Apologia Pro Vita Sua

Summary

Apologia Pro Vita Sua is John Henry Newman's defence of his honesty, written in 1864 in reply to the novelist and clergyman Charles Kingsley, who had written in Macmillan's Magazine that truth for its own sake had never been a virtue with the Roman clergy and that Father Newman taught it need not be. After an exchange of letters and a pamphlet by Kingsley, Newman decided that the only adequate answer was a history of his own mind. Parts I and II, kept in the library text, examine Kingsley's method of argument and explain why Newman will answer by narrative rather than by rebuttal. Part III traces his religious opinions to 1833: a London boyhood of Bible reading and imaginative fancies, an evangelical conversion at fifteen in 1816 that left him resting in the thought of two self-evident beings, himself and his Creator, and the influence at Oriel College of Richard Whately, Edward Hawkins, John Keble, the Christian Year and Joseph Butler's Analogy, along with his close friendship with Richard Hurrell Froude. He travels in the Mediterranean in 1832-33, nearly dies of fever in Sicily, tells his servant that he has a work to do in England, and writes Lead, Kindly Light while becalmed in the Straits of Bonifacio. Part IV covers 1833 to 1839, when Keble's sermon on National Apostasy starts the Oxford Movement and Newman writes Tracts for the Times defending dogma, a visible Church and the apostolical succession, and develops the theory of the Anglican via media between Rome and popular Protestantism. Part V, 1839 to 1841, describes his study of the Monophysite controversy, the shock of reading Augustine's phrase securus judicat orbis terrarum in an article by Nicholas Wiseman, and the storm over Tract 90, in which he argued that the Thirty-Nine Articles could bear a Catholic interpretation and which the bishops censured. Part VI, 1841 to 1845, recounts the Jerusalem bishopric scheme, his retirement to Littlemore with a few friends, his resignation of St. Mary's in 1843, his retraction of earlier attacks on Rome, his work on the development of doctrine, and his reception into the Catholic Church by the Passionist Father Dominic Barberi on 9 October 1845, followed by his departure from Oxford in February 1846. Part VII, a general answer to Kingsley, describes the perfect peace he has felt since, explains how difficulties differ from doubts, and sets out his view of the Church's infallibility as a power given to withstand the wild living intellect of man. An appendix answers Kingsley's charges one by one, and the volume closes with a dedication to the fathers of the Birmingham Oratory, especially Ambrose St. John, and a letter of support from Bishop William Ullathorne. The work appeared in weekly parts from April to June 1864 and was revised in 1865 as History of My Religious Opinions.

Plot or Argument

• Part I: Mr. Kingsley's Method of Disputation

  Newman reviews Kingsley's charge, the correspondence that followed, and Kingsley's pamphlet, arguing that Kingsley poisons the wells by making every denial from Newman count as further evidence of dishonesty.

• Part II: True Mode of Meeting Mr. Kingsley

  He resolves to answer not by disputing sentences but by showing the whole course of his thought, so that readers can judge whether he has been a deceiver or an honest man.

• Part III: History of My Religious Opinions up to 1833

  Childhood, the evangelical conversion of 1816, Oriel College and the influence of Whately, Hawkins, Keble, Butler and Hurrell Froude, the Mediterranean voyage, fever in Sicily, Lead, Kindly Light, and the return to England in July 1833.

• Part IV: 1833 to 1839

  The Oxford Movement begins with Keble's assize sermon; Newman sets out his three principles of dogma, a visible Church with sacraments and bishops, and opposition to Rome, and builds the via media through the Tracts and his lectures on the prophetical office.

• Part V: 1839 to 1841

  Reading the history of the Monophysites he sees himself in the heretics' position; Augustine's words quoted by Wiseman shake the via media; Tract 90 on the Thirty-Nine Articles provokes official censure.

• Part VI: 1841 to 1845

  The Jerusalem bishopric, three blows that he calls the beginning of the end, retirement to Littlemore, resignation of St. Mary's, the theory of development, reception by Father Dominic in October 1845, and farewell to Oxford in 1846.

• Part VII: General Answer to Mr. Kingsley

  Since his conversion he has had no doubts; he distinguishes difficulty from doubt, defends the infallibility of the Church as a check on unrestrained reason, and answers Kingsley's claims about Catholic attitudes to truth and the clergy.

