Sabtu, 14 Mei 2016
JOHN
HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN (1801-1890)
And
MATTHEW
ARNOLD (1822-1888)
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INTRODUCTION
JOHN
HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN (1801-1890)
Like Carlyle, John Henry Newman
powerfully affected the thinking of his contemporaries, whether they agreed or
disagreed with him. Even today, according to Martin Salic, Newman attracts both
“apotheosizes” and “calumniators” who praise or blame him “as an unusually
compelling spokesman for what some consider eternal verities and others
regressive myths.” During his long lifetime, Newman frequently found himself at
the center of some of the most intense disputes that stirred Victorian England,
disputes in which he himself emerged as a controversialist of great skill
engagingly persuasive in defense of his position and devastatingly effective in
disposing of opponents. Thomas Hardy, whose position was at the opposite
extreme from Newman’s, paid him a high compliment when he noted in his diary:
“Worked at J. H. Newman’s Apologia which we have all been talking about
lately….Style charming and his logic really human, being based not on syllogism
but on converging probabilities. Only-and here comes the fatal catastrophe
–there is no first link to his excellent chain of reasoning, and down you come
headlong.
Newman was born in London, the son (like
browning) of a banker. In his spiritual autobiography, Apologia Pro Vita Sue
(in effect, his vindication of his life), he traces the principal stages of his
religious development from the strongly Protestant period of his youth to his
conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1845. Along the way, after being elected to
a fellowship at Oriel College in Oxford and becoming an Anglican clergyman, he
was attracted briefly into the orbit of religious liberalism. Gradually coming
to realize, however, that liberalism, with its reliance on human reason, would
be powerless to defend traditional religion from attack, Newman shifted over
into the new High Church wing of the Anglican Church and soon was recognized as
the leading figure of what was known as the Oxford movement. During the 1830s
he built up a large and influential following by his sermons at Oxford and also
by his writing of tracts-that is, appeals, in pamphlet form, on behalf of a
cause. In these publications he developed arguments about the powers of church
versus state and other issues of deep concern to his High Church colleagues or Tractarianism,
as they were also called. Newman’s own efforts to demonstrate the true
catholicity of the Church of England provoked increasing opposition as his
position grew closer to Roman Catholicism. Distressed by constant
denunciations, he withdrew into isolation and silence. After much reflection,
he took the final step. At the age of forty-four he entered the Roman Catholic
priesthood and moved to Birmingham, where he spent the rest of his life. In
1879 he was created cardinal. In 1991, at the instigation of Pope John Paul II,
his title became The Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman, indicating the first
of three stages toward sainthood.
In view of this development, Newman’s
response to a woman who had spoken of him as a saint is touching. In some
distress he wrote he wrote to her: “Saints are not literary men, they do not
love the classics, and they do not write Tales.” Although the story of Newman’s
development seems to emphasize change, certain features remain constant. His sense
of God’s guidance is especially evident. Characteristic is a poem written in
Italy in 1834, following a severe illness, which opens with the line “Lead,
kindly light” and concludes with this stanza:
So
long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still
Will
lead me on,
O’er
moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The
night is gone;
And
with the morn those angel faces smile
Which
I have loved long since, and lost awhile,
Set to music, Newman’s poem became one
of the most popular hymns ever written. The writing of verse, however, was a
subordinate task for you Newman; most of this writings are prose, and it is
noteworthy that despite his mastery of prose style, Newman found the act of
composition to be even more painfully difficult than most of us do. During his
years at Birmingham, he was nevertheless prompted to write several books,
including works of religious poetry and fiction. Most celebrated is the series
of articles, published as his Apologia in 1864, in which he replied to an
attack on his intellectual honesty made by the Reverend Charles Kingsley
(1819-1875), an adherent of the broad Church and also a popular novelist.
Although parts of the Apologia being devoted to fine points of theological
doctrine and church history are difficult for the ordinary reader to follow,
the main argument is clearly and persuasively developed. The dignity and candor
with which Newman reviewed the stages of his religious development, the
repeated appeals to his fellow citizen’s sense of honesty and fair play, the
unobtrusively beautiful prose style, gained for his masterpiece a sympathetic
audience even among those who had been least disposed to listen to his side of
the disputes with Kingsley.
