THE INFLUENCE OF NATURAL AND REVEALED RELIGION RESPECTIVELY

John Henry Newman

John Henry Newman (1801–1890), a Christian Personalist, a genius according to John Paul II. He used the phrase “this method of personation” in his Oxford sermon (April 13, 1830). Published An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845) and his autobiography Apologia pro vita sua (1864). In 1879 Newman became a Cardinal and he was called ‘il mio cardinale’ by Pope Leo XIII.

‘Cor ad cor loquitur’ (Rome, March 1879).

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life; (For the Life was manifested, and we have seen It, and bear witness, and show unto you that Eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us.” (1 J 1, 1-3)

The main purpose of our Saviour’s incarnation, as far as we are permitted to know it, was that of reconciling us to God, and purchasing for us eternal life by His sufferings and death. This purpose was accomplished when He said, “It is finished,” and gave up the ghost.

But on His rising from the dead, He extended to us two additional acts of grace, as preparatory to the future blessing, and of which, as well as of our resurrection, that miracle itself was made the evidence. “Go ye, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” In this commission to His disciples was intimated, on the one hand, His merciful design of “gathering together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad,” by the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit; and on the other hand, His intended grant of a system of religious truth, grounded on that mysterious economy of Divine Providence in which His own incarnation occupies the principal place.

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