Otium, re-création, conversion : les vacances peu orthodoxes de Henry Edward Manning, archidiacre de Chichester (1838-1848)

Pour expliquer sa conversion au catholicisme en 1851, le cardinal Henry Edward Manning (1808-1892) ne mentionne dans ses Notes Autobiographiques que son sacerdoce et ses lectures ; ses voyages sur le continent, nombreux entre 1838 et 1848, n’auraient-ils pas contribué tant soit peu à son évolution vers le catholicisme ? S’y rendait-il à la recherche de la santé … ou de son salut ?To account for his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1851, Cardinal Manning (1808-1892) in his Autobiographical Notes only mentions his priesthood and his readings; yet his numerous travels on the continent between 1838 and 1848 must have played an important part in his religious evolution. In other words, did he travel only for the sake of his health or for the sake of his soul

Le poète, le cardinal et l’ange du foyer

In 1881 cardinal Manning who supports the Irish farmers in their struggle for more justice is the butt of all sorts of attacks on the part of the protestant but also the catholic landed gentry. Curiously it is an article in the Whitehall Review about a pretended love affair with Marianne Byles, before she was married to Coventry Patmore, which wounds him to the quick. A few letters between the protagonists let us see a very different, much more human aspect of the austere prelate who has not forgotten Caroline “the angel of his house”

Les lettres de Newman

The collection of John Henry Newman’s letters is now complete. It has taken the Birmingham Oratory almost fifty years and seven editors to complete a task that Newman himself had started as early as 1825 and that his friends and/or biographers had attempted at different times.This collection — « the finest collection (of letters) in the English language » — comprises about 20,000 letters in 32 volumes, making it necessary for the average reader to refer to selections ; two have been published in the last fifty years and the more recent one, translated under the aegis of the Association Française des Amis de Newman, was published for the centenary of Newman’s death that the French public may get to know the person of the cardinal in the context of the time