Seemingly less controversial than the
Apologia are Newman’s lectures on the aims of education, which were delivered
in Dublin at the newly founded Catholic University of Ireland, a university of
which he was for a few years the rector. These lectures, published in 1852 and
later titled The Idea of a University are
a classic statement of the value of “the disciplined intellect” that can be
developed by a liberal education rather than by a technical training. Like the
later lectures of Matthew Arnold and T. H. Huxley, The Idea of a University shows the Victorian engagement with the
role of education in society.
It should be noted that Newman’s view of
liberal education is largely independent of his religious position. Such an
education, he said, could from the minds of profligates and anticlerical as
well as of saints and priests of the Church. In considerable measure, his view
reflects his admiration for the kind of intellectual enlargement he had himself
enjoyed as an undergraduate at Trinity College, Oxford. One of the most moving
passages in the Apologia is Newman’s account of his farewell to an Oxford
friend, in February 1846, as he was preparing his final departure from the
precincts of the university he loved:
In
him I took leave of my first College, Trinity, which was so dear to me…
There
used to be much snapdragon on the walls opposite my freshman’s room there and I
had taken it as the emblem of my perpetual residence even unto death in my
University.
On
the morning of the 23rd I left the Observatory. I have never seen
Oxford since, except its spires, as they are seen from the railway.
From
The Idea of a University
From
Discourse 5.Knowledge Its Own End
Now bear with me, Gentlemen, if what I
am about to say has at first sight a fanciful appearance. Philosophy, then, or
Science is related to Knowledge in this way: Knowledge is called by the name of
Science or Philosophy, when it is acted upon, informed, or if I may use a
strong figure, impregnated by Reason. Reason is the principle of that intrinsic
fecundity of Knowledge, which, to those who possess it, is its especial value,
and which dispenses with the necessity of their looking abroad for any end to
rest upon external to itself. Knowledge, indeed, when thus exalted into a
scientific form, is also power not only is it excellent in itself, but whatever
such excellence may be, it is something more, it has a result beyond itself.
Doubtless; but that is a further consideration, with which I am not concerned.
I only say that, prior to its being a power; it is a good; that it is not only
an instrument, but an end. I know well it may resolve itself into an art, and
terminate in a mechanical process, and in tangible fruit; but it also may fall
back upon that Reason which informs it, and resolve itself into Philosophy. In
one case it is called Useful Knowledge, in the other Liberal. T same person may
cultivate it in both ways at once; but this again is a matter foreign to my
subject; here I do but say that there are two ways of using Knowledge, and in
matter of fact those who use it in one way are not likely to use it in the
other, or at least in a very limited measure. You see, then, there are two
methods of Education: the end of the one is to be philosophical, of the other
to be mechanical; the one rises towards general ideas, the other is exhausted
upon what is particular and external. Let me not be thought to deny the
necessity, or to decry the benefit, of such attention to what is particular and
practical, as belongs to the useful or mechanical arts; life could not go on
without them: we owe our daily welfare to them; their exercise is the duty of
the many, and we owe to the many a debt of gratitude for fulfilling that duty.
I only say that Knowledge, in proportion as it tends more and more to be
particular, ceases to be Knowledge. It is a question whether Knowledge can in
any proper sense be predicated of the brute creation; without pretending to
metaphysical exactness of phraseology, which would be unsuitable to an occasion
like this, I say, it seems to me improper to call that passive sensation, or
perception of things, which brutes seem possess , by the name of Knowledge.
When I speak of Knowledge, I mean something intellectual, something which
grasps what it perceives through the senses; something which takes a view of
things; which sees more than the senses convey; which reasons upon what it
sees, and while it sees; which invest it with an idea. It expresses itself, not
in a mere enunciation, but by an enthymeme: it is of the nature of science from
the first, and in this consist its dignity. The principle of the real dignity
in Knowledge, its worth, its desirableness, considered irrespectively of its
result, is this germ within it of a scientific or a philosophical process. This
is how it comes to be an end itself; this is why it admits of being called
Liberal. Not to know the relative disposition of things is the state of slaves
or children; to have mapped out the Universe is the boast, or at least the
ambition, of Philosophy.
