The Coincidence of Opposites in John Henry Newman According to Erich Przywara, S. J.

Abstract

ABSTRACT: For Erich Przywara S. J. (1889-1972), Newman stands in a line of philosophers that deal with the "coincidence of opposites," stretching back to Heraclitus. But how are coinciding opposites to be understood in the context of the Christian life? Are they not in fact contradictions which compel a choosing of one opposite to the exclusion of the other? Although Newman's relationship to Augustine in particular is key to Przywara's analysis, it is to Newman's specific contributions that Przywara turns in order to answer these questions. Przywara finds in Newman a sophisticated deployment of analogy, manifest in his sensitivity to the concrete coinciding opposites of the Christian life. Tracing the particular themes which display these coincidences of opposites from across Newman's homilies, letters, poetry, and fiction, this article contextualises Przywara's engagement with Newman, and shows how these different literary genres underscore Przywara's conclusion that Newman simultaneously stands in both the Augustinian and Thomistic traditions whilst yielding new and innovative explorations of the Christian life.