newman essay on development

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Life of Cardinal Newman, Chapter 3 [covers the period in which this book was written— NR ]

TO THE REV. SAMUEL WILLIAM WAYTE, B.D. PRESIDENT OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD

M Y DEAR P RESIDENT , {v} N OT from any special interest which I anticipate you will take in this Volume, or any sympathy you will feel in its argument, or intrinsic fitness of any kind in my associating you and your Fellows with it,—

But, because I have nothing besides it to offer you, in token of my sense of the gracious compliment which you and they have paid me in making me once more a Member of a College dear to me from Undergraduate memories;—

Also, because of the happy coincidence, that whereas its first publication was contemporaneous with my leaving Oxford, its second becomes, by virtue of your act, contemporaneous with a recovery of my position there:— {vi}

Therefore it is that, without your leave or your responsibility, I take the bold step of placing your name in the first pages of what, at my age, I must consider the last print or reprint on which I shall ever be engaged.

I am, my dear President, Most sincerely yours, JOHN H. NEWMAN. February 23, 1878.

Preface to the 1878 Edition

{vii} T HE following pages were not in the first instance written to prove the divinity of the Catholic Religion, though ultimately they furnish a positive argument in its behalf, but to explain certain difficulties in its history, felt before now by the author himself, and commonly insisted on by Protestants in controversy, as serving to blunt the force of its primâ facie and general claims on our recognition.

However beautiful and promising that Religion is in theory, its history, we are told, is its best refutation; the inconsistencies, found age after age in its teaching, being as patent as the simultaneous contrarieties of religious opinion manifest in the High, Low, and Broad branches of the Church of England.

In reply to this specious objection, it is maintained in this Essay that, granting that some large variations of teaching in its long course of 1800 years exist, nevertheless, these, on examination, will be found to arise from the nature of the case, and to proceed on a law, and with a harmony and a definite drift, and with {viii} an analogy to Scripture revelations, which, instead of telling to their disadvantage, actually constitute an argument in their favour, as witnessing to a Superintending Providence and a great Design in the mode and in the circumstances of their occurrence.

Perhaps his confidence in the truth and availableness of this view has sometimes led the author to be careless and over-liberal in his concessions to Protestants of historical fact.

If this be so anywhere, he begs the reader in such cases to understand him as speaking hypothetically, and in the sense of an argumentum ad hominem and à fortiari . Nor is such hypothetical reasoning out of place in a publication which is addressed, not to theologians, but to those who as yet are not even Catholics, and who, as they read history, would scoff at any defence of Catholic doctrine which did not go the length of covering admissions in matters of fact as broad as those which are here ventured on.

In this new Edition of the Essay various important alterations have been made in the arrangement of its separate parts, and some, not indeed in its matter, but in its text.

February 2, 1878

Advertisement to the First Edition

OCULI MEI DEFECERUNT IN SALUTARE TUUM

{ix} I T is now above eleven years since the writer of the following pages, in one of the early Numbers of the Tracts for the Times, expressed himself thus:—

"Considering the high gifts, and the strong claims of the Church of Rome and her dependencies on our admiration, reverence, love, and gratitude, how could we withstand her, as we do; how could we refrain from being melted into tenderness, and rushing into communion with her, but for the words of Truth, which bid us prefer Itself to the whole world? 'He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me.' How could we learn to be severe, and execute judgment, but for the warning of Moses against even a divinely-gifted teacher who should preach new gods, and the anathema of St. Paul even against Angels and Apostles who should bring in a new doctrine?" [Records of the Church, xxiv. p. 7.]

He little thought, when he so wrote, that the time would ever come when he should feel the obstacle, which he spoke of as lying in the way of communion with the Church of Rome, to be destitute of solid foundation.

The following work is directed towards its removal.

Having, in former publications, called attention to the {x} supposed difficulty, he considers himself bound to avow his present belief that it is imaginary.

He has neither the ability to put out of hand a finished composition, nor the wish to make a powerful and moving representation, on the great subject of which he treats. His aim will be answered, if he succeeds in suggesting thoughts, which in God's good time may quietly bear fruit, in the minds of those to whom that subject is new; and which may carry forward inquirers, who have already put themselves on the course.

If at times his tone appears positive or peremptory, he hopes this will be imputed to the scientific character of the Work, which requires a distinct statement of principles, and of the arguments which recommend them.

He hopes too he shall be excused for his frequent quotations from himself; which are necessary in order to show how he stands at present in relation to various of his former Publications.    *    *    *

L ITTLEMORE , October 6, 1845

Since the above was written, the Author has joined the Catholic Church. It was his intention and wish to have carried his Volume through the Press before deciding {xi} finally on this step. But when he had got some way in the printing, he recognized in himself a conviction of the truth of the conclusion to which the discussion leads, so clear as to supersede further deliberation. Shortly afterwards circumstances gave him the opportunity of acting upon it, and he felt that he had no warrant for refusing to do so.

His first act on his conversion was to offer his Work for revision to the proper authorities; but the offer was declined on the ground that it was written and partly printed before he was a Catholic, and that it would come before the reader in a more persuasive form, if he read it as the author wrote it.

It is scarcely necessary to add that he now submits every part of the book to the judgment of the Church, with whose doctrine, on the subjects of which he treats, he wishes all his thoughts to be coincident.

Newman Reader — Works of John Henry Newman Copyright © 2007 by The National Institute for Newman Studies. All rights reserved .

Theology 101: Newman’s Concept of Doctrinal Development

By:  Stuart Squires, Ph.D.