Moreover, such knowledge is not a mere
extrinsic or accidental advantage, which is ours today and another’s tomorrow,
which may be got up from a book, and easily forgotten again, which we can
command or communicate at our pleasure, which we can borrow for the occasion,
carry about in our hand, and take into market; it is an acquired illumination,
it is habit, a personal possession, and an inward endowment. And this is the
reason why it is more correct, as well as more usual; to speak of a University
as a place of education than of instruction, though, when knowledge is
concerned instruction would at first sight have seemed the more appropriate
work. We are instructed, for instance, in manual exercise, in the fine and
useful arts, in trades, and in ways of business; for these are methods, which
have little or no effect upon the mind itself, are contained in rules committed
to memory, to tradition, or to use, and bear upon an and external to
themselves. But education is a higher word; it implies an action upon our
mental nature, and the formation of a character; it is something individual and
permanent, and is commonly spoken of in connection with religion and virtue.
When, then, we speak of the communication of knowledge as being Education, we
thereby really imply that knowledge is a rate or condition of mind; and since
cultivation of mind is surely worth seeking for its own sake, we are thus
brought once more to the conclusion, which the word “Liberal” and the word
“Philosophy” have already suggested, that there is a knowledge, which is
desirable, thought nothing come of it, as being of itself a treasure, and a
sufficient remuneration of years of labor.
Prayers and
Hymns by John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890)
A Daily Prayer
May He support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen and the
evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and
our work is done. Then in His mercy may He give us a safe lodging, and a holy
rest and peace at the last.
Prayer for a Happy Death
Oh, my Lord and Savior, support me in that hour in the strong arms
of Your Sacraments, and by the fresh fragrance of your consolations. Let the
absolving words be said over me, and the holy oil sign and seal me, and Your
own Body be my food, and Your Blood my sprinkling; and let my sweet Mother,
Mary, breathe on me, and my Angel whisper peace to me, and my glorious Saints
smile upon me; that in them all, and through them all, I may receive the gift
of perseverance, and die, as I desire to live, in Your faith, in Your Church,
in Your service, and in Your love. Amen.
Lead Kindly Light
Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, Lead me Thou on! The
night is dark, and I am far from home, Lead Thou me on! Keep Thou my feet; I do
not ask to see the distant scene; one step is enough for me. I was not ever
thus, nor prayed that Thou should lead me on; I loved to choose and see my
path, but now lead Thou me on! I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
pride ruled my will: remember not past years. So long your power hath blest me,
sure it still will lead me on, o'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till
the night is gone; and with the morn those angel faces smile which I have loved
long since, and lost awhile.
Praise to the Holiest in
the Height
Praise
to the Holiest in the height,
And in the depth be praise;
in all His words most wonderful;
Most sure in all His ways!
And in the depth be praise;
in all His words most wonderful;
Most sure in all His ways!
O
loving wisdom of our God!
When all was sin and shame,
a second Adam to the fight
and to the rescue came.
When all was sin and shame,
a second Adam to the fight
and to the rescue came.
O
wisest love! That flesh and blood, which did in Adam fail,
Should strive afresh against their foe,
Should strive and should prevail.
Should strive afresh against their foe,
Should strive and should prevail.
And
that a higher gift than grace
should flesh and blood refine,
God's presence and His very Self,
And Essence all-divine.
should flesh and blood refine,
God's presence and His very Self,
And Essence all-divine.
O
generous love! That He who smote
in man for man the foe,
the double agony in man
for man should undergo;
in man for man the foe,
the double agony in man
for man should undergo;
And
in the garden secretly,
And on the cross on high,
Should teach His brethren and inspire
to suffer and to die.
And on the cross on high,
Should teach His brethren and inspire
to suffer and to die.
Prayer
for the Light of Truth
O my God, I confess that Thou canst enlighten my darkness. I confess
that Thou alone canst. I wish my darkness to be enlightened. I do not know
whether Thou wilt: but that Thou canst and that I wish are sufficient reasons
for me to ask, what Thou at least hast not forbidden my asking. I hereby
promise that by your grace which I am asking, I will embrace whatever I at
length feel certain is the truth, if ever I come to be certain. And by Your
grace I will guard against all self-deceit which may lead me to take what
nature would have, rather than what reason approves.
O My Lord Jesus
O my Lord Jesus, low as I am in Your all-holy sight, I am strong in
You, strong through Your Immaculate Mother, through Your saints and thus I can
do much for the Church, for the world, for all I love.
