Wednesday, November 18, 2020

John Henry Newman (post-1845) vs. Mutative Change in Doctrine and Theological Novelties

 

 

Apostolic Deposit of Faith

 

The notion of doctrinal knowledge absolutely novel, and of simple addition from without, is intolerable to Catholic era, and never was entertained by any one who was even approaching to an understanding of our creed. Revelation is all in all in doctrine; the Apostles its solve depository, the inferential method its sole instrument, and ecclesiastical authority its sole sanction. The Divine Voice has spoken once for all, and the only question is about its meaning . . . Christian Truth is purely of revelation; that revelation we can but explain, we cannot increase, except relatively to our own apprehensions; without it we should have known nothing of its contents, with it we know just as much as its contents, and nothing more. And, as it was given by a divine act independent of man, so will it remain in spite of man. (I[dea of a]U[niversity], Part 1, Discourse 9, ‘Duties of the Church Towards Knowledge, 1852)

 

What is known in Christianity is just what which is revealed, and nothing more; certain truths, communicated directly from above, are committed to the keeping of the faithful, and to the very last nothing can really be added to those truths. From the time of the Apostles to the end of the world no strictly new truth can be added to the theological information which the Apostles were inspired to deliver. It is possible of course to make numberless deductions from the original doctrines; but, as the conclusion is ever in its premisses, such deductions are not, strictly speaking, an addition. (IU, Part II, ch. 7: ‘Christianity and Physical Science,’ November 1855)

 

[N]either People nor Council are on a level with the Apostles. To the Apostles the whole revelation was given, by the Church it is transmitted; no simply new truth has been given to us since St. John’s death; the one office of the Church is to guard ‘that noble deposit’ of truth, as St. Paul speaks to Timothy, which the Apostles bequeathed to her, in its fulness and integrity. Hence the infallibility of the Apostles was of a far more positive, and wide character than that needed by and granted to the Church. (Letter to the Duke of Norfolk, ch. 9, 1875) (Dave Armstrong, The Quotable Newman: A Definitive Guide to His Central Thoughts and Ideas [Manchester, N.H.: Sophia Institute Press, 2012], 35)