Although the Church does not change Her teachings, it has been recognized since at least the fifth century with Vincent of Lérins’ Commonitorium that doctrine does “develop” over time. The fullest exposition of this idea comes from Blessed John Henry Newman’s (1801-90) An Essay on the Development of Doctrine .

I would like to review Newman’s (dense) description of development because I believe that we, the Church, do not turn to him often enough in our navigation of the doctrinal challenges we face today, and that what he offers is an excellent guide pointing the way through the turbulent waters.

Newman draws a distinction between “development” and “change,” or what he calls “corruption.” He defines an authentic development as the “germination and maturation of some truth or apparent truth on a large mental field” (1.1.5.). For example, the seed form of the doctrine of the Trinity may be seen in Scripture (“the Father and I are one” (John 10:30)), but it isn’t until the fourth century at the Council of Nicea (325) that a nuanced articulation is attempted, such that we now say that the persons of the Trinity are “consubstantial” ( homoousios ).

A corruption, on the other hand, is “the breaking up of life preparatory to its termination. This resolution of a body into its component parts is the stage before its dissolution; it begins when life has reached its perfection, and it is the sequel, or rather the continuation, of that process towards perfection, being at the same time the reversal and undoing of what went before” (5.3.). For example, Newman saw the fourth century Arians, who did not believe that the persons of the Trinity are consubstantial, as offering a corruption when they introduced the idea that the Logos is part of God’s creation and, as Arius famously said, “there was a time when the Logos was not,” which stands in contrast to John’s claim that “In the beginning was the Logos and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God” (1:1).

How can we know what is a development and what is a corruption? In order to determine the difference between the two, Newman offers seven “Notes,” or litmus tests, that may be applied to any doctrine.

First Note of a Genuine Development: Preservation of Type

Newman defines this first note: “all great ideas are found, as time goes on, to involve much which was not seen at first to belong to them, and have developments, that is, enlargements, applications, uses and fortunes, very various, one security against error and perversion in the process is the maintenance of the original type which the idea presented to the world at its origin, amid and through all its apparent changes and vicissitudes from first to last” (6.intro). In order to illustrate this point, Newman offers an example: “the adult animal has the same make as it had on its birth; young birds do not grow into fishes” (5.1.1).

Second Note of a Genuine Development: Continuity of Principles

Newman defines this second note: “doctrines grow and are enlarged, principles are permanent; doctrines are intellectual, and principles are more immediately ethical and practical. Systems live in principles and represent doctrines” (5.2.1). In other words, while doctrines may develop, the principles that rest underneath those doctrines do not change. For example, while social and moral doctrines of the Church develop, the underlying principle of the dignity of the human person does not change.

Third Note of a Genuine Development: Power of Assimilation

Newman defines this third note: “doctrines and views which relate to [humans] are not placed in a void, but in the crowded world, and make way for themselves by interpenetration, and develop by absorption. Facts and opinions, which have hitherto been regarded in other relations and grouped round other centres, henceforth are gradually attracted to a new influence and subjected to a new sovereign. They are modified, laid down afresh, thrust aside, as the case may be. A new element of order and composition has come among them; and its life is proved by this capacity of expansion, without disarrangement or dissolution. An eclectic, conservative, assimilating, healing, moulding process, a unitive power, is of the essence” (5.3.1). In other words, the Church may absorb or appropriate from the culture around it that which is healthy and compatible with the gospel, but hold off that which is not.

Fourth Note of a Genuine Development: Logical Sequence

Newman defines this fourth note: “each argument is brought for an immediate purpose; minds develop step by step; without looking behind them or anticipating their goal, and without either intention or promising of forming a system. Afterwards, however, this logical character which the whole wears becomes a test that the process has been a true development, not a perversion or corruption, from its evident naturalness; and in some cases from the gravity, distinctness, precision, and majesty of its advance, and the harmony of its proportions, like the tall growth, and graceful branching, and rich foliage, of some vegetable production” (5.4.1.). In other words, any authentic development must be a consequence of an earlier, orderly sequence that logically flows into the conclusion. Newman offers the example that penance and purgatory are logical sequences following from baptismal cleansing (9.1-4). If (A) baptism washes away sin, and (B) infant baptism has become the norm, but (C) we still sin after our baptisms and are therefore in need of forgiveness, then (D) it is perfectly logical that the sacrament of reconciliation and purgatory have developed from the earlier claims.

Fifth Note of a Genuine Development: Anticipation of Its Future

Newman defines this fifth note: “since, when an idea is living, that is, influential and effective, it is sure to develop according to its own nature, and the tendencies, which are carried out on the long run, may under favourable circumstances show themselves early as well as late, and logic is the same in all ages, instances of a development which is to come, though vague and isolated, may occur from the very first, though a lapse of time be necessary to bring them to perfection. And since developments are in great measure only aspects of the idea from which they proceed, and all of them are natural consequences of it, it is often a matter of accident in what order they are carried out in individual minds; and it is in no wise strange that here and there definite specimens of advanced teaching should very early occur, which in the historical course are not found till a late date. The fact, then, of such early or recurring intimations of tendencies which afterwards are fully realized is a sort of evidence that those later and more systematic fulfillments are only in accordance with the original idea” (5.5.1). In other words, any later developed doctrine may be seen, in its infancy, from the very beginning and its development may be anticipated. For example, one may see the outlines of the features of a baby’s face in the first months that are only developed later into adulthood.