• Appendix, dedication and Ullathorne letter

  A detailed reply to each of Kingsley's accusations, a dedication to the priests of the Birmingham Oratory and Ambrose St. John, and Bishop Ullathorne's letter describing Newman's work as a Catholic priest.

Characters

• John Henry Newman, author and narrator

  Oxford don, Anglican vicar and leader of the Oxford Movement who becomes a Catholic priest and Oratorian.

• Charles Kingsley, accuser

  Anglican clergyman, novelist and Cambridge professor whose charge of dishonesty occasioned the book.

• John Keble, friend and leader

  Author of The Christian Year whose 1833 sermon Newman counts as the start of the Oxford Movement.

• Richard Hurrell Froude, closest friend

  Oriel fellow whose bold High Church opinions shaped Newman; died in 1836.

• Edward Bouverie Pusey, ally

  Regius Professor of Hebrew who joined the Movement and remained an Anglican.

• Richard Whately, early mentor

  Oriel logician who taught Newman to think and to see the Church as a body.

• Nicholas Wiseman, Catholic bishop

  Whose article on the Donatists led Newman to Augustine's decisive words, and who received him at Oscott.

• Father Dominic Barberi, Passionist priest

  Italian missionary who received Newman into the Catholic Church at Littlemore.

• Ambrose St. John, friend and fellow Oratorian

  Newman's companion from Littlemore onward, to whom he dedicates the book.

• William Bernard Ullathorne, Catholic bishop

  Bishop of Birmingham whose letter of support closes the volume.

Lessons

• Answering a charge with a whole life

  Accused of indifference to truth, Newman decides that only the full history of his opinions will show what he is. He sets aside point-by-point rebuttal in favour of narrative, on the conviction that a reader who sees the whole person can judge his sincerity. The Apologia is thus a model of answering an attack on character with candour rather than counter-attack.

  • What exactly did Kingsley accuse Newman of, according to Part I?
  • Why does Newman think a history of his opinions answers the charge better than an argument?
  • Can a person's account of his own motives ever be fully trusted?

• Difficulty is not doubt

  In Part VII Newman says that he feels the intellectual difficulties of the Creed as keenly as anyone, but that ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt. A person can be unable to solve a problem without doubting that it has an answer. The distinction gives students a way to hold faith honestly while facing hard questions.

  • What comparison to mathematics does Newman use to explain his distinction?
  • Do you agree that difficulty and doubt are different things?
  • How did Newman's own journey from 1839 to 1845 involve both difficulties and doubts?

• Following conscience at great cost

  Newman's conversion cost him his Oxford fellowship, his pulpit at St. Mary's, many friendships and his standing in English public life. He describes leaving Littlemore and never seeing Oxford again except its spires from the railway. The book shows a man acting on conviction slowly and carefully, while his Anglican friends Keble and Pusey, acting on their own convictions, stayed where they were.

  • What did Newman lose by becoming a Catholic, according to Part VI?
  • Why did he take six years, from 1839 to 1845, to decide?
  • How does Newman describe the friends who did not follow him?

• The Church and the meaning of tradition

  Newman's via media held that the Church of England kept the faith of the early Church between Rome and popular Protestantism. Studying the Monophysites and Augustine's judgement on the Donatists, he came to believe that the whole Church's settled judgement decides disputes. Anglican readers continued to defend the via media as a coherent position; the Apologia lets students follow the argument as Newman lived it.

  • What were the three principles Newman held in 1833, according to Part IV?
  • Why did the words securus judicat orbis terrarum strike him so powerfully?
  • How would Keble or Pusey have answered Newman's reasons for leaving?

Context

In the 1820s and 1830s the Church of England faced Catholic Emancipation (1829), the Reform Act (1832) and Parliament's suppression of Irish bishoprics (1833), which High Churchmen saw as state interference in the Church. The Oxford Movement, or Tractarianism, led by Keble, Newman, Froude and Pusey, recalled Anglicans to the Church Fathers, apostolic succession and the sacraments. Its critics, evangelical and liberal, suspected it of leading toward Rome, and Newman's conversion in 1845, followed by others, seemed to confirm their fears. The restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England in 1850 renewed public anti-Catholic feeling.