The Mission of My Life
God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed
some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may
never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in
a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for
naught. I shall do well; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a
preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His
commandments. Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am; I can never be thrown
away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my
perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does
nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may
throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink,
hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.
Analysis
Prayers and
Hymns
A beautifully bound,
Bible paper volume of Newman's most profound devotional writings. His
meditations on the Litany of Loreto for the month of May and on the Stations of
the Cross are already recognized as classics of Catholic spirituality. And in
his meditations on Christian doctrine Newman shows that the source of true
piety is sound teaching. His verses on various occasions are profoundly
inspiring as are the spiritual hymns and canticles which distill the wisdom of
the incomparable Newman.
In addition, also
included are the devotions of Bishop Lancelot Andrewes, translated by Newman
himself and used by him as the primary source of his own spiritual life. Louis
Bouyer, the greatest living Newman scholar, says of these: "Newman quite
believed that in these exercises of Andrewes he had discovered that form of
prayer which springs directly from the word of God and leads to a life fully
lived in Christ. Not only as a priest, but later on as a cardinal of the Roman
church, he would keep the Preces privatae on his kneeler for his daily
preparation and thanksgiving before and after Mass and for his most personal
meditations."
MATTHEW
ARNOLD (1822-1888)
Matthew Arnold was born in Laleham,
a village in the valley of the Thames. That his childhood was spent in the
vicinity of a river seems appropriate, for clear-flowing streams were later to
appear in his poems as symbol of serenity. At six, Arnold was moved to Rugby
School, where his father, Dr. Thomas Arnold, had become famous headmaster. As a
clergyman Dr. Arnold was leader of the liberal or Broad Church and hence one of
the principal opponents of John Henry Newman. As a headmaster he became famous
as an educational reformer, a teacher who instilled into his pupils an earnest
preoccupation with moral and social issues and also an awareness of the
connection between liberal studies and modern life. At Rugby his eldest son,
Matthew was directly exposed to the powerful force of the father’s mind and
character. The son’s attitude toward this force was a mixture of attraction and
repulsion. That he was permanently influenced by his father is evident in his
poems and in his writings on religion and politics, but like many sons of
clergymen, he made a determined effort in his youth to be different. At Oxford
he behaved like a character from one of Evelyn Waugh’s early novels.
Arnold’s biographers usually dismiss his
youthful frivolity of spirit as a temporary pose or mask, but it was more.
Unlike Tennyson or Carlyle, Arnold had to confine his writing and reading to
his spare time. In 1847 he took the post of private secretary to Lord
Lansdowne, and in 1851, the year of his marriage, he became an inspector of schools,
a position that that he held for thirty-five year. Although his work as an
inspector may have reduced his output as a writer, it had several advantages.
His extensive traveling in England took him to the homes of the more ardently
Protestant middle classes, and when he criticized the dullness of middle-class
life (as he often did), Arnold knew his subject intimately. In 1849, Arnold
published The Strayed Reveler, the
first of his volumes of poetry. Eight years later, as a tribute to his poetic
achievement, he was elected to the professorship of poetry at Oxford, a part
time position that he held for ten years. Arnold career as a writer can be
divided roughly into four periods. In the 1850s most of his poems appeared; in
the 1860s, his literary criticism and social criticism; in the 1870s, his
religious and education writings; and in the 1880s, his second set of essays in
the literary criticism.
Isolation:
To Marguerite .Matthew Arnold
We
were apart; yet, day by day,
I
bade my heart more constant be.
I
bade it keep the world away,
And
grow a home for only thee;
Nor
fear'd but thy love likewise grew,
Like
mine, each day, more tried, more true.
The
fault was grave! I might have known,
What
far too soon, alas! I learn'd—
The
heart can bind itself alone,
And
faith may oft be unreturn'd.
Self-sway'd
our feelings ebb and swell—
Thou
lov'st no more;—Farewell! Farewell!
Farewell!—and
thou, thou lonely heart,
Which
never yet without remorse
Even
for a moment didst depart
From
thy remote and sphere {e} d course
To
haunt the place where passions reign—
Back
to thy solitude again!
Back!
With the conscious thrill of shame
Which
Luna felt, that summer-night?