Sixth Note of a Genuine Development: Conservative Action Upon Its Past

Newman defines this sixth note: “as developments which are preceded by definite indications have a fair presumption in their favour, so those which do but contradict and reverse the course of doctrine which has been developed before them, and out of which they spring, are certainly corrupt; for a corruption is a development in that very stage in which it ceases to illustrate, and begins to disturb, the acquisitions gained in its previous history” (5.6.1.). In other words, an authentic development will retain that which came before, while a corruption reverses or removes that which came before.

Seventh Note of a Genuine Development: Chronic Vigour

Newman defines this seventh note: “since the corruption of an idea, as far as the appearance goes, is a sort of accident or affection of its development, being the end of a course, and a transition state leading to a crisis, it is, as has been observed above, a brief and rapid process. While ideas live in men’s minds, they are ever enlarging into fuller development; they will not be stationary in their corruption any more than before it; and dissolution is that further state to which corruption tends. Corruption cannot, therefore, be of long standing; and thus duration is another test of a faithful development…The course of heresies is always short” (5.7.1-2.). In other words, Newman believes that any authentic development, by its very nature, robustly will endure, rather than wither away in short order.

How can we, the Body of Christ, constructively apply these seven Notes to the canon of issues in order to gain a clearer vision of the path forward when addressing the doctrinal crises of our day?

 Stuart Squires, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Theology at Brescia University.

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2 Developing but Faithful: Newman’s Revised Essay on Development

• Published: June 1992
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This chapter analyzes John Henry Newman's Essay on the Development of Doctrine . It argues that the great achievement of Newman's essay lies simply in his grasping the idea that the precise form of truth takes can change, depending in its context and the implications of its own structure, without being disloyal to its original source.

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Newman's Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine: Its Genesis and its Enduring Relevance

2011, Bogoslovni vestnik - Theological Quarterly Faculty of Theology Ljubljana Slovenia

At the occasion of the first translation of the Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine in Slovene, the author attempts to outline the biographical and historical background of the Essay, its central propositions and its many- -sided importance. The idea of development was the most important single idea which Newman contributed to the thought of the Christian Church, being an expression of that shift from static to dynamic conceptions of Christianity which was characteristic of the period. It is worth noticing that the Development was published fourteen years before Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859). Nearly every study of doctrinal development continues to ackowledge the seminal influence of the book and its creative view of the problem of change and continuity in Christian doctrine. The Essay, written immediately before Newman entered the Roman Catholic Church (1845), was intended to give his reasons for becoming a Roman Catholic and to help others in the same position as himself. The theory of development was »an hypothesis to account for a difficulty«, the difference between the teaching of the primitive and the ninteenth-century Church. Newman drew out seven pragmatic tests for distinguishing legitimate developments from corruptions: fidelity to the original idea; continuity of principles; power to assimilate ideas from outside; early anticipations of later teaching; logical sequence discernible when developments were examined; preservation of earlier teaching; continuance in a state of chronic vigour. The book shows Newman’s sense of history. His theory was the result of a critical study of Patristic writings themselves. Keywords: doctrine, dogma, development, corruption, change, continuity, Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Church, conversion, Fathers, Oxford

Related Papers

Bogdan Dolenc

At the occasion of the first translation of the Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine in Slovene, the author attempts to outline the biographical and historical background of the Essay, its central propositions and its many-sided importance. The idea of development was the most important single idea which Newman contributed to the thought of the Christian Church, being an expression of that shift from static to dynamic conceptions of Christianity which was characteristic of the period. It is worth noticing that the Development was published fourteen years before Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859). Nearly every study of doctrinal development continues to ackowledge the seminal influence of the book and its creative view of the problem of change and continuity in Christian doctrine. The Essay, written immediately before Newman entered the Roman Catholic Church (1845), was intended to give his reasons for becoming a Roman Catholic and to help others in the same position as hims...

Fr. Daniel Lattier

This dissertation examines the idea of doctrinal development in the writings of John Henry Newman and Georges Florovsky, who are both representative thinkers in their respective Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. Newman‘s theory of doctrinal development proposes that divine revelation has been given once and for all, but that the Church is still growing in its understanding of this revelation. This growth sometimes results in new doctrinal definitions, which require confirmation of their truth by an infallible authority. The essence of Newman‘s theory has been received as compatible with Roman Catholic theology, and constitutes a hermeneutical lens through which Roman Catholics view the categories of revelation, Tradition, and authority. On the contrary, many leading Orthodox theologians of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have expressed serious reservations about the idea of doctrinal development, leading one to wonder if there are some unexamined hermeneutical disagreements between Roman Catholics and Orthodox on these categories. In order to respond to these Orthodox reservations, I constructed the dissertation as a dialogue between Newman and Florovsky on doctrinal development. More specifically, I arranged the dissertation as a dialogue between Newman and Florovsky on their understandings of revelation, Tradition, and authority—categories implied in the idea of doctrinal development. The first goal of the dissertation is to show that Newman‘s theory of doctrinal development is in fact compatible with Orthodox understandings of revelation and Tradition. The understanding of authority in Newman‘s theory does not currently share this compatibility, but dialogue does offer the opportunity for mutual enrichment of Newman‘s and Florovsky‘s thought on this category. A second goal is to expose Newman‘s theory to Orthodox categories of thought in the hopes of further developing Newman‘s theory itself. One of the principal developments that results from this exposure is the clarification that Newman‘s theory is a function of the incarnational character of his theology. Showing that the affirmation of doctrinal development follows from an incarnational, or Christocentric, theology represents the third and final goal of this dissertation.

