The Great Dissent: John Henry Newman and the Liberal Heresy

by Robert Pattison

Overview

"Alas," Newman said of liberalism, "it is an error overspreading, as a snare, the whole earth." The Great Dissent examines how from his implacable opposition to liberalism Newman developed a sweeping critique of modern values only rivaled in breadth and scorn by that of Nietzsche. The Great Dissent offers a revaluation of Newman's whole thought and establishes his place in the history of ideas as the leading English dissident from the liberalism of contemporary civilization and the foremost modern spokesman for the reality of dogmatic truth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195067309
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/15/1991
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.76(w) x 8.59(h) x 1.02(d)

About the Author

Long Island University

Table of Contents

	Footnote Abbreviations	xi
1	Failure: Newman's Vanquished Reputation	3
2	Odium Theologicum: The Liberal as Antichrist	55
3	Heresy and Liberalism: Cicero, Arius, Socinus	96
4	What Is Truth? Newman's Theory of Belief	144
5	Last Things: The Greatness of Newman	188
	Index	219

Editorial Reviews

"[A] brilliant study."—Commonweal

"[A] provocative book....Recommended for Newman collections and those on 19th-century thought."—Choice

"Impossible to put the book down as Robert Pattison has the gift of making the ideas of a century and a half ago live again. His Newman fails in all his worldly campaigns but produces the most unsparing of all critiques of the liberal and pluralist vision of life against which he puts the age-old uncompromising dogma of the Roman Catholic church."—Noel Annan

"Pattison writes beautifully, discussing ancient theological controversies, nineteenth-century political and academic clashes, and intellectual trends in Western culture with clarity and precision. Newcomers to Newman studies will find this book a readable, large-minded introduction. Newman scholars will find the discussion of the Newman/Hampden conflict unmatched elsewhere."—Nineteenth-Century Prose

"Robert Pattison has done us all a favor: he has given us a reason to read John Henry Newman again....Not only is The Great Dissent a thorough explication of Newman's often deliberately obfuscated ideas, but it also provides us with the context in which his thoughts take on more than historical significance."—Christianity & Literature

From the Publisher