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The preacher must not entertain his own politicalor social commentaries but must worktowards the spiritual good of his hearers.
Newman and preaching
By Michael Testa
In the light of Vatican II a new emphasis has been placed on preaching and its role in the Church, particularly in the liturgy. Protestant traditions as well have been committed to a renewal of the place of Christian preaching. John Henry Newman serves as an apt model of a preacher whose thought and words shaped the climate of his day, both Anglican and Catholic. Much has been written on Newman. The majority of this writing focuses on how his work has furthered development in theology and doctrine. Yet relatively little has been done with his sermons from the perspective of preaching.
Newman was an instinctive psychologist with strong insights into the human person. Such understandings can be found clearly in his sermons as well as his works on preaching, especially in such classics as his Parochial and Plain Sermons. The purpose of this article will be to examine his theology of preaching. I will examine his work from three specific vantage points. These are Newman's anthropology, his personal theology of preaching, and finally his relevance for contemporary preaching. Each topic explores his method as a preacher and a theologian, though he claims to never have been a theologian, and engages his views on the human person. His anthropology is a thread which is woven through the other pieces of his thought.
Anthropology is the key
For understanding Newman's theology of preaching it is important to first have some grasp of his anthropology, since a large portion of his thought on preaching flows from his understanding of the human condition. In Newman's "Discourse I: The Salvation of the Hearer, the Motive of the Preacher," from his Discourses Addressed to Mixed Congregations, published in 1849 as his first work as a Father of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, he offers insight into both his view on the human person and the preacher.
Newman begins by recognizing the basic curiosity human beings have concerning new projects, new people, and new preaching. This realization undergirds his theological method which is very pastoral in its roots. He is deeply concerned with the condition of the souls he encounters. They simply wonder as to the purpose or intention of new undertakings. When the world sees an undertaking not specifically designed for human ambitions, it can only impart the same human motives to which it is accustomed for it knows no better. The world is blind to the motives which influence men and women of faith. It cannot find any explanation of such individuals in any of its worldly knowledge. Newman writes:
We have secret views-secret that is from men of this world; secret from politicians, secret from the slaves of mammon, secret from all ambitious, covetous, selfish and voluptuous men (Mix. 4).1
Mystery is hidden from those who did not share the gift of its understanding. The simple desire to please God confounds the wise of this world.Newman recognizes that men and women of faith bear witness to God's testimony. Ironically such individuals' very fear of the worldly motives drives them to subsequent compassion for the souls possessed by such influences. The faithful are called to settle in the midst of the fray. The world is so enmeshed in its temporal concerns, that it has little energy to trouble itself about souls and their relation to God. It is concerned for today and gives little thought about tomorrow. The visible reality is the limit of its experience and what it cannot see it does not believe. As a result, even those with a semblance of faith believe that human beings need do very little to be saved. They believe the are justified and good works have no merit for salvation. Avoiding any great sin is deemed more than sufficient. Newman rejects such a view, which settles for spiritual mediocrity (Mix. 6).
Newman sees this as the state of affairs and for that very reason the Church must bring to the world the Presence of the Word of God. Need there be any more justification for preaching to such a population than to insure that the truth of the Gospel be not lost? "What is so powerful an incentive to preaching as the sure belief that it is the preaching of the truth?" (Mix. 18). This Truth is nothing less than the living Word of God. Newman appeals to his listeners and asks them to judge for themselves, "whether, if God has revealed a religion of His own whereby to save those souls, that religion can be any other than the faith we preach" (Mix. 21).
Edward Sillem refers to Newman's anthropology in the discussion of his philosophy. He says that a fundamental focal point of Newman's philosophy is the existence of the self as a human person. Newman developed his philosophy in terms of personal thinking; he worked with the mysteries of being not in the abstract, but as they can be found in and through the mind of other persons. "He regarded other minds, not material things, as the proper object of the human mind."2 Anthropology becomes a focal point for much of Newman's clustering in philosophy and theology. He uses it as the foundation for raising his edifices in sermons, poetry, prayer and theological treatises.
Newman is keenly aware of how the human mind functions. He refuses to let faith be explained away by the force of logical discourse. Those who have a sincere faith, not just hereditary Christians, have reached this point not by the weight of the evidence but by a spontaneous movement of their hearts. "They believe on grounds within themselves, not merely or mainly on the external testimony on which religion comes to them" (US, 5).3
Each assembly as well as each hearer has in place its own set of presuppositions which he or she carries to any situation. Newman sees these predispositions as holding great sway in a person such that "if he is indisposed to believe, he will explain away very strong evidence; if he is disposed will accept very weak evidence" (US, 226). Such views are in place as a result of the character of one's mind and are difficult to reverse. This insight is crucial to the discipline of preaching and suggests one reason why Newman was such a powerful preacher.