Newman on Essay of the Development of Christian Doctrine

Peter Kusuma

C. Michael Shea

American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 83, no. 2, 201-218

The following paper has two primary purposes. First it aims to articulate a theoretical proposition in general terms, namely, that every theory of doctrinal development presupposes a philosophy of history. The underlying significance of this proposition is that theories of doctrinal development are simultaneously narratives of the historical significance of the church’s pilgrimage through history, though that fact typically remains implicit in theories of doctrinal development. The second purpose is to illustrate the general proposition by analyzing a particular case. I have therefore outlined some of the salient features of John Henry Cardinal Newman’s theory of doctrinal development and, using ideas from Eric Voegelin’s philosophy, show how it implies a philosophy of history.

Keith Needham

Extended book review of Volume 1 of Jaroslav Pelikan's 5 volume work on the development of doctrine in the Christian Tradition

Herman Majkrzak

Heythrop Journal-a Quarterly Review of Philosophy and Theology

William E Reiser

Andrew Meszaros

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Newman’s Theory of Doctrinal Development and the Question of New Revelation

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How and why Newman rejects the understanding of doctrinal development as new revelation

* An earlier version of this essay was presented at a seminar on “The Thought of John Henry Newman” hosted by the Lumen Christi Institute at Oxford University in July 2018. I am thankful for the feedback from Ian Ker, the seminar leader, as well as from the other participants.

Newman’s theory of doctrinal development, classically articulated in his 1845 Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, initially met with skepticism among the reigning Thomists in Rome, who considered it sufficient to affirm that all Catholic doctrine had been explicitly believed by the Apostles and logically explicated by subsequent doctors. Especially after the beginning of the Modernist controversy in the later 19th and early 20th centuries, Newman’s ideas were not widely embraced because it was difficult to distinguish his theory of development from a theory of doctrinal evolution or continuous revelation, wherein God uses the church as an instrument to reveal new ideas. Newman’s thinking on development proved highly influential at the Second Vatican Council, which nonetheless emphatically rejected any form of progressive or continuous revelation: “Jesus perfected revelation” with the result that “we now await no further new public revelation before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” [2] And yet, concerns persist about how any doctrine which is developed can carry full divine authority and not be the result of fresh revelation. Critics of doctrinal development contend that the Roman Catholic Church’s modern dogmatic pronouncements (on questions such as the Immaculate Conception or papal infallibility) are genuine doctrinal novelties. [3] Moreover, the objection continues, because such doctrines are proposed as divine but are contained neither expressly nor substantially in the revelation of Scripture, they can only be defended on the basis of a claim to new revelation. Further, such doctrines fail the Vincentian canon, which holds that orthodoxy is what is believed always, everywhere, by everyone. Some Catholics, in response, might be inclined to accept and defend the conclusion, perhaps averring that the Church does and can continue the revelation of Christ because the Church is the Body of Christ and the enduring presence of the Incarnation, having received from the Apostles their authority to convey new revelation in Christ.

In this essay I show briefly how and why Newman rejects the understanding of doctrinal development as new revelation. [4] For Newman, doctrinal development does not necessitate the giving of new revelation because it describes a process that naturally takes place with all ideas in proportion to their intrinsic intellectual fecundity. Although some passages suggest a parity between Scripture and Church within revealed religion, Newman clearly distinguishes between the “revelation” that is “given” and the Church’s given “authority to decide what it is that is given.” [5] The Church may have divine authority and infallibility, but that does not make it an organ of revelation. He insists, instead, that it is possible for doctrine to develop and for there to arise statements expressed for the first time without these counting as new revelation. Newman defends this claim by pointing to two important points which help explain why doctrinal development is not new revelation: (1) first, his understanding of the living idea; (2) second, his understanding of the inherent mysteriousness of revelation. I aim to use these two points to show why it would not be necessary that further revelation be given in order for doctrine to develop or why it is not necessary to think of these developments as new revelation rather than developments of the same revelation. This exploration of Newman’s thinking on development illuminates not only Newman’s own view but also provides a way of understanding the theory of doctrinal development in the Church today. First, in a key passage in the Essay on Development, Newman states his central thesis that the developments in Christian doctrine and practice:

are the necessary attendants on any philosophy or polity which takes possession of the intellect and heart, and has had any wide or extended dominion…from the nature of the human mind, time is necessary for the full comprehension and perfection of great ideas…and…the highest and most wonderful truths, though communicated to the world once for all by inspired teachers, could not be comprehended all at once by the recipients. [6]

Here, Newman explains that doctrinal development is simply the natural consequence of the fact that Christianity is a living idea, an idea that takes root in human minds and society and thereby becomes alive. Newman understands an idea as a kind of mental object or image which resides in the mind as a “simple intuition” (as opposed to a “wordless feeling”). [7] In contemplating it, claims can be made about the idea which attempt to express some truth about it in human speech. Like all ideas, it is possible to view it under a great number of different aspects; like all great ideas, it is impossible for a human mind, which learns not instantaneously but discursively and step by step, to grasp it in its fullness at once—or even in a single lifetime. And like all living ideas, it is not just possible but natural that it grows and develops as one considers it. “When an idea,” Newman says, “is of a nature to arrest and possess the mind, it may be said to have life, that is, to live in the mind which is its recipient.” [8] As a result, “it becomes an active principle within them, leading them to an ever-new contemplation of itself.” [9] This contemplation includes the idea’s power to assimilate, influence, and incorporate other ideas; indeed, interaction with other ideas is a sign of its vitality. [10]

