Doctor Newman and the communion of saints

Mgr Anthony Stark examines a new work on the Scholarship of Cardinal Newman
The Church...A Communion — in the preaching and thought of John Henry Newman by James Tolhurst DD (Fowler Wright, £9.95)
CARDINAL Newman belonged to no particular theological school, and was the founder of no new school, nor did he write any comprehensive study of systematic theology. Indeed, his theology has to be gleaned from his many volumes of sermons, letters and various writings.
Newman himself was delighted with the Roman doctorate given him by Pope Pius IX and generally put DD after his name in print. Outside his Oratory until the cardinalate he was generally referred to as "Doctor Newman". Some writers have gone so far as to call Newman the greatest theologian of his age and Pope Paul named him as the "Father" of the second Vatican Council.
In this latest book on Newman's theological thought, Tolhurst gives us a glimpse as to how a non-professional theologian like Newman could receive such accolades.
An important insight of Vatican II was to see the role of the Holy Spirit in the Church, that there could be no real theology of the Church in which that role was overlooked. It is precisely under the influence of the Holy Spirit that the Church of Christ is a true communion, koinonia, culminating in the Communion of Saints.
Fr Tolhurst clearly traces the development of Newman's ideas on this very point, bringing him to an ecclesiology which truly anticipates that of the Council. What is again so striking is that the groundwork for this modern Catholic theological view is to be found in Newman's sermons and writings of his Anglican years. The volume of material involved is quite staggering: over 8,000 letters, at least 80 other manuscripts not counting the text of the sermons themselves!
Newman scholars will be grateful to Fr Tolhurst for arranging the 604 Anglican sermons in chronological order with the date, text and title of each. Clearly this was a labour of love for the author's sympathy with Newman is apparent yet at the same time it is a work of sound scholarship in which the many strands of Newman's thought on the nature of the Church are carefully unravelled and then presented in such a manner that readers untrained in theology can obtain a clear picture of Newman's teaching.
His idea of the Church was not a literary exercise but part of his own life which he gradually unfolded to the various communities in which that life was led, university, parish and Oratory. Again we see role of prayer in this, the foundation upon which all his thought, preaching and teaching was based.
Again, too we see the unity in Newman's life: his Catholic ecclesiology having its roots in his Anglican sermons and writings. In his conclusion, the author writes: "It is a measure of Newman's originality that his idea of ecclesial community arouses as much comment within the Anglican Communion as within Roman Catholicism". Here, perhaps, we touch upon Newman's continuing role in the Church today.
Although doctoral theses are generally not the easiest of reading, Fr Tolhurst has produced his in a manner that will be of use to both serious students and that larger band of devotees of Cardinal Newman for whom this book could well be a fascinating introduction to his theology.
The reviewer is Master of The Guild of Ransom and Chairman of the Friends of Newman.