From his vantage point in the nineteenth century, John Henry Newman offers much needed clarity to the twenty-first century, an age characterized by significant tension between science and religion and by a marginalization of the humanities. As a philosopher, theologian, priest, and man of Letters, he sheds light on our modern age by distinguishing between the different ways reason functions in science, religion, and literature. During his time, in response to a looming crisis in both religion and education, Newman challenged the usurpation of reason by science and empirical philosophy. He affirmed the need for the opening of the modern mind to other equally legitimate ways of knowing and defended the kinds of reason cultivated in the liberal arts. Jane Rupert delves into John Henry Newman's perception of the magisterial function of the imagination in both poetry and our knowledge of God, contributing unique insight into the study of his thought and showing how well it serves us to study this important nineteenth-century Catholic thinker. She presents a deep reflection of Newman's thought on several fronts, including intellectual history, theories of knowing, the controversy between science and religion, the defense of the liberal arts, and the aims of Catholic education.

This collection of papers grew out of a concern of several at Creighton University for the perduring nature of the thought of John Henry Cardinal Newman. Although Cardinal Newman died some one hundred years ago, his influence on today’s thinking is still strong. Like Sir Thomas More with his Utopia, Newman put forward an ideal of society and life which has a recognizable relation to the lasting possibilities open to humankind. First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

For John Henry Newman, religion is animated by an imaginative 'master vision' which 'supplies the mind with spiritual life and peace'. All his life, Newman reflected on this 'master vision'. His reflections on the moral imagination developed out of his understanding of practical wisdom, as characterized by Aristotle – the wisdom that 'the good man' has in living a good life. For Newman, the vision at the core of religion completes and perfects the intuitions of the conscience. John Henry Newman and the Imagination looks at how Newman's understanding of the moral and visionary imagination developed over the course of his life; and it relates his ideas about the imagination to his portrayals of religious experience, and vision, in his novels and poetry.

This volume of essays, sponsored by the Newman Association of America, serves to identify, preserve, and promote the legacy of John Henry Newman. It argues that eleven major elements of Newman’s life and work speak to us today, and, in fact, are very important resources for believers in their confrontation with the challenges of an increasingly secular world. They also resonate loudly to a church in crisis both internally and externally in its confrontation with that world. Ten authors, included among them some of the world’s most noted Newman scholars, as well as several emerging ones, address various aspects of Newman’s legacy on a host of subjects. These include the nature and challenges of faith both for believers and contemporary “nones” with no religious affiliations, an analysis of what and how we know things, particularly bearing on religious matters, the experience of conversions, the place and meaning of relationships in our search for God, especially those of family, home, and friendships, the indispensable role of the church in our drive for holiness, the nature and importance of education and its personal dimension, and the correct application of history in studying and learning from Newman’s legacy. Those who have questions and who think about these subjects, academics and non-academics alike, will find much to ponder in these essays.

“Considering the high gifts, and the strong claims of the Church of Rome and its dependencies on our admiration, reverence, love, and gratitude, how could we withstand it, as we do; how could we refrain from being melted into tenderness, and rushing into communion with it, but for the words of Truth itself, which bid us prefer it to the whole world? ‘He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me.’ How could we learn to be severe, and execute judgment, but for the warning of Moses against even a divinely-gifted teacher who should preach new gods, and the anathema of St. Paul even against Angels and Apostles who should bring in a new doctrine?” Aeterna Press