In other words, because an idea may be contemplated under many different aspects, from many different angles, and in relation to many other ideas, it is possible for it to be continually growing or filling itself out in the mind; more accurately, this process of contemplation under different aspects is precisely what is meant by speaking of its growth. Because human minds recognize and apprehend the aspects of an idea by means of language, each aspect can be captured in the form of a proposition. [11] In turn the multiplication of these propositions or statements fills the mind, giving it a thicker apprehension of the idea. Without this kind of logical, analytic, or propositional contemplation of an idea, it may be possessed and even influential, but it will not be clearly understood. Even just a single idea, if it is sufficiently rich, can result in an entire ethical, political, philosophical, and liturgical tradition as its aspects and implications are drawn out and recognized. Just like a living plant or animal, the idea grows into its fullest form based on a potential inherent to it. This “germination and maturation of some truth or apparent truth on a large mental field” and the bringing together of these aspects into a consistent shape is what Newman calls development. [12] This process of development need not taint an idea’s purity, but in reality makes it broader, deeper, and stronger. [13] It is, rather, weak and dead ideas which fail to develop because they never take hold of our minds.

In the case of Christianity, its idea or ideas are primarily a matter of revelation, which means that they are communicated by God to human beings at discrete historical moments and conveyed through the words and writings of their recipients. An idea, then, may be given at a single time or at multiple times, but once it is given it has the power to develop and expand all in itself, without the need for additional or subsequent ideas to be given. When God conveys an idea through an inspired author, it comes by means of that author’s words, which words capture certain aspects of that idea. These aspects then expose the recipients to that idea, though only in a limited sense, after which the recipients develop it by continually contemplating it. The richer the idea, the greater the possibility for further contemplation. Just as a seed later becomes a tree that grows future seeds, even though the original seed does not contain any further seeds of its own, so Christian ideas are able to take on entirely new aspects or acquire new implications or be articulated in new statements without the need for any new ideas to be given by God. A religious idea no more needs new revelation to grow or spread than a living organism needs new DNA. As Newman says, “[The idea] changes with them [its circumstances] in order to remain the same. In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.” [14] Like a living organism, it changes insofar as it can adapt a new appearance, new aspects, and new parts, while nonetheless it retains the same form, substance, and identity. [15] Newman thus shows how a one-time revelation of an idea can be recognized and articulated under a plethora of new aspects without entailing any new revelation.

Note, especially, that Newman’s understanding of development is not uniquely theological. It does not contend that ideas develop because of the exclusive activity of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Rather, it offers a universal theory of how all ideas develop—revealed and non-revealed—and applies that theory to Christian doctrine in order to show its historical continuity over time. Newman, of course, does not deny the influence and safeguarding of the Holy Spirit, but the fact that his theory applies to all human ideas confirms that it is by no means necessary to invoke additional divine revelation in order to give an account of development. The revelation of Christ and the disclosure of his divinity is not a natural event. But the development of Nicene Christology in the 4th century is natural, insofar as it is a reflection of human minds on the ideas already revealed, even if we add that those minds are illuminated by faith and safeguarded by God. The initial revelation itself stimulates all future development and opposes all future corruption.

Second, Newman’s understanding of the inherent mysteriousness of revelation explains how it is not just possible but necessary that ideas be revealed in underdeveloped form. In his essay “On the Introduction of Rationalistic Principles into Revealed Religion,” Newman critiques both the rationalist and the evangelical attempt to turn revelation into something which the human intellect can completely grasp and master. Instead, he argues that revelation is inherently incomplete and mysterious, not from the perspective of God but on account of “the weakness of the human intellect.” [16] Newman describes doctrine as always bearing within it a revelatory and a mysterious character because all of God’s revelation simultaneously both reveals and conceals. It reveals insofar as it illuminates the human mind concerning a divine truth. But it conceals insofar as the revelation—precisely because it is the supernatural word of God delivered in human words—cannot possibly convey its whole self. It is always holding something back even as it is being delivered. This incompleteness of revelation leads us to further recognize how incomprehensible God is, with the result that God’s revealing makes him appear simultaneously more hidden than we previously thought. Our increase in knowledge about God also increases our awareness of our ignorance. This mysterious and alien quality is an essential part of the revelation of the Supreme God to limited, corporeal, fallen creatures. In fact, precisely because revelation is so illuminating and supernatural it would be suspicious and dangerous to think that revelation was anything less than mysterious and alien.

And yet, revelation is given according to our present capacity to understand divine truth, not according to our capacity to comprehend divine truth after we have been adapted to it. We receive revelation without yet being given or being able to recognize its connections or implications, [17] but it is possible for us to see those connections as the mind contemplates it. Indeed, were we not to investigate those aspects revelation would remain merely mysterious. In this way, Newman argues from the fact of revelation’s mysteriousness that it must be developed and is intended by God for our contemplation and development. In his 1843 university sermon on development, Newman responds to those who criticize all development as essentially involving the abusive intrusion of human reason into the sacred domain of God’s perfect revelation. Newman’s response is implied by the above passages: revelation cannot possibly come to us in such a pure way as to need no development, since the mind must be adapted to it. But the mind’s adaptation to revelation is precisely the process that happens in an idea’s development; the mind is acclimated to revelation by letting its ideas take root, grow, assimilate, and influence. Newman writes:

Revelation sets before [the mind] certain supernatural facts and actions, beings and principles; these make a certain impression or image upon it; and this impression spontaneously, or even necessarily, becomes the subject of reflection on the part of the mind itself, which proceeds to investigate it, and to draw it forth in successive and distinct sentences. [18]

There is no such thing as actively receiving revelation and not developing it, since development is exactly what active reception means and implies. The only way to receive revelation without developing it is to take it in passively, as something lifeless and useless. Development, on the other hand, describes what it means for revelation, in all its mysteriousness, to become understandable to us.

