From Eastertide to Ecclesia: John Henry Newman, the Holy Spirit and the Church by Donald Graham

Abstract

NEWMAN STUDIES JOURNAL 96 BooK reViews From Eastertide to Ecclesia: John Henry Newman, the Holy Spirit and the Church. By Donald Graham. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2011. Pages: 231. Paperback: ISBN 978–0–87462–795–4. $25.00. This book’s cover-picture—“a trinity of lilies” that “suggests the surge from Eastertide to Ecclesia”—symbolizes the author’s purpose: an examination of “the fundamental pneumatological dimension of Newman’s sacramental ecclesiology” [14]. This statement of purpose should suffice to advise prospective readers that this book is serious reading that presupposes an in-depth familiarity with both Newman’s theological and philosophical writings and those of modern theologians and philosophers. The initial chapter gets off to a good start by tracing the historical “Growth in Newman’s Idea of the Church” from his Evangelical years when he conceived of the Church “as an invisible union of believers (1816–1824) to his gradual acceptance of the visible dimension of the Church (1824–1826) to his eventual affirmation of the Church as a sacramental communion (post–1826)” [17]. The Anglican portion of Newman’s ecclesial trajectory, narrated so eloquently in his Apologia pro Vita Sua (1864), culminated in his decision to enter the Roman Catholic Church in 1845. Readers expecting an historical investigation of the continuing development of Newman’s ecclesiology during his Roman Catholic years in such writings as “On Consulting the Faithful” (1859), A Letter to the Duke of Norfolk (1875) and his Preface to the Third Edition (1877) of his Lectures on the Prophetical Office of the Church (1837), may be surprised when the second chapter shifts to a discussion of Newman’s “Trinitarian and Incarnational Grammar” on the premise that “proper appreciation of Newman’s pneumatic ecclesiology requires a prior understanding of his view of the office of the Holy Spirit in the life of Christ”[53]. From the viewpoint of systematic theology,this discussion is quite well organized;yet the material is taken from a variety of different writings at different times in Newman’s life, so it is impossible to ascertain the historical development of his “pneumatic ecclesiology.” En passant, Graham criticizes scholars for their lack of interest in Newman’s pneumatology, especially their failure to reflect on his view of the Holy Spirit in the life of the historical Jesus. This criticism effectively highlights a longstanding lack of concern about pneumatology in Western theology in general, as well as the minimal study of the influence of Greek patristic theology on Newman in particular. Following a short treatment of divine condescension (synkatabasis) in creation and the Incarnation and “the enhominization of God through his intimate relationship with [the] Theotokos” (Mother of God) [73], Graham considers the role of“the Holy Spirit in the Life of Jesus.”After examining Newman’s“Athanasian-inspired christology,”Graham answers“the charges that Newman does not adequately account for the human nature of the God-man in his Christology”[91]. Graham then presents “the office of the Holy Spirit in the ontological constitution of the God-man, his transfiguration, baptism in the Jordan, flight to the desert, fasting and pasch” [91]. 97 While Graham finds both “shortcomings” [92–104] and “strengths” [104–114] in Newman’s“pneumatic Christology,”one wonders whether these“shortcomings”may have stemmed from the fact that he was a preacher expounding biblical and patristic texts,rather than a systematic theologian constructing a logically seamless treatise. In any case, relying primarily on “Righteousness the Fruit of Our Lord’s Resurrection,” the ninth of Newman’s Lectures on the Doctrine of Justification, Graham describes Newman’s view of the Holy Spirit as the “leading actor” in the Easter Mystery (Resurrection, post-resurrectional apparitions,Ascension, Pentecost). Presuming that he has “established Newman’s fundamental view of the Church in terms of the Easter Mystery,”Graham then examines Newman’s“vivified idea of the Church in An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine” [149]. As “prolegomena” to this inquiry, Graham briefly surveys the way that Newman’s Essay has been treated by a dozen other scholars: Jaroslav Pelikan, Avery Dulles, Louis Bouyer, Pierre Masson, C. S. Dessain, Ian Ker, Edward Jeremy Miller, Rino La Delfa, Terrence Merrigan, H. Francis Davis...