Composition

In January 1864 Charles Kingsley, reviewing J. A. Froude's History of England in Macmillan's Magazine, accused Newman and the Catholic clergy of indifference to truth. Newman protested; their correspondence was published, and Kingsley replied with the pamphlet What, Then, Does Dr. Newman Mean? Newman wrote the Apologia at great speed, issuing it in seven weekly parts with an appendix between April and June 1864. In 1865 he reissued it without the two opening parts on Kingsley, under the title History of My Religious Opinions. The library text, an early twentieth-century Dent edition, includes the parts addressed to Kingsley and Bishop Ullathorne's letter.

Reception

The book won Newman wide sympathy among English readers of all churches and restored his public reputation, and many judged that he had the better of the exchange, though Kingsley's admirers continued to defend his concern about clerical candour. It has remained a classic of spiritual autobiography and English prose, read by Anglicans as a history of the Oxford Movement from one of its leaders and by Catholics as the account of a conversion. Newman was made a cardinal in 1879, beatified in 2010 and canonized in 2019.

Comparisons

• confessions

  Newman cites Augustine's tolle, lege and his judgement on the Donatists as turning points; both books trace a mind's movement into the Catholic Church, though Newman writes about opinions and Augustine about the whole heart before God.

• grace-abounding

  Bunyan's spiritual autobiography records an evangelical conversion through terrors and texts; Newman, converted at fifteen under Calvinist books, describes the same experience and then moves away from that tradition by reasoning about the Church.

• surprised-by-joy

  C. S. Lewis, an Oxford don of the next century, also wrote a history of his mind's conversion; he came to the Church of England and stayed there, which makes his book a natural Anglican counterpart to Newman's.

• early-christian-creeds

  Newman's first book was on the Arians of the fourth century, and the Nicene and Chalcedonian definitions that he studied lie at the heart of Parts IV and V.

• calvin-institutes

  Newman says his first religious books were all of the school of Calvin and that he held the doctrine of final perseverance until twenty-one; Calvin's Institutes sets out the Reformed teaching he later left.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• Kingsley's accusation and Newman's reasons in Parts I and II for answering with a life story instead of a debate.
• The boyhood conversion of 1816 in Part III and the two self-evident beings it left him with.
• The Mediterranean journey of 1833: the fever in Sicily, the words to his servant, and the writing of Lead, Kindly Light.
• The moments in Part V when the via media begins to fail: the Monophysites, Augustine's words, and the ghost.
• The last pages of Part VI, where Newman leaves Littlemore and Oxford.

Key terms and names

Apologia

Greek for a defence or reasoned answer, as in Plato's Apology; Newman's title means a defence of his life.

Oxford Movement

The High Church revival in the Church of England begun in 1833 by Keble, Newman, Froude and Pusey, also called Tractarianism.

Tracts for the Times

The series of pamphlets, 1833-1841, in which the Oxford Movement set out its teaching; Newman wrote many of them.

Via media

The middle way: Newman's theory that the Church of England held the faith of the early Church between Rome and popular Protestantism.

Tract 90

Newman's 1841 tract arguing that the Thirty-Nine Articles could be read in a Catholic sense; it was censured by the Oxford heads of houses and bishops.

Securus judicat orbis terrarum

Augustine's Latin phrase, meaning the whole world judges securely, which convinced Newman that the universal Church's verdict settles disputes.

Littlemore

The village near Oxford where Newman lived in semi-monastic retirement from 1842 and was received into the Catholic Church.

Oratory

A community of priests following St. Philip Neri, which Newman established in Birmingham after his conversion.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What did Kingsley accuse Newman of, and how did Newman decide to answer?
2. Comprehension What were the three principles Newman held when the Oxford Movement began in 1833?
3. Comprehension What happened to Newman between 1841 and October 1845, according to Part VI?
4. Interpretation Why does Newman think the Monophysite controversy described his own position in 1839?
5. Interpretation What does Newman mean when he says that one who has seen a ghost cannot be as if he had never seen it?
6. Interpretation How fairly does Newman describe the Anglican friends, such as Keble and Pusey, who did not follow him?
7. Big Question Is it possible to remain loyal to friends and to a former community while leaving it for conscience' sake?
8. Big Question Can unresolved difficulties coexist with firm faith, as Newman claims?