The initial question, as Newman repeatedly emphasizes, is simply one of identity: is the revelation given to the Church in the 1st century the same as that within the 19th, or not? The naturally continuous development of ideas and the inherently hidden fecundity of revelation both provide ways for seeing how it is possible for Newman to speak of an identity between 1st and 19th century Catholic religion while still allowing for difference—in other words, to speak of both a complete revelation and new developments of it.

[2] Dei Verbum, 4. See also Cardinal Ratzinger’s 2000 Dominus Iesus, 4-6 on the “definitive and complete character of the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

[3] the objection that doctrinal development must imply new revelation is raised by both protestant and orthodox theologians. see, for example, daniel j. lattier, “the orthodox rejection of doctrinal development,” pro ecclesia 20.4 (2011): 389-410, which presents the criticism of some contemporary orthodox theologians, 392-393., [4] for a contemporary bibliography on the question of newman, doctrinal development, and new revelation, see gerard h. mccarren, “development of doctrine,” in the cambridge companion to john henry newman, eds. ian ker and terrence merrigan (cambridge: cambridge university press, 2009), 134 n.98. the best starting place is ian t. ker, “newman’s theory—development or continuing revelation,” in newman and gladstone: centennial essays, ed. james d. bastable (dublin: veritas publications, 1978), 145-160., [5] john henry newman, an essay on the development of christian doctrine (notre dame: university of notre dame press, 1989), 86-88, 89. newman’s works are conveniently accessible online following the original pagination at http://www.newmanreader.org., [6] newman, essay on development, 29-30., [7] ker, “development or continuing revelation,” 147-148. see newman, oxford university sermons 15.21 (“theory of developments in religious doctrine”), in fifteen sermons preached before the university of oxford between a.d. 1826 and 1843 (notre dame: university of notre dame press, 1997): “as god is one, so the impression which he gives us of himself is one…. it is the vision of an object.” these ideas are “real, as being images of what is real” (15.22)., [8] newman, essay on development, 36., [9] newman, essay on development, 36., [10] newman, essay on development, 38-39., [11] newman, oxford university sermons 15.25.2., [12] newman, essay on development, 38., [13] newman, essay on development, 40., [14] newman, essay on development, 40., [15] newman, essay on development, cf. 173-174., [16] newman, “on the introduction of rationalistic principles into revealed religion,” essays critical and historical, vol. 1, 41. see also the genius of john henry newman: selections from his writings, ed. ian ker (oxford: clarendon press, 1989), 184., [17] newman, “on the introduction of rationalistic,” 41. see also genius, 184., [18] newman oxford university sermons 15.10..

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An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine

by John Henry Cardinal Newman

Foreword by Ian Ker

Series: Notre Dame Series in Great Books

480 pages , 5.25 x 8.00 in

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An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine , reprinted from the 1878 edition, “is rightly regarded as one of the most seminal theological works ever to be written,” states Ian Ker in his foreword to this sixth edition. “It remains,” Ker continues, "the classic text for the theology of the development of doctrine, a branch of theology which has become especially important in the ecumenical era.”

John Henry Cardinal Newman begins the Essay by defining how true developments in doctrine occur. He then delivers a sweeping consideration of the growth of doctrine in the Catholic Church from the time of the Apostles to his own era. He demonstrates that the basic “rule” under which Christianity proceeded through the centuries is to be found in the principle of development, and he emphasizes that throughout the entire life of the Church this principle has been in effect and safeguards the faith from any corruption.

Ian Ker is a member of the theology faculty at Oxford University. His many works include The Catholic Revival in English Literature, 1845-1961 (University of Notre Dame Press, 2003).

"It is a great boon to Newman scholars and to the general public to have available the revised, 1878 edition of Newman's essay on development. . . . As an added benefit, it contains a superb foreword by Father Ian Ker which places the essay within the context of Newman's own theological work as well as that of the theological understandings of development which preceded and followed the essay. [It] is also the profoundly personal stand of one of the finest theological minds of the nineteenth century. . . . This book belongs in every theological library, and is accessible to most educated readers. It is especially rewarding for those who find the study of history a liberating theological exercise." — The Catholic World

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Christianity has been long enough in the world to justify us in dealing with it as a fact in the world’s history. Its genius and character, its doctrines, precepts, and objects cannot be treated as matters of private opinion or deduction, unless we may reasonably so regard the Spartan institutions or the religion of Mahomet. It may indeed legitimately be made the subject-matter of theories; what is its moral and political excellence, what its due location in the range of ideas or of facts which we possess, whether it be divine or human, whether original or eclectic, or both at once, how far favourable to civilization or to literature, whether a religion for all ages or for a particular state of society, these are questions upon the fact, or professed solutions of the fact, and belong to the province of opinion; but to a fact do they relate, on an admitted fact do they turn, which must be ascertained as other facts, and surely has on the whole been so ascertained, unless the testimony of so many centuries is to go for nothing. Christianity is no dream of the study or the cloister. It has long since passed beyond the letter of documents and the reasonings of individual minds, and has become public property. Its “sound has gone out into all lands,” and its “words unto the ends of the world.” It has from the first had an objective existence, and has thrown itself upon the great concourse of men. Its home is in the world; and to know what it is, we must seek it in the world, and hear the world’s witness of it.

