John Henry Newman On Worship, Reverence, & Ritual: A Selection of Texts ed. by Peter Kwasniewski

Abstract

Reviewed by: John Henry Newman On Worship, Reverence, & Ritual: A Selection of Texts ed. by Peter Kwasniewski Nicolas Wilson Peter Kwasniewski, ed. John Henry Newman On Worship, Reverence, & Ritual: A Selection of Texts N.p.: Os Justi Press, 2019 v + 513 pages. Paperback. $23.96. Of the four times St John Henry Newman is cited in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, one is from a sermon on reverence. This volume explores further Newman’s particular gift for articulating reverence in a way that draws the reader into realizing the majesty and reality of God. In a sense, every page speaks to Newman’s fundamental conversion experience as a young man, where he was so impressed by the “thought of two and two only supreme and luminously self-evident beings, myself and my Creator” (Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Chapter 1). In Newman’s day, general respect for at least a superficial religiosity often masked a growing, underlying religious indifference. Today, as blatant religious indifference is on the rise, [End Page 194] Newman’s solution to combat such unreality remains valid. Newman invites the reader to see as he sees, stand where he stands, imagine what he imagines. This volume invites the reader to stand with Newman on holy ground in the presence of the all-holy God, awesome, eternal, powerful. Some common threads run through the whole of Newman’s life and the whole of this volume. In his “Biglietto Speech” on becoming a cardinal, he professed that his whole life had been a battle against liberalism in religion, understood as that ideology that spurned a definite creed and fixed doctrine. In his writings on worship, reverence, and ritual, we see how those three were dogmatic anchors that Newman used to combat liberalism and draw others into an encounter with the living God. This meeting of the soul and God, shrouded in awe, terror, and love, undergirds Newman’s writings and preaching on reverence. The sermons of his Anglican days, which make up a substantial portion of this book, aim to make concrete in the present what will be certain on the day of judgment (11–64; 75–162; 175–367). In “Reverence, a Belief in God’s Presence” (213–222) Newman laments how awe and fear have dropped from the religious experience of most churchgoers. He challenges them to imagine standing before the throne of God, and asks what sort of emotion they will feel then? The Christian would know joy mixed with terror, something new. Yet emotions themselves are not the goal of Newman’s preaching. In “Religious Emotion” (26–33) he cautions against making emotion the whole of one’s religion or reducing preaching simply to an appeal for emotional excitement. Rather, emotions are meant to serve obedience. He asserts that on our deathbeds, we will take more consolation in one simple act of obedience than in many flights of emotional wrangling. Yet the Christian life is not mere terror and groveling, as Newman makes clear in “Christian Nobleness” (332–339). Rather, the presence of the Spirit allows the Christian to live the calm, sober Christianity encouraged in “Religious Emotion,” as one is deeply moved, yet in obedience, and with a sense of one’s own dignity as a temple of the Spirit. This possession of the Spirit is requisite for the experience described in “Holiness Necessary for Future Blessedness” (11–19) as Newman makes clear that one’s [End Page 195] experience of worship on earth is an indicator of how one will experience worship in heaven. The rest of the writings from Newman’s Catholic period reflect his personal appropriation of Catholic worship and devotional practices (368–508). The reader receives the fruits of Newman’s labor to work out the relation between dogma and devotion, liberty in devotional choices and devotional excess, stability in ritual and one’s interior entry into ritual’s objective meaning. In his apologetic and controversial writings, there are descriptions of devotion that go beyond mere defense. In compelling and concrete ways, Newman demonstrates how in the Catholic Church, there is the visible guarantee of divine authority, and in the sacraments, there is the visible assurance of the presence of...