Faith Connections

• 1 Peter 3:15 (Scripture)

  Peter tells Christians to be ready to give a defence, in Greek an apologia, for the hope within them, with gentleness and reverence. Newman's book is such a defence, offered under public attack.

• Psalm 45:10 (Scripture)

  Newman quotes the Latin of this verse, forget thine own people and thy father's house, in his letter of January 1846 as he prepares to leave Littlemore.

• Augustine, Contra epistolam Parmeniani III.4 (Church Fathers)

  The source of securus judicat orbis terrarum, Augustine's argument against the Donatists that the judgement of the whole Church outweighs a separated part, which Newman applied to his own case.

• Joseph Butler, The Analogy of Religion (1736) (Great Conversation)

  Newman names Butler's Analogy among the books that formed him at Oriel, teaching him that probability is the guide of life, a principle behind his later reasoning toward conviction.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Kingsley charges that Newman does not care for truth. A man's honesty is best judged by seeing the whole consistent course of his thought and conduct over many years. Newman's history shows each change of opinion reached slowly, openly and at great cost. Therefore the charge of deceit is false, and the reader can see that he followed truth as he understood it.

Rhetorical device: metaphor. In Part V Newman says he had seen the shadow of a hand upon the wall and that the heavens had opened and closed again, picturing a sudden insight that could not be unseen; in Part VII he compares his conversion to coming into port after a rough sea.

Debate: Resolved: that Newman's narrative method was a more effective answer to Kingsley than a point-by-point rebuttal would have been.

Memory Work

Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt, as I understand the subject; difficulty and doubt are incommensurate.

I have a work to do in England.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Newman says that ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt. Using Parts V, VI and VII, explain what he means and show how his own path from 1839 to 1845 tests the distinction.

Comparison with Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life: Compare how Newman and C. S. Lewis, both Oxford men, describe the turning points of their conversions, and explain why one became a Catholic and the other remained an Anglican.

Medical Lens

The Apologia is a history of opinions, and its medical content is incidental. In Part III Newman describes falling dangerously ill with fever at Leonforte in Sicily in 1833, being nursed by his servant, who thought he would die, and sobbing on his recovery with the conviction that he had a work to do; the illness is usually identified by biographers as typhoid or a related fever, which the book itself does not name. He was again laid up from exhaustion at Lyons on the way home. Part VII refers to the fever that swept Irish emigrants in England, and Bishop Ullathorne's closing letter recalls Newman and Ambrose St. John nursing cholera victims at Bilston, an example of nineteenth-century clergy serving in epidemics. The narrative of 1841-1845 also records the strain and sorrow of prolonged religious uncertainty and the loss of friends, described as spiritual trial rather than illness.

• Part III

  Fever at Leonforte in Sicily in 1833, his servant's nursing, and his recovery with a sense of mission.

  Fever Infection Nursing Caregiving
• Part III

  Exhaustion on the journey home and several days laid up at Lyons.

  Fever Infection
• Part VII

  Mention of the Irish fever that cut off emigrants between Liverpool and Leeds, in a passage on Catholic clergy.

  Plague Epidemic Death Dying
• Ullathorne letter (end of volume)

  Newman and Ambrose St. John go to Bilston to minister during a cholera outbreak in place of other priests.

  Plague Epidemic Nursing Caregiving

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Draw a timeline of Newman's opinions from 1816 to 1845, marking each turning point named in Parts III to VI and the book or event that caused it.

• Dialogue

  Write a conversation at Littlemore in 1844 between Newman and Pusey, each explaining honestly why he believes he must stay in or leave the Church of England.

• Essay

  Newman chose to answer an attack on his honesty by writing a history of his mind. Evaluate whether this was the best defence, using Parts I, II and VII.

• Poetry

  Newman wrote Lead, Kindly Light becalmed in the Straits of Bonifacio. Write a poem about waiting for direction at a moment of uncertainty, using an image from the sea.

Further Reading

• An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, John Henry Newman

  The book he was writing at Littlemore when he decided to become a Catholic.

• The Idea of a University, John Henry Newman

• The Oxford Movement: Twelve Years, 1833-1845, R. W. Church

  An Anglican participant's history of the Movement.

• John Henry Newman: A Biography, Ian Ker

• The Christian Year, John Keble