CrossReach Publications

• Print length 139 pages
• Language English
• Publication date December 12, 2018
• Dimensions 8.5 x 0.35 x 11 inches
• ISBN-10 1791610714
• ISBN-13 978-1791610715
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Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (December 12, 2018)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 139 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1791610714
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1791610715
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 0.35 x 11 inches
• #1,152 in Catholicism (Books)
• #2,943 in Christian Theology (Books)

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UN Conference on Small Island Developing States delivers new era of resilience amidst SIDS' crippling debt crisis

Declaration acts as catalyst for renewed commitment to sustainable development ahead of Summit of the Future

30 May 2024   - The Fourth United Nations Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS4)  wrapped up today in Antigua and Barbuda with unanimous support for a bold new 10-year plan of action that will deliver meaningful change for this group of vulnerable countries.

Small island developing States (SIDS) remain a special case for sustainable development because of their unique challenges, from their small size and geographic remoteness to their narrow resource and export base, which makes them vulnerable to shocks and crises.

Many SIDS are still reeling from the double shocks of the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, with the recent confluence of global crises further exacerbating the situation. Over 40 per cent of SIDS are now on the edge of, or already grappling with unsustainable levels of debt, with resources often diverted from investments in health and education to service unsustainable debt.

Additionally, SIDS are on the frontlines of the global climate crisis, despite contributing just 1% of global carbon dioxide emissions. International pledges to help SIDS develop their adaptation and mitigation efforts have fallen short, with SIDS only having access to USD 1.5 billion out of the USD 100 billion in climate finance pledged to developing countries in 2019.

The major outcome of the SIDS4 Conference, The Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS) - a Declaration for Renewed Prosperity - puts forth a new, ambitious pathway for SIDS’ sustainable development.

At the closing ceremony, the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed emphasized the need for investment in SIDS: “Over the course of the last four days many of you have made commitments to make the ABAS a reality. We recognize the commitments from the European Union, Germany, Netherlands, and the United States. We hope others will also step up.”

Going forward, she added that “No effort should be spared to ensure that the voices of vulnerable and marginalized groups in SIDS continue to be heard, including persons with disabilities, older persons, and indigenous peoples.”

About 3,000 participants, including 22 Heads of State and Government, attended the Conference, advocating for the priorities of small island nations to be at the forefront of the global development agenda. Over four days, world leaders together with the private sector, civil society, academia and young people spotlighted challenges, presented innovative and practical solutions and delivered a host of new commitments to accelerate sustainable development in SIDS.

About the Outcome Document

The Conference closed with the unanimous adoption of The Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS) – a Renewed Declaration for Resilient Prosperity which sets out the sustainable development aspirations of SIDS over the next 10 years and the support required from the international community to achieve them.

“The Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS, adopted here today, outlines a clear pathway for SIDS to develop smart, context-specific, and inclusive development strategies,” said Li Junhua, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Secretary-General of the SIDS4 Conference. “The Agenda has the potential to transform the economies of SIDS and put them on a clear path towards sustainable development. Now the real work begins. We are committed to working alongside SIDS to implement the ABAS comprehensively, and with no time to waste.” 

To help SIDS meet their ambitions for resilient prosperity, countries agreed to facilitate easier access to affordable and concessional finance, increase the effectiveness of development finance, scale-up biodiversity climate finance, in line with existing obligations and commitments and urgently accelerate climate action.

Other areas of focus included the ocean-based economy, science, technology and innovation, and monitoring and evaluation, including improving data collection and analysis in SIDS.

Multidimensional Vulnerability Index

Countries also stressed the value of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index, which measures a country’s vulnerability to help paint a more comprehensive picture of its development and encouraged international financial institutions to integrate it into their existing practices and policies.  Mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction and strengthening disaster preparedness, including multi-hazard early warning systems and the UN Secretary-General’s Early Warnings for All initiative, were also key priorities.

“SIDS4 is indeed an important moment on the SIDS development journey. Antigua and Barbuda will now be synonymous with the progress and prosperity of Small Island Developing States across the globe – for the next decade and beyond,” said Rabab Fatima, UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States. “As we conclude this momentous event, let us carry forward the inspiration, ideas and resolve that have defined our time here.”

Snapshot of Commitments

• Antigua and Barbuda launched a Center of Excellence for SIDS and Debt Sustainability Support Service.
• The United States announced its commitment to scale-up international public climate finance to over USD 11 billion annually by 2024, quadrupling the previous level.
• The EU pledged to mobilize EUR 300 billion in public and private investments by 2027 to involve the private sector in sustainable development through its Global Gateway investment strategy, with several initiatives underway in SIDS.
• Barbados announced the launch of a UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)-Barbados Global SIDS Hub for Sustainable Development.
• UNDP announced a new $135 million Blue and Green Islands Integrated Program , launched jointly with UNEP.
• The Green Climate Fund presented its “50by30” vision to manage USD 50 billion by 2030 and the Fund’s efforts to strengthen the network of entities it collaborates with to better enable countries to put forward ambitious programs.

For a full list please see our preliminary list of commitments here: Preliminary list of commitments made at the SIDS4 Conference .

Looking Ahead

The SIDS4 Conference has set the stage for the Summit of the Future taking place at UN Headquarters in New York from 22 to 23 September 2024. As a critical moment to renew multilateralism and deliver on the promise to leave no one behind, the Summit will be an opportunity to further address the concerns of SIDS and help ensure the most vulnerable countries can access both the finance and technology they need to support the Sustainable Development Goals .

