025","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41065,"journal":{"name":"Newman Studies Journal","volume":"17 1","pages":"110 - 113"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/nsj.2020.0025","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44949002","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Past, Present, and Future of Theologies of Interreligious Dialogue ed. by Terrence Merrigan and John Friday (review)","authors":"P. Huff","doi":"10.1353/nsj.2020.0027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/nsj.2020.0027","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41065,"journal":{"name":"Newman Studies Journal","volume":"17 1","pages":"116 - 117"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/nsj.2020.0027","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44430096","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unearthly Beauty: The Aesthetic of St John Henry Newman by Guy Nicholls (review)","authors":"M. Muller","doi":"10.1353/nsj.2020.0028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/nsj.2020.0028","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41065,"journal":{"name":"Newman Studies Journal","volume":"17 1","pages":"118 - 120"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/nsj.2020.0028","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48969831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
There are few uncontroversial statements in the contemporary intra-Catholic debate on the recent conciliar tradition. One of them is that John Henry Newman was not only one of the major contributors to the teaching, reception, and interpretation of Vatican I, but can be seen also as one of the “fathers of Vatican II.”1 A significant part of the importance of Newman’s contribution in shaping Catholic tradition has to do with the understanding of the papacy in a new historical and cultural context.2 One way to understand the importance of Newman is to reflect on the unfinished trajectories of modern Catholicism originating from the Vatican councils, particularly on the evolution of the papacy in global Catholicism. The papacy was at the center of the discussions at Vatican I and Vatican II. Conversely, the papacy has become one of the most important sources for the interpretation of these two councils and of their mutual relationship. On 14 February 2013, in one of the last public speeches before his resignation, which he had announced just three days before, Pope Benedict XVI delved, with remarks delivered a braccio (without a formal text), into his autobiographical interpretation of Vatican II before the clergy of Rome. Benedict XVI, the last pope who had been present at Vatican II, connected the two latest councils of the Catholic Church in a way that configured Vatican II as a completion of Vatican I, but also the ecclesiology of Vatican II as an extension of the ecclesiology of Vatican I:
{"title":"Vatican I, the New Papacy, and the Crisis of Catholic Globalization","authors":"M. Faggioli","doi":"10.1353/nsj.2020.0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/nsj.2020.0017","url":null,"abstract":"There are few uncontroversial statements in the contemporary intra-Catholic debate on the recent conciliar tradition. One of them is that John Henry Newman was not only one of the major contributors to the teaching, reception, and interpretation of Vatican I, but can be seen also as one of the “fathers of Vatican II.”1 A significant part of the importance of Newman’s contribution in shaping Catholic tradition has to do with the understanding of the papacy in a new historical and cultural context.2 One way to understand the importance of Newman is to reflect on the unfinished trajectories of modern Catholicism originating from the Vatican councils, particularly on the evolution of the papacy in global Catholicism. The papacy was at the center of the discussions at Vatican I and Vatican II. Conversely, the papacy has become one of the most important sources for the interpretation of these two councils and of their mutual relationship. On 14 February 2013, in one of the last public speeches before his resignation, which he had announced just three days before, Pope Benedict XVI delved, with remarks delivered a braccio (without a formal text), into his autobiographical interpretation of Vatican II before the clergy of Rome. Benedict XVI, the last pope who had been present at Vatican II, connected the two latest councils of the Catholic Church in a way that configured Vatican II as a completion of Vatican I, but also the ecclesiology of Vatican II as an extension of the ecclesiology of Vatican I:","PeriodicalId":41065,"journal":{"name":"Newman Studies Journal","volume":"17 1","pages":"21 - 5"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/nsj.2020.0017","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42712080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A few days ago, [I paid] a visit to Fr. de Lubac, with whom I was not acquainted and who welcomed me with charming courtesy into his small room on the fifth floor of a modern building in the Rue de Sèvres. Books lined the walls, but fewer than I would have expected. Slim, dressed in black, with fine features, eyes of a beautiful shade of blue and charmingly expressive, which radiate a subdued and peaceful strength. He told me how much he admired Newman.1
