Over the past five to ten years, scholarship has seen a flurry of high-quality historical and theological analyses of John Henry Newman's life and work. Christopher Cimorelli's book easily fits this description. This book extends from Cimorelli's doctoral dissertation, which he completed at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium under the direction of Prof. Dr. Terrence Merrigan. In this book, Cimorelli addresses the question: “What was John Henry Newman's understanding of the nature of historical research and of the significance of said research” (3)? In doing so, Cimorelli takes up the following issues: First, “How did John Henry Newman practice church history … what methodology did he employ, and how did he understand the goal of historical research?” And second, “What was his understanding of the role of historical study for theology?” In five chapters, the author successfully demonstrates the following hypothesis:
John Henry Newman's approach to theology is sustained and shaped by a theological approach to history (a “theology of history”) which regards historical research as an indispensable factor in the establishment of the normative understanding of both (i) what constitutes legitimate church doctrine and (ii) what determines the shape of the Christian community in history. In other words, for Newman, historical research is vital for the construction and articulation of the “theological imaginary” which shapes and undergirds authentic Christian existence in the world.Footnote 1
Cimorelli's investigation into this hypothesis largely focuses on Newman's Anglican years between the time just prior to his The Arians of the Fourth Century (1833) and his seminal An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, which was published on the eve of his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1845. Cimorelli's focus on Newman's formative years is a much-needed study within Newman studies, since most analyses of Newman's theory of development tend to focus on the time directly before Newman's conversion, rather than tracing the historical germination of the theory of development from Newman's theology the decade before.
While this book is clearly intended for a specialized audience familiar with the history and theology of John Henry Newman, the argument is nonetheless easy to follow. Cimorelli utilizes methodologies consistent with both historical and systematic theology to describe Newman's theology of history, as well as makes use of Newman's historical context in order to more fully explain the rationale behind Newman's theology of history.
The three appendices included are helpful to the reader. The first appendix includes a “general” table of contents for Newman's Arians of the Fourth Century. The second appendix is a repository of figures (diagrams) used to help explain Newman's theology, and the third appendix, which this reader found the most helpful, is a color-coded legend of parallel passages from Newman's On the Prophetical Office and his Essay on Development.
This book is essential reading for those interested in the theology of Blessed John Henry Newman and belongs on the shelf of historical and systematic theologians alike. Cimorelli is to be commended for this work.