World leaders at the Summit will agree on a Pact for the Future that is well aligned with SIDS priorities. This includes addressing the significant financing gap to meet the Goals and incorporating measures of vulnerability into the allocation of concessional finance. The Summit calls for the reform of the international financial architecture to strengthen the voice and representation of developing countries; and to improve the global debt architecture to promote debt sustainability.

Key SIDS4 Conference Links:

Website: https://sdgs.un.org/conferences/sids2024

Media corner: https://sdgs.un.org/conferences/sids2024/media

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Guest Essay

Biden Wants to Send Billions to Rural America, but This Must Happen First

By Tony Pipa

Mr. Pipa is a senior fellow at the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution.

President Biden regularly emphasizes how the major pieces of legislation he has signed — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — expand opportunities for Americans.

This is especially true for rural Americans. Those three laws appropriated billions of dollars — about $464 billion — for many projects that could be particularly relevant to rural communities, allowing them to dream of a different economic future.

I am often asked if rural voters will give Mr. Biden credit for all that money and the changes it could bring and will show their appreciation at the ballot box. My answer is that it is unrealistic to expect place-specific investments to have an immediate impact on elections.

Rural places remain skeptical that federal policymakers have their best interests at heart. Proving otherwise will take intention and time.

Above all, implementation matters. These investment opportunities will be meaningless unless they reach rural America. For that to happen, federal and local officials and many people in between will need to focus on intentional targeting and sensitivity to the challenges that rural places face.

It is important to keep in mind that many rural governments are led by unpaid elected officials, and few rural city halls have staffs to work on planning, project development and grant writing.

Only 15 percent of Michigan’s smallest jurisdictions , for example, express confidence in their ability to get access to federal grants, whereas the rate for jurisdictions over 30,000 people is close to 40 percent. A national survey published in 2019 found more than half of rural counties experienced moderate or significant fiscal stress, so for programs where local governments must match the federal funding, those counties face an additional challenge.

This does not bode well for equitable distribution of those federal investments. According to analysis I did with a fellow researcher, just 2 percent of the appropriations in the bills are reserved exclusively for rural places. Getting any of the remainder means vying successfully with larger jurisdictions.

The demand among rural and small towns clearly exists. For two new programs geared toward energy improvements in remote and rural communities under 10,000 people, the Department of Energy received more than 1,000 submissions combined. The new Recompete pilot program , intended to enable economic renewal in distressed places and overseen by the Economic Development Administration at the Department of Commerce, received a deluge of 565 applications — the most applications the development agency has received for a national program in its history. About half of the areas that were eligible are rural.

The scale of interest compounds the challenge. These and other programs’ popularity, combined with rural communities’ limited resources, means that success rates will be exceptionally low. It highlights the importance of leveling the playing field so the most vulnerable communities are not left out.

A critical first step will be to make sure that local communities have the staff and access to the expertise and administrative capacity necessary to secure and manage these investments.

As the Biden administration makes major investments in creating technical assistance centers in communities across the country, rural places must get to participate and benefit.

Congress also has a vital and continuing role to play. The Rural Partnership and Prosperity Act is bipartisan legislation that has been proposed in the Senate and the House of Representatives , and it is now included in the negotiations for the 2024 Farm Bill . Such a measure could be a game changer in getting flexible support directly to rural partnerships so they can unlock these opportunities.

The processes and requirements to gain access to those investments could also be simplified; no one should be required to fill out a 400-page application. We’ve already seen some improvements. The administration has put so-called navigators in selected communities to help them identify funding opportunities, and some agencies like the U.S. Forest Service have modified their processes to help communities apply for grants. These advances ought to be more widely adopted across the federal government.

States or financial and nonprofit intermediaries will also have the final say on the fate of much of the investment that is important for rural places, like broadband and water .

It’s not just about access to these opportunities. The extent to which local communities are in the driver’s seat and how widely the benefits accrue beyond local elites will be instrumental in avoiding the extractive practices that have often haunted rural economies. This means taking the time and providing the chance for people to influence the decisions that will affect them.

Take rural Humboldt County, Calif., where plans are underway to put immense wind turbines off its coast, a clean energy installation large enough to provide 6 percent of the state’s supply of electricity. A decision is pending by a state agency as to whether any of that electricity will land in Humboldt itself, where some federally recognized Native tribes do not have dependable power to this day.

The biggest risk is that politics stop the momentum created by these laws, because the investments are just getting started. For example, the money has not even begun to flow to local projects from the infrastructure act’s signature $42.5 billion investment to close the broadband gap .

Leading policy voices on the right have proposed dissolving or consolidating agencies like the Economic Development Administration and pulling these resources without offering an alternative vision for supporting rural development. That will simply once again starve rural places of investment. It does not seem like a long-term winning strategy.

Nor does vilifying an entire segment of the rural population based on specious analysis , as parts of the liberal elite seem wont to do.

The struggles that portions of rural America are experiencing were decades in the making. Common sense dictates that the solutions will not transpire overnight. Congress and the Biden administration have put the initial pieces in place to help many rural places transition to a brighter economic future. The president’s campaign pitch to rural voters ought to be the opportunity to stay the course. The political rewards may be far in the future, but it’s the right thing for rural communities — and for the country.

Tony Pipa is a senior fellow at the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution, where he leads the Reimagining Rural Policy Initiative and hosts the “ Reimagine Rural ” podcast.

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