Newman's theology of preaching
For Newman we preach the Word of God precisely because the world is in need of such preaching. In his essay "University Preaching" now included in the Idea of a University (1852), Newman offers his best thoughts on the role of preaching. The first and foremost object of the preacher is the spiritual good of his hearers (Idea, 408).4 This good must be specific and achievable. Ivory tower concepts are not the objects of such preaching.
Newman claimed that there is a great strength which flows from those who have one clear objective before them. All their skills, resources, and efforts flow in one visible direction. Even a very simple message is capable of unfolding the many mysteries of the Kingdom. The need for diction, elocution, and rhetorical power are of only secondary importance. "Display dissipates the energy which for the object in view needs to be concentrated and condensed" (Idea, 407). The preacher is in need of some focal point so that his energy is not expended on more minor details. Any energy which does not guide the hearers to the aforementioned spiritual good is superficial and wasted: "that preachers should neglect everything whatever, besides devotion to their one object, and earnestness in pursuing it, till they in some good measure attain to these requisites" (Idea, 409). Talent, diction, knowledge, vocabulary, gestures and imagery are all required for the perfection of a preacher; but only one thing is necessary-the unswerving movement of the preacher to the end for which he preaches, and that is to be the instrument of some definite spiritual good for those whom his words touch.
One must be aware of some subtleties in Newman's argument. He is not saying that the preacher work at being earnest, but that he work at his object, the spiritual benefit of his hearers, which will simultaneously make him earnest.
To sit down to compose for the pulpit with a resolution to be eloquent is one impediment to persuasion; but to be determined to be earnest is absolutely fatal to it (Idea, 409).
But the person who is fixed on the things to come will have true earnestness. The preacher's very comportment will carry the urgency of his message. Such supernatural earnestness is the eloquence of the saints. "The herald of the tidings of the invisible world also will be, from the nature of the case, whether vehement or calm, sad or exulting, always simple, grave, emphatic and peremptory" (Idea, 410).Another clarification that Newman makes is that the preacher's duty is not to aim at some unclear, unexpected, or unattainable benefit but at some definite spiritual good, not some vague unclear notion of grace but something very concrete, something "tangible," such as wisdom, understanding, fear of the Lord, etc. Here is where hard work and study come into play. The more focused the subject, the more impressive and practical will be the results.
Newman would go so far as to suggest that the preacher create a distinct categorical proposition such that he can focus his preparation about it and nothing else. Earnestness cannot show itself any more clearly "than in rejecting whatever be the temptation to admit it, every remark, however original, every period however eloquent, which does not in some way or other tend to bring out this one distinct proposition which he has chosen" (Idea, 412). Newman even offers a gentle critique of great Catholic preachers who often string two or three sermons together within the context of one (Idea, 412).
He sums up this portion of his exposition by repeating the one virtue of the preacher as setting out with the intention of conveying some spiritual benefit to his hearers. With this in mind the preacher should select some concrete situation, some passage, some truth, some doctrine, or some insight and then study it so as to master it, and grow in an habitual understanding of it. The task then becomes to bring this home to others, and to leave a deep impression on them, which he himself has felt before he began to speak. This type of determination will prevent him from going "aside after flowers of oratory, fine figures, tuneful periods which are worth nothing unless they come to him spontaneously" (Idea, 413). If the preacher only choose a small portion of the divine message, however elementary, however simple, it will have the power to possess him and his hearers. The Gospel is capable of speaking for itself. A preacher can be assured of God's promise, "My word, which shall go forth from My mouth, shall not return to Me void, but it shall do whatsoever I please, and shall prosper in the things for which I sent it" (Idea, 413).
Newman's insights into preaching were also reflected in his own sermons. Louis Bouyer offers his comments on his most famous collection, Parochial and Plain Sermons, in an article series on great preachers. It is from this collection that Newman himself draws his thirteen best sermons and advises how they should be used in a letter to Ambrose St. John.5 Bouyer notes that this compilation, preached between 1825 and 1843 and delivered on Sunday evening while the vicar of St. Mary's, Oxford, was first intended not for the university populace but for his parishioners.
