John Henry Newman citations

John Henry Newman, né à Londres le 21 février 1801 et mort à Edgbaston le 11 août 1890, est un saint catholique. De son vivant, il fut ecclésiastique, théologien et écrivain britannique. Il se convertit au catholicisme en 1845.

Étudiant à l'Université d'Oxford, il est ordonné prêtre anglican. Ses travaux sur les Pères de l'Église le conduisent à analyser les racines chrétiennes de l'anglicanisme et à défendre l'indépendance de sa religion face à l'État britannique, sous la forme de « tracts ». Ainsi naît le Mouvement d'Oxford, dont John Newman est l'un des principaux acteurs. Ses recherches sur les Pères de l’Église et sa conception de l’Église l'amènent à se convertir au catholicisme, qu'il voit désormais comme la confession la plus fidèle aux racines du christianisme. C'est au cours de cette période qu'il écrit le célèbre poème Lead, kindly Light.

Il part pour l'Irlande afin de fonder une université catholique à Dublin, à la demande des évêques de ce pays. Pour mieux faire comprendre sa conception de l’éducation et de la science il donne un cycle de conférences : L'Idée d'université, avant de démissionner en 1857 à cause du manque de confiance de la part des évêques irlandais face à son entreprise. Sa conversion au catholicisme est incomprise et critiquée par ses anciens amis anglicans. Il est aussi regardé avec méfiance par une partie du clergé catholique anglais du fait de ses positions considérées comme très libérales. En réaction à des calomnies, John Newman décrit sa conversion au catholicisme dans Apologia Pro Vita Sua. Cet ouvrage change la perception des anglicans à son égard et accroît sa notoriété. L’incompréhension suscitée par la proclamation du dogme de l’infaillibilité pontificale conduit Newman à défendre l’Église et la place primordiale de la conscience dans sa Lettre au duc de Norfolk. Sa conception de la conscience sera en partie développée lors du Concile Vatican II. Il écrit par la suite la Grammaire de l'assentiment, qui se veut une défense de la foi face au développement du positivisme. Le nouveau pape Léon XIII, élu en 1878, décide de le créer cardinal en 1879. John Newman meurt onze années plus tard à l’âge de 89 ans.

Théologien et christologue reconnu, il est l'une des figures majeures du catholicisme britannique, avec Thomas More, Henry Edward Manning et Ronald Knox. Il a exercé une influence considérable sur les intellectuels catholiques, notamment les auteurs venus de l'anglicanisme. Pour Xavier Tilliette, il apparaît comme « une grande personnalité singulière, une sorte de cierge pascal dans l'Église catholique du XIXe siècle ». Ses œuvres, dont la Grammaire de l'assentiment et l'Apologia Pro Vita Sua, sont une référence constante chez des écrivains tels que G. K. Chesterton, Evelyn Waugh ou Julien Green, mais aussi pour des théologiens et des philosophes comme Avery Dulles, Erich Przywara et Edith Stein, qui a traduit en allemand son ouvrage L'Idée d'université.

Proclamé vénérable par la Congrégation pour les causes des saints en 1991 et béatifié à Birmingham le 19 septembre 2010 par le pape Benoît XVI, il est proclamé saint le 13 octobre 2019 par le pape François. Wikipedia  

✵ 21. février 1801 – 11. août 1890
John Henry Newman photo

Œuvres

L'Idée d'université
John Henry Newman
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John Henry Newman citations célèbres

“C'est un signe d'insécurité que de sentir bien tranquille”

To be at ease is to be unsafe
en
Tranquillité

“La connaissance est une chose, la vertu en est une autre.”

Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another.
en
L'idée d'université

John Henry Newman: Citations en anglais

“Growth is the only evidence of life.”

Apologia pro Vita Sua http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/newman/apologia1.html (1864).

“To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”

Variante: In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.
Source: An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845), Chapter 1, Section 1, Part 7.

“Surely, there is at this day a confederacy of evil, marshalling its hosts from all parts of the world, organizing itself, taking its measures, enclosing the Church of CHRIST as in a net, and preparing the way for a general apostasy from it. Whether this very apostasy is to give birth to Antichrist, or whether he is still to be delayed, we cannot know; but at any rate this apostasy, and all its tokens, and instruments, are of the Evil One and savour of death. Far be it from any of us to be of those simple ones, who are taken in that snare which is circling around us! Far be it from us to be seduced with the fair promises in which Satan is sure to hide his poison! Do you think he is so unskilful in his craft, as to ask you openly and plainly to join him in his warfare against the Truth? No; he offers you baits to tempt you. He promises you civil liberty; he promises you equality; he promises you trade and wealth; he promises you a remission of taxes; he promises you reform. This is the way in which he conceals from you the kind of work to which he is putting you; he tempts you to rail against your rulers and superiors; he does so himself, and induces you to imitate him; or he promises you illumination, he offers you knowledge, science, philosophy, enlargement of mind. He scoffs at times gone by; he scoffs at every institution which reveres them. He prompts you what to say, and then listens to you, and praises you, and encourages you. He bids you mount aloft. He shows you how to become as gods. Then he laughs and jokes with you, and gets intimate with you; he takes your hand, and gets his fingers between yours, and grasps them, and then you are his.”

