Newman the Preacher

This article illustrates the remarkable impact which Newman’s preaching had upon his hearers and his extraordinary ability to enter into the minds and hearts of both hearers and readers. But emphasis is placed above all on the underlying aim of all his preaching, summed up in the formula of Fr Henry Tristram, one time superior of the Birmingham Oratory which Newman founded: for Newman, preaching must constitute an incentive not only to ‘living better’ but also to ‘praying better’. However stern a moralist he may appear to be at times, he never indulges in mere moralising, any more than he simply expounds doctrine for its own sake. Both are, on the contrary, placed in the service of helping hearers and readers to deepen progressively a lived relationship with the God whom Newman himself discovered in the depths of his own consciousness. Thus his rediscovery, through his reading of the Church Fathers, of the central role in Christianity of the doctrines of the Incarnation, the Resurrection and the Trinity, led him to explore the implications for the Christian of the theme of the ‘indwelling’ of the Holy Spirit and to suggest that the ‘true Christian’ may ‘almost be defined’ as ‘one who has a ruling sense of God’s presence within him’. It is above all in his exploration of the intricate relationship existing between dogma, ethics and spirituality, combined with his keen psychological penetration, that Newman’s greatness as a preacher lies.