Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
In one of the sermons that he preached at Oxford while still an Anglican, Newman argued that love is the safeguard of faith against superstition.1 This thesis strikes me as being false, for reasons which I shall indicate; but it merits consideration by students of the epistemology of religion, if only because it is a provocative ‘solution’ to some central problems of philosophy and theology which are disturbingly persistent in their relevance. Before we consider whether Newman's position is unsound, let us see how he arrived at it.
page 139 note 1 Newman, John Henry, ‘Love the Safeguard of Faith against Superstition’ (preached on 21st May 1839), in Fifteen Sermons Preached before the University of Oxford (3rd ed., 1871). This sermon is abbreviated in the text as L, with the section number following.Google Scholar
page 140 note 1 ‘Preface to the Third Edition’, op. cit., section 13. cf. op cit., sermon 11, sections 8–9.
page 140 note 2 ibid., section 14. cf. op. cit., sermons 4, 9–12.
page 142 note 1 Also L. 1–12.
page 148 note 1 Tillich, Paul, Dynamics of Faith (New York: Harper & Row, 1958), pp. 30–35.Google Scholar
page 149 note 1 ibid., p. 4.
page 149 note 2 ibid., pp. 30–40.
page 149 note 3 Lunn, Arnold, Roman Converts (Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1966 [1924]), p. 80.Google Scholar
page 150 note 1 An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent, ch. 5, section 1.