Tract 83 http://anglicanhistory.org/tracts/tract83.html (29 June 1838).

“The more I read of Athanasius, Theodoret, etc, the more I see that the ancients did make the Scriptures the basis of their belief.”

John Henry Newman livre Apologia Pro Vita Sua

To Richard Hurrell Froude, August 23, 1835.
Letters and Correspondence of John Henry Newman During His Life in the English Church, 1890, Anne Mozley, ed., Longmans’s Green & Co., London, New York, Volume 2, p. 113. http://books.google.com/books?id=uak8AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA113&dq=%22the+more+i+read+of+athanasius,+theodoret%22&hl=en&ei=CeBlTqH1K4m2sQL91pm3Cg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22the%20more%20i%20read%20of%20athanasius%2C%20theodoret%22&f=false
Contexte: The more I read of Athanasius, Theodoret, etc, the more I see that the ancients did make the Scriptures the basis of their belief. The only question is, would they have done so in another point besides the θεολογία (theology), etc, which happened in the early ages to be in discussion? I incline to say the Creed is the faith necessary to salvation, as well as to Church communion, and to maintain that Scripture, according to the Fathers, is the authentic record and document of this faith.
It surely is reasonable that 'necessary to salvation' should apply to the Baptismal Creed: 'In the name of,' etc (vid. He who believeth etc.). Now the Apostles' Creed is nothing but this; for the Holy Catholic Church, etc [in it] are but the medium through which God comes to us. Now this θεολογία, I say, the Fathers do certainly rest on Scripture, as upon two tables of stone. I am surprised more and more to see how entirely they fall into Hawkins’s theory even in set words, that Scripture proves and the Church teaches. http://books.google.com/books?id=JbwJVBOvECwC&pg=PA66&dq=%22that+the+sacred+text+was+never+intended+to+teach+doctrine,+but+only+to+prove+it%22&hl=en&ei=k-RlTq__FOStsQKOwrCzCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22that%20the%20sacred%20text%20was%20never%20intended%20to%20teach%20doctrine%2C%20but%20only%20to%20prove%20it%22&f=false
I believe it would be extremely difficult to show that tradition is ever considered by them (in matters of faith) more than interpretative of Scripture. It seems that when a heresy rose they said at once ‘That is not according to the Church's teaching,’ i. e. they decided it by the praejudicium [N. B. prescription] of authority.
Again, when they met together in council, they brought the witness of tradition as a matter of fact, but when they discussed the matter in council, cleared their views, etc., proved their power, they always went to Scripture alone. They never said 'It must be so and so, because St. Cyrian says this, St. Clement explains in his third book of the "Paedagogue," etc.' and with reason; for the Fathers are a witness only as one voice, not in individual instances, or, much less, isolated passages, but every word of Scripture is inspired and available.

“Nothing would be done at all, if a man waited till he could do it so well, that no one could find fault with it.”

Lecture IX
Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England (1851)

“To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant.”

Introduction, Part 5.
An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845)

“Where good and ill together blent,
Wage an undying strife.”

A Martyr Convert http://www.newmanreader.org/works/verses/verse170.html, st. 3 (1856). Also in Callista Chapter 36 http://www.newmanreader.org/works/callista/chapter36.html (1855).

“It is thy very energy of thought
Which keeps thee from thy God.”

The Dream of Gerontius http://www.ccel.org/n/newman/gerontius/gerontius.htm, Pt. III (1866).

“The world is content with setting right the surface of things.”

Discourse VIII, pt. 8.
The Idea of a University (1873)

“Christian! hence learn to do thy part,
And leave the rest to Heaven.”

St. Paul at Melita http://www.newmanreader.org/works/verses/verse70.html, st. 3 (1833).

“Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another.”

Discourse V, pt. 9.
The Idea of a University (1873)

“So living Nature, not dull Art,
Shall plan my ways and rule my heart.”

Nature and Art http://www.newmanreader.org/works/verses/verse5.html, st. 12 (1868).

“From shadows and symbols into the truth!”
Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem!

His own epitaph at Edgbaston

“Firmly I believe and truly God is Three, and God is One;
And I next acknowledge duly Manhood taken by the Son.”

The Dream of Gerontius http://www.ccel.org/n/newman/gerontius/gerontius.htm, Pt. I (1866).

“It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never inflicts pain.”

Discourse VIII, pt. 10. http://books.google.com/books?id=YdrJkVPhptwC&q=%22it+is+Almost+a%22+%22a+gentle+man+to+say+he+is+one+who+never+inflicts+pain%22&pg=PA208#v=onepage
The Idea of a University (1873)

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