John Henry Newman and the Imagination

by Bernard Dive

Overview

For John Henry Newman, religion is animated by an imaginative 'master vision' which 'supplies the mind with spiritual life and peace'. All his life, Newman reflected on this 'master vision'. His reflections on the moral imagination developed out of his understanding of practical wisdom, as characterized by Aristotle – the wisdom that 'the good man' has in living a good life. For Newman, the vision at the core of religion completes and perfects the intuitions of the conscience.

John Henry Newman and the Imagination looks at how Newman's understanding of the moral and visionary imagination developed over the course of his life; and it relates his ideas about the imagination to his portrayals of religious experience, and vision, in his novels and poetry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780567005885
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	05/17/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	480
File size:	928 KB

About the Author

Bernard Dive is a freelance editor and writer; he edited Through the Year with Newman, an anthology of Newman's writings. He has degrees in English and Theology and a Ph.D in English from the University of Cambridge.

Table of Contents

Part I: PERSONAL VISIONS: THE 1830sChapter 1: Faith, 'Practical Perception' and Phronesis
Chapter 2: Conscience and 'the Love of the Beautiful'
Part II: THE VISION OF THE CHURCH: THE 1830s AND 1840s
Chapter 3: 'A Work to Do in England'
Chapter 4: The 'Impression' of Christ
Chapter 5: The Pursuit of Truth
Part III: THE VIRTUE OF FAITH AND THE VIRTUES OF CIVILIZATION: THE 1840s AND 1850s
Chapter 6: The Virtue of Faith
Chapter 7: Faith and Civilization
Part IV: REAL VISIONS: THE 1860s AND 1870s
Chapter 8: The Imagination and the 'Metropolitan Intellect'
Chapter 9: Ex Umbris et Imaginibus in Veritatem

Editorial Reviews

Dive’s interdisciplinary dialogue succeeds in presenting a cumulative picture of the English cardinal on the imagination. The work includes splendid vignettes on poetical vision … Each section is richly informative … Dive raises important questions for the contemporary discourse on the Catholic imagination, drawing attention to the practical import and the spirituality of image.” —Stephen Prickett, Theology

"Newman’s mind was one of the most extraordinary of the European nineteenth century. This book examines in close detail the development of his ideas, philosophical, theological and psychological – the strands never separate – from his first book and the sermons of his youth as an Anglican priest to the complexities of A Grammar of Assent, the masterpiece of his Catholic maturity. Bernard Dive sheds most welcome light on the creative originality of Newman’s writing, and in particular on his use of the key terms, of which ‘imagination’ is only one, with which he lived and thought for decades. Those interested in, and perhaps puzzled by, Newman will find their understanding much enriched by Dr Dive’s work." —Lucy Beckett, author of In the Light of Christ: Writings in the Western Tradition

"This is a rich, illuminating, and supremely well-informed study of Newman's imaginative mind. It is, moreover, the finest book on Blessed John Henry I have read." —Stephen Bullivant, St Mary's University, UK

From the Publisher