John Henry Newman

The 70th issue of the Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens is devoted to John Henry Newman and the variety of its contents is deliberate. The distinguished Newman scholars who took part in this issue intend to depict a large picture of Newman’s life and thought through many of his works. Three papers out of ten focus specifically on Newman’s achievement as a preacher. In ‘Newman the Preacher’, Paul Chavasse interprets the greatness of Newman’s preaching as the result of a subtle blend of dogma, ethics, spirituality and an exceptional psychological acumen. Edward J. Ondrako studies Newman’s university preaching style by paying attention to several key moments of his life and defines its theological aim which he portrays as a ‘theology of the heart’ (‘The Intellectual and Developmental Character of Cardinal Newman’s University Preaching Style’). Lastly, C. J. T. Talar concentrates on Henri Bremond’s reading of Newman’s sermons. In his paper entitled ‘Henri Bremond: preaching Newman the Preacher’, he shows how the French historian and literary critic explains what he perceives as a tension in Newman between religious experience and external authority and how he deals with it making of Newman an existential thinker in the process. Among the other pieces in this issue, Jacqueline Clais-Girard’s paper, ‘Newman’s Letters’, concentrates on Newman’s correspondence at a time when the last volume of Letters and Diaries was published by Oxford University Press. For his part, Padraic Conway pays attention to Newman’s then (2008) unpublished ‘Dublin Diary’, which was written while the future Cardinal had to cope with complications regarding the creation of an Irish Catholic University. It was composed between November 1853 and March 1856 and it makes it possible to reconsider this episode which has sometimes been too superficially interpreted as merely resulting from a quarrel between Archbishop Paul Cullen and Newman himself. Keith Beaumont studies the satirical and polemical aspect of Newman’s writings, which may obviously, but in part only, be explained by the particular characteristics of Newman’s life (the many struggles he had to come up against), but which may also be seen as having a real psychological, even spiritual, function in his works. In ‘Newman the Novelist’, Michel Durand looks into Newman’s two novels – Loss and Gain (1848) and Callista (1856) – in order to survey their autobiographical and religious elements, while Terrence Merrigan (‘The Imagination in the Life and Thought of John Henry Newman’) offers to investigate the idea of ‘imagination’ in Newman’s thinking and its key role in all forms of beliefs, especially religious belief. Bertrand Lentsch provides a rhetorical analysis of the Apologia (‘One Man’s Meat is Another Man’s Poison’: the Rhetoric of Dissent in John Henry Cardinal Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1864)) and, Robert C. Christie enquires into the essence of Newman’s ecclesiology which he perceives in his personalism identified with the concept of affectivity (‘Echoes from Home: the Personalist Ground of Newman’s Ecclesiology. Affection as the Key to Newman’s Intellectual Discernment on the Issue of the Church’). The volume ends with a comprehensive chronology of Newman’s life written by Keith Beaumont. Ce numéro 70 des Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens, consacré à John Henry Newman, se veut résolument éclectique. Les éminents spécialistes de l’oeuvre du cardinal anglais qui y ont participé se proposent de brosser un large tableau des écrits et de la pensée de Newman. Sur les dix articles que compte le volume, trois se concentrent tout particulièrement sur Newman prédicateur : dans « Newman the Preacher », Paul Chavasse décrit la grandeur de la prédication newmanienne comme le produit d’une combinaison subtile associant pensée dogmatique, morale et spirituelle à une exceptionnelle finesse psychologique. Edward J. Ondrako aborde le style de la prédication universitaire de Newman à travers plusieurs moments clés de sa vie et en définit les intentions théologiques, qu’il caractérise comme une « théologie du coeur » (« The Intellectual and Developmental Character of Cardinal Newman’s University Preaching Style »). C. J. T. Talar, enfin, s’intéresse à la lecture des sermons de Newman par Henri Brémond. Dans son article intitulé « Henri Brémond : preaching Newman the preacher », il montre comment l’historien et critique littéraire français interprète ce qu’il perçoit comme une tension chez Newman entre expérience religieuse et autorité et comment il la dépasse en faisant de Newman un penseur existentiel. Parmi les autres contributions à ce numéro, celle de Jacqueline Clais-Girard, « Newman’s Letters », se penche sur Newman épistolier, à l’occasion de la publication du dernier tome de ses lettres par les presses de l’université d’Oxford. De son côté, Padraic Conway se concentre sur la publication inédite en 2008 du « Journal de Dublin » de Newman, qui était alors confronté aux difficultés de la création d’une université catholique irlandaise. La lecture de ce journal, rédigé par Newman de novembre 1853 à mars 1856, permet un réexamen des événements de l’époque qu’on a parfois décrit, de manière un peu réductrice, comme le résultat d’un conflit entre l’archevêque Paul Cullen et Newman. Keith Beaumont étudie la dimension satirique et polémique des écrits newmaniens qui peut, évidemment, s’expliquer en partie par les circonstances propres à la vie de Newman, mais aussi, chez lui, par une véritable démarche psychologique, voire spirituelle. Dans « Newman the Novelist », Michel Durand examine les deux romans de Newman – Loss and Gain (1848) et Callista (1856) – pour en analyser le contenu autobiographique et religieux et Terrence Merrigan (« The Imagination in the Life and Thought of John Henry Newman ») fournit une étude de la notion d’ « imagination » chez Newman et de son rôle fondamental dans toute forme de croyance, notamment religieuse. Bertrand Lentsch offre une analyse rhétorique de l’Apologia pro Vita Sua (« One Man’s Meat is Another Man’s Poison » : the Rhetoric of Dissent in John Henry Cardinal Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1864)) et, pour finir, Robert C. Christie explore le fondement de l’ecclésiologie newmanienne qu’il situe dans son personnalisme, et qu’il assimile à la notion d’affectivité (« Echoes from Home : the Personalist Ground of Newman’s Ecclesiology. Affection as the Key to Newman’s Intellectual Discernment on the Issue of the Church »). Le volume se termine par une chronologie détaillée de la vie de Newman proposée par Keith Beaumont

Miscellany

Le numéro 73 des Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens rassemble 10 contributions diverses portant sur des sujets variés comme le Cardinal Manning, Emily Brontë, George Eliot, Robert Browning, Whistler, Ford Madox Brown, Arthur Conan Doyle, Laurence Housman, les parodies de dandies au music-hall, et Oscar Wilde. This issue of Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens gathers 10 contributions on subjects as varied as Cardinal Manning, Emily Brontë, George Eliot, Robert Browning, Whistler, Ford Madox Brown, Arthur Conan Doyle, Laurence Housman, parodies of dandies in music-hall acts, and Oscar Wilde