{"title":"Preservation of Type and the Continuity of Patristic Principles in the Legacies of Saint John Henry Newman and Henri de Lubac","authors":"Theresa Nguyen","doi":"10.1353/nsj.2020.0018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/nsj.2020.0018","url":null,"abstract":"A few days ago, [I paid] a visit to Fr. de Lubac, with whom I was not acquainted and who welcomed me with charming courtesy into his small room on the fifth floor of a modern building in the Rue de Sèvres. Books lined the walls, but fewer than I would have expected. Slim, dressed in black, with fine features, eyes of a beautiful shade of blue and charmingly expressive, which radiate a subdued and peaceful strength. He told me how much he admired Newman.1","PeriodicalId":41065,"journal":{"name":"Newman Studies Journal","volume":"17 1","pages":"22 - 40"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/nsj.2020.0018","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44973513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
“Man of letters” is the title of chapter five, in which Newman is shown in ascending order of distinction to be a novelist, a poet, and a prose stylist. Duffy successfully includes the Anglican sermons in the latter category, as well as the Idea of a University (stressing on 85 the subtle use of irony that is often missed in Newman’s praise of “gentlemen”), and above all the Apologia. While offering some criticisms of the accuracy of the Apologia’s retelling of events, Duffy defends Newman against Frank Turner’s treatment of “the Apologia as a smokescreen,” while somewhat ducking Turner’s challenge to deal with Newman’s self-curated history by the standards of the academy and not “as one of the world’s masterpieces of confessional writing” (109; although to be fair to Duffy, he and Simon Skinner have debated this at length elsewhere). The final chapter explores Newman’s “Legacy,” both the reception of his works and of his person. With regard to the last chapter, Duffy explains that “Newman’s most significant contribution to ecumenism was himself: in becoming a Catholic, Newman repudiated none of the modes of thinking he had acquired as an Anglican, and those modes of thinking would in due course fertilize the theology of the Church into which he carried them” (116). Analyses as clear and frank as this one permeate the book, as do the jewels of Newman’s prose, making it full of fresh insight for the saint’s seasoned readers, as well as a good place for the newcomer to begin.
{"title":"When Bishops Meet: An Essay Comparing Trent, Vatican I, and Vatican II by John W. O'Malley (review)","authors":"Shaun Blanchard","doi":"10.1353/nsj.2020.0024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/nsj.2020.0024","url":null,"abstract":"“Man of letters” is the title of chapter five, in which Newman is shown in ascending order of distinction to be a novelist, a poet, and a prose stylist. Duffy successfully includes the Anglican sermons in the latter category, as well as the Idea of a University (stressing on 85 the subtle use of irony that is often missed in Newman’s praise of “gentlemen”), and above all the Apologia. While offering some criticisms of the accuracy of the Apologia’s retelling of events, Duffy defends Newman against Frank Turner’s treatment of “the Apologia as a smokescreen,” while somewhat ducking Turner’s challenge to deal with Newman’s self-curated history by the standards of the academy and not “as one of the world’s masterpieces of confessional writing” (109; although to be fair to Duffy, he and Simon Skinner have debated this at length elsewhere). The final chapter explores Newman’s “Legacy,” both the reception of his works and of his person. With regard to the last chapter, Duffy explains that “Newman’s most significant contribution to ecumenism was himself: in becoming a Catholic, Newman repudiated none of the modes of thinking he had acquired as an Anglican, and those modes of thinking would in due course fertilize the theology of the Church into which he carried them” (116). Analyses as clear and frank as this one permeate the book, as do the jewels of Newman’s prose, making it full of fresh insight for the saint’s seasoned readers, as well as a good place for the newcomer to begin.","PeriodicalId":41065,"journal":{"name":"Newman Studies Journal","volume":"17 1","pages":"107 - 110"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/nsj.2020.0024","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42920981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"John Henry Newman: el viaje al Mediterráneo de 1833 by Victor García Ruiz (review)","authors":"John T. Ford","doi":"10.1353/nsj.2020.0029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/nsj.2020.0029","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41065,"journal":{"name":"Newman Studies Journal","volume":"17 1","pages":"121 - 125"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/nsj.2020.0029","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45918169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"John Henry Newman on Truth and Its Counterfeits: A Guide for Our Times by Reinhard Hütter (review)","authors":"M. K. Tillman","doi":"10.1353/nsj.2020.0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/nsj.2020.0022","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41065,"journal":{"name":"Newman Studies Journal","volume":"17 1","pages":"105 - 95"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/nsj.2020.0022","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42760352","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}