Flash
through her pure immortal frame,
When
she forsook the starry height
To
hang over Endymion's sleep
Upon
the pine-grown Latmian steep.
Yet
she, chaste queen, had never proved
How
vain a thing is mortal love?
Wandering
in Heaven, far removed.
But
thou hast long had place to prove
This
truth—to prove, and make thine own:
"Thou
hast been, shalt be, art, alone."
Or,
if not quite alone, yet they
Which
touch thee are unmating things—
Ocean
and clouds and night and day;
Lorn
autumns and triumphant springs;
And
life, and others' joy and pain,
And
love, if love, of happier men.
Of
happier men—for they, at least,
Have
dream'd two human hearts might
blend
In
one, and were through faith released
From
isolation without end
Prolong'd;
nor knew, although not less
Alone
than thou, their loneliness.
Analysis
of Isolation: To Marguerite
In my opinion, the poem does have a
theme of isolation, hence the repetitive occurrence of the word
"alone," however I don't perceive it so much as pessimist, as I do a
reflection of the speaker's frustration with the absence of his strongest desire:
love . Matthew Arnold was an avid humanist; he believed in promoting human welfare
and his concern there of. Perhaps he is sharing his own experiences of the absence
of love to emphasize to readers its importance and vitality to a happy life,
which the reader clearly was unable to obtain.
| Posted on 2010-03-24 | by a guest
Matthew Arnold is a great and underrated
poet. The poem is not nearly as dark as some of his contemporary Browning's
works (which Oscar Wilde deemed 'ugly').
The poem is not full of pessimism, just a general sadness and an explanation why love is the reason we live breathe, and without it we are alone (the last line).
And 'how vain is a thing is mortal love?' The poem is very true to human emotion, not necessarily taking sides on love and positivity.
The poem is not full of pessimism, just a general sadness and an explanation why love is the reason we live breathe, and without it we are alone (the last line).
And 'how vain is a thing is mortal love?' The poem is very true to human emotion, not necessarily taking sides on love and positivity.
|
Posted on 2009-10-29 | by a guest
Matthew Arnold was the most pessimistic
of the romantics. Isolation was what he reflected in his poetry. Isolation of
his heart from others'. His poetry could never get rid of the theme of
loneliness of the individual both socially and emotionally. He did not write
like his contemporaries though he is always associated with them. In fact he
should be associated with the lost generation of the 1920s or the absurdist’s
of 1950s. I believe he wrote before his time and better than the romantics of
his time. Still today many do not like or know his poetry as much as Tennyson
who was a favored Victorian by the society. However it is better for him to
stay this unknown because he loved isolation.
|
Posted on 2005-11-14 | by Approved Guest
To
Marguerite: Continued .Matthew Arnold
Yes!
In the sea of life enisled,
With
echoing straits between us thrown,
Dotting
the shoreless watery wild,
We
mortal millions live alone.
The
islands feel the unclasping flow,
And
then their endless bounds they know.
But
when the moon their hollows lights,
And
they are swept by balms of spring,
And
in their glens, on starry nights,
The
nightingales divinely sing;
And
lovely notes, from shore to shore,
Across
the sounds and channels pour—
Oh!
Then a longing like despair
Is
to their farthest caverns sent;
For
surely once, they feel, we were
Parts
of a single continent!
Now
round us spreads the watery plain—
Oh
might our marges meet again!
Who
order'd, that their longing's fire
Should
be, as soon as kindled, cool'd?
Who
renders vain their deep desire?—
A
God, a God their severance ruled!
And
bade betwixt their shores to be
The
unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea.
Analysis
of To Marguerite: Continued
A metaphor is set up in
the first stanza comparing humans to islands surrounded by life and the world
around them, the sea. In one of his most famous lines "we mortal millions
live alone" (where alone was originally italicized by the author) he bluntly
states perhaps his largest complaint about dealing with community in the modern
Victorian world. He wishes for a realistic connection as he speaks to someone
that background implies he feels romantically for, but the tone of the poem, as
well as the dark descriptions of a life lacking control; give the unresolved
sentiment that this may never be possible. The metaphor looks to science in
referencing an imagined land mass that once comprised all of the earth on the
planet. By including science, Arnold expertly leads into his bitter complaint
that the God of his modern world does not provide the same kind of faith and
hope that he once did when facts and teleological reasoning weren't so
important. While he attempts to reconcile the gap between human desires for
community and love with a world that has left the individual very much to his
own devices, the poem finds no resolution, but instead, looks to capture the
feeling of sadness, lack of control, and isolation that accompanies this lack
of conclusion.