No one was ever less an orator in a classical sense than he, says Bouyer. He rarely used gestures; his voice was melodious and clear but he spoke without inflection.6 During the Tractarian controversy which began in 1833 in order to revive doctrines which were said to have become obsolete, a curious congregation came to hear what Newman had to say. Most were disappointed to find their preacher would not deal with such issues from the pulpit. Newman simply preached. Yet when he did so his charisma did more to win adherents to the movement than any discussion or polemic. Newman's goal was not to form a school but to reanimate a dying religion. Those who listened to him preach were touched to the core. Newman's words present the Gospel in a way which is not theoretical or hypothetical. For him the Gospel demands a Yes or No not only from the intellect but also from the conscience.
According to Newman, the preacher must strive against seeming sincere for that is the quickest way to defeat that end. True sincerity can only come from a life of commitment and prayer. The realization of the importance of prayer for preaching leads us in the direction of the role of the preacher himself. A good preacher must embody the word he proclaims. He speaks to the people for the people and holds a prophetic role in the community as well. Thus it will prove helpful to examine Newman's work with regard to preaching as prayer and prophetic witness.
Newman's role for contemporary preaching
Newman has laid out a firm foundation for the life of a preacher and the call to preach. The works we have examined here are reflective of the influence he had both with the pen and from the pulpit. There is much that might be gleaned from a preacher of such magnitude. Two points I wish to focus on in this section are first Newman's preaching as prayer, and second, his preaching as prophetic witness.
There is little question that Newman was a man of fervent prayer which undergirded all his activities. One need only open the pages of his Verses on Various Occasions to witness the deep love he bore for God and all his ministering angels and saints. His preaching was not only one of the fruits of his life of piety but a dramatic portrayal of this life of prayer witnessed and participated in by the assembly. Dr. Zeno has said that Newman's "sermons even changed the atmosphere of Oxford and gave the old university a spirit of piety and purity."7 Preaching is not just a function of ministry but rather a way of life.
Placid Murray, in his work Newman the Oratorian, reminds us that much has been written in praise of the Parochial and Plain Sermons, and all the well known anthologies of Newman draw heavily on them to illustrate his thought on a wide range of subjects.8 In the light of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (1963) of Vatican II, Murray holds that Newman's works need to be examined as appropriate models for liturgical preaching rather than simply for their ethical content or their masterful English style.
Newman recognized the prophetic nature of the Gospel message and the hope it offers the human condition. In a sermon delivered in 1831 as one of his Oxford University Sermons he illustrates this point.
While Christianity reveals the pardon of sin and the promise of eternal life through the mediation of Christ, it also professes to point out means for the present improvement of our moral nature itself (US, 37).
Without question Newman's words speak the mind of Christ to the people of God; yet what is unique about Newman is the way he embodies the very themes and examples he holds up to his listeners.A sermon which reflects this insight is Sermon V, "Personal Influence the Means of Propagating the Truth," preached in 1832. He writes:
It is proposed to consider whether the influence of Truth in the world at large does not arise from the personal influence, of those who are commissioned to teach it (US, 79-80).
How has the truth held its ground through all the years of strife and struggle throughout human history? He explains the role of personal influence:Not as a system, not by books, not by arguments, nor by temporal power, but by the personal influence of such men as have already been described, who are at once the teachers and patterns of it (US, 92).
Newman is aware that "Christ never will reign visibly on earth" (US, 97), but that good individuals will bear the yoke of their Master and further the work of his kingdom. Clearly Newman knew he was called to scale the mountain of truth which he spoke of in Sermon XII of the University Sermons. He sensed that he was to travel a way which he was alone to take, justified only by his eventual success and guided only by an inward movement of faith governed by the love of God.As we have seen, Newman holds the understanding of the human person as central for his understanding the need and duty for preaching. Newman was always a person writing and preaching for people. This is what gives such color to his work. It is never singularly an exercise of the intellect or a play on the emotions. It is prayerful, it is prophetic, it is simply an individual speaking to other individuals concerning the contents of his heart.
What then of Newman on Newman? His treatise and sermons on preaching were nothing more than a reflection on his own good habits and practices. Key in this understanding was that preaching must happen because the souls of men and women were in need of it. As a result, the preacher must not entertain his own political or social commentaries but must work towards the spiritual good of his hearers-a simple idiom but not so easily practiced.
How then is anthropology the thread which weaves the other elements together? I believe that the human person was his starting point and it was the salvation of the human soul which motivated him throughout his life. Despite all his learning and even his elevation to Cardinal, Newman was a pastor to the end. He was a shepherd of souls seeking out the best ways to care for his flock and the many others he never knew.