THE THEORY OF THE POSSIBILITY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE BY CARDINAL JOHN NEWMAN IN THE LIGHT OF ORTHODOX DOCTRINE

Abstract

The Roman Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination in the world. Therefore, it is natural that the events within it are constantly attracting the attention of researchers of Christian history and theology. That is why the relevance of the chosen topic, as they say, «lies on the surface», especially since the figure of Cardinal Newman (1801–1890) stands out from us not so far in time. Secondly, until recently, his works were not available to a wide audience, even in Russian. Thirdly, it would be interesting to begin a study of his theological views in order to follow and ultimately try to understand the evolution of the thoughts of this great English thinker in the understanding of Christian divinely revealed truths. The purpose of our small study is the first attempt to give a general assessment of one of the aspects of his theology in his most famous work, «Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine», or «Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine» in the Russian translation by S. A. Malimonova (2019).

The state of scientific development of the topic. So far, there are not many studies on this topic, mainly due to the lack of professional translation of Cardinal Newman’s works. I will only note that we have come across the work of Daniel J. Lattier, «John Henry Newman and Georges Florovsky: an orthodox-catholic dialogue on the development of doctrine» – this is a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy submitted in 2012 to the Graduate School of Humanities of the University of the Holy Spirit. Duquesne. This work compares the theological views of two great Christian thinkers – Cardinal Newman and Archpriest George Florovsky, regarding the sources and historical path of Christian doctrine. Another work that highlights the significance of Cardinal Newman’s views for the formation of the modern doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church is the article by P. Phillips, «Newman, the Second Vatican Council», New Blackfriars 2013. The article by D. Saprykin, «The Concept of Education and Science in John Henry Newman’s “Idea of the University”, is devoted not to the theological views of the cardinal, but rather to the university principles of education. St. Petersburg», 2007.