Mother of God Cover
 
 

The Mother of God

John Henry Newman


It has been said that this book of Newman's is one of the finest among all writings on Mary.

Contrary to clichés, Newman did not aim at presenting a Mariology, let alone such that would have anticipated the Mariologies in vogue after Vatican II. He merely wanted to present unapologetically as possible the age-old Catholic perspective of Mary as the Mother of God. He did so in rebuttal of the claim of Pusey, a prominent Anglo-Catholic, that Mariology was a field, in addition to papal infallability, where Rome had to retreat considerably for the sake of reunion with the Church of England.

Newman brooked no patience with that claim. He forcefully brought out the antithesis which early Church Fathers drew between Eve and Mary, the second Eve, and emphasized throughout the implications of Mary's divine motherhood. Most tellingly he challenged Pusey to show that the Church of England had ever displayed for Mary a zeal comparable to the one that set the tone of the Church Fathers, so dear to Anglicans.

This re-edition shows all of the changeds Newman introduced when he prepared the text for the final edition. It also contains many references that Newman did not supply or supplied in full as he quoted patristic and other sources.

As to the editor's introduction, it is as carefully researched and outspoken as are the introductions to his re-edition of Newmans Anglican Difficulties and Letter to the Duke of Norfolk.

The Letter is rather the vindication of the supreme authority of supernatural revelation. This is why the Letter begins with a chapter on the authoritative character of the Ancient Church as setting the rules of conscience against the encroachment of the State. One may indeed take the Letter for a treatise on Conscience and the Papacy.

A sedulous attention to the Letter might have prevented the trivialization of Catholic conscience by much of the “new” theology unjustly laying claim to Newman. May the Letter prove a major remedy to the moral malaise engulfing a clergy and a laity caught in a misconstruction of the aggiornamento.
 

REAL-VIEW BOOKS

1436 Devonshire Lane

Fort Huron, MI 48060

USA