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Alternatively, it could
be inferred that Arnold is explaining the one thing left to depend on when
orphaned by death in response to John Donne's "no man is an island."
When a person is orphaned completely by surrounding deaths, there is, bitter as
it may be, a God involved in this orchestration. The conclusion to be drawn is
left up to the reader. It is a metaphor filled with the philosophical Problem
of Evil. If God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving, how could He?
Nevertheless, Arnold concludes He is there.
Analysis
about all poems of Matthew Arnold
Among the major Victorian writers
sharing in a revival of interest and respect in the second half of the
twentieth century, Matthew Arnold is unique in that his reputation rests
equally upon his poetry and his prose.
Assessing his achievement as a whole, G. K. Chesterton said
that under his surface raillery Arnold was, "even in the age of Carlyle
and Ruskin, perhaps the most serious man alive." A later summary by H. J.
Muller declares that "if in an age of violence the attitudes he engenders
cannot alone save civilization.
But the speed of the destabilizing
process of change is, after all, relative. On the other hand, no reader can
fail to respond to Arnold's well-known lines in "Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse"
describing himself as "Wandering between two worlds, one dead, the other
powerless to be born." Romantic nostalgia for idealized older worlds, or
for simpler states of being, is at the emotional core of many of his poems.
The emphasis on religion and morality in
the Note-Books is what one might expect of a son of
Dr. Thomas Arnold, that strenuous Christian and scholarly clergyman-historian
who fulfilled a prophecy that if elected headmaster of Rugby he would change
the face of education "all through the Public Schools of England."
Arnold's poetics, as revealed in the
letters to Clough, show a gradual shift from a predominantly aesthetic to a
predominantly moral emphasis. In criticizing Clough's poems he warns against a
striving after "individuality" and, even more, against attempting to "solve
the Universe."
Arnold's criticism of Clough's poems,
that they were arbitrary rather than inevitable in form, can be applied in
large degree to his own poems, in terms of structure or pattern.
Arnold's characteristic verse structures
tend to depart from the traditional. Stanzas or verse paragraphs of varying
length and of varying line length make him a forerunner of free verse practice,
A useful approach can be made to
Arnold's poetry by recognizing three broad divisions. First, there is that
large body of reflective or gnomic verse,
Second, there are the lyric poems of
intense personal engagement in the human situation,
Third, there is the narrative and
dramatic poems, which attempt to achieve objectivity and distance by form, character,
and plot, and by the remoteness of myth and legend.
According to the idealist hypothesis,
compatible with religious belief, man can achieve self-transcendence and a
return to the divine by virtue of the divine element in himself, but only if a
"lonely pureness" enables him to remount "the coloured dream of
life."
The dominant emotion here is akin to
that in the Marguerite poems. But there the echoing "alone" and
"lonely" and "loneliness" are charged with the lyric cry of
personal suffering; here, with the imagination employed in contemplative mood
on the cosmic scale, the loneliness attaching to each philosophical alternative
has a grave serenity.
CONCLUSION
Matthew Arnold's
intellectual and spiritual relationship to John
Henry Newman, whom in many ways he took as his master, turns out to be
equally subversive. He admires Newman enormously, he cherishes his sense of the
religious, he cites him frequently, and he thinks most of what he believes is
complete nonsense. Arnold sincerely admired the man who had moved from
Evangelicalism to Tractarianism and finally to Roman Catholicism for his
emphasizing the non-rational, limitless nature of religious issues:
This most influential of all
Victorian agnostics had a complex relationship with two very different
religious leaders, the liberal Protestant Thomas Arnold,
his father, and John Henry Newman,
the embodiment of religious conservatism. As the son of Thomas Arnold, the
pioneering headmaster of Rugby and one of the leaders of Church
Anglicanism,
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Norton Anthology of English
Literature/ M.H. Abrams, general editor: Stephen Greenblatt, Associate general
editor, 7th 1999.
