A Deep and Subtle Joy

I first met Dom Luke Bell OSB when he was a monk at Downside Abbey. The Downside Community are part of the English Benedictine congregation, and part of their tradition is that they have parishes and schools. I bumped into Dom Luke again when I was visiting parishes for the St Barnabas Society,  and then was not surprised to learn that he had transferred to Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight.

Quarr is a wonderful place. It became most well know recently through Tony Hendry's book about Fr Joe--one of the holy monks of that Abbey. I knew Quarr well because my Anglican parish was on the Isle of Wight. I have many fond memories of retreats there, my friendships with the monks and finally, it being the site of our reception into the Catholic Church in February 1995.

So it was with some delight and anticipation that I discovered Dom Luke Bell's new book A Deep and Subtle Joy. This book is a genuine delight. The monastic life is a truly incarnate Christian life. Through work, prayer and study the monks immerse body, mind and spirit in a life intended to be one with Christ. Fr. Luke takes this tendency on the part of the Benedictine tradition and makes it come to life with a meditative visit to Quarr Abbey itself.

So we go on a tour of the monastery, and as we do we are able to see through the ordinary aspects of life to their deeper meanings. Fr. Luke shows us the chickens, the pigs, the sheep and the bees and meditates on each one. Then we're given a tour of the monastery: the guesthouse, the monastic ruins (Quarr is built a few hundred yards from the ruins of a medieval monastery) the cloister, the refectory, the tea room, the music room, the cell, the church, the cemetery and the nearby endless sea. Each portion of the visit breaks down into a chapter of the book and provides Fr. Luke a creative and beautiful meditation on the deeper meanings of each aspect of the monastery.

It is difficult to express how beautifully and completely a book like this captures the Benedictine spirit. St Benedict created a rule that helped his monks to live a graced life--a life that carried in every moment the sacrament of God's presence. Somehow, Fr. Luke has captured the essence in his own book.

He has a simple, almost child-like style. Like the best of monks he welcomes us to his world and explains things with a charming delight and simplicity. Beneath the simplicity is a depth of wisdom and insight borne out of a life of contemplation and prayer.

This book deserves to be a classic of Benedictine spirituality. So often now books are consumables and even worthy religious books go through their first printing and expire. I hope remains available for years to come. It deserves to be basic reading for all who would seek to understand the essence of the spiritual life and the heart of the Benedictine way.

The book is available on Amazon here.

Spectator Debate

Here's a report on the debate held in London on the proposal that England should be a Catholic country again. Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, novelist Piers Paul Read and Dom Anthony Sutch OSB argued for. Journalist Matthew Parris (who described himself as a Protestant atheist) Retired Anglican Bishop of Oxford Richard Harries and Stephen Pound MP argued against. The Catholics won.

The Mystery of Faith

Some time ago a priest friend in England sent me the little book, The Mystery of Faith by a Polish priest named Tadeusz Dajczer. A book of meditations on the Eucharist by a priest, it is written in a very personal style with much of the content a conversation between the individual and Christ, present in the Eucharist. The book is written in the first person because the author wants to avoid lecturing or instructing the reader as a 'know it all'. While this is admirable, it does give the book a very subjective feel which locks us into the authors inner dialogue.

I have to admit, I am not much attracted to this particular style of devotional writing, but despite my own inability to engage with the style, I can still see that there is much to recommend in the book. The personal style takes us into a personal experience of Christ in the Eucharist and helps to connect the reality of Christ present with us to our everyday lives. As Stanislaw Cardinal Dsiwisz (former secretary to JP2) says in his foreword, "The Eucharist operates by God's action (ex opera operato) and also through our co operation with that action (ex opere operantis)." Therefore a book sparking a new devotion and co operation with the divine mystery can be a help.

I probably haven't connected with the book because I'm reading it in my armchair as a critic. I need to take it with me and use it as a devotional aid to my preparation to celebrate the Eucharist. I'm going to try this and see if I 'connect' with it a bit better.

Certainly the book has proved popular: since it's publication in 2007 its been through six editions and been published in five or six languages. It is available through Eucharistic Renewal Books.

Homage

An amusing little review of Gargoyle Code is posted here. It's not too late to buy your copy by the way...

Brideshead -- The Movie

The 2008 movie version of Brideshead Re-Visited has much of the charm that Evelyn Waugh's story makes so much of. Oxford in all her golden glory is there in it's seductive ripe-ness. Yorkshire's Castle Howard once more provides an unbelievably opulent setting. Venice ripples and sparkles with Tintoretto-ish delight. Morocco is sleazy and exotic. All is as elegant and decadent and as English and eccentric as you could wish for.

But this is a fairy tale England, and the film maker has given us a fairy tale in its worst sense rather than its best. Underneath the surface of Waugh's novel (and captured faithfully by the famous TV version) there is real depth and complexity and reality to the characters. The film has none of this. Lady Marchmain is the wicked mother figure. Charles, Sebastian and Julia are babes in the wood--befuddled and lost in the wicked dark forest of looming adulthood, morality and serious religion. Bridey is the dull faithful prince, and Cordelia is the court jester.

So top marks for elegant locations, pretty costumes, but the acting is labored and shallow. We don't see any reason for Lady Marchmain's cruelty or Bridey's buffoonery or Charles' atheism. Some would say the problem is that they have tried to cram a very complex novel into a two hour movie, and that is certainly part of the problem. When you adapt a novel as big and important as this minor characters must fade out and subplots must be reduced and characters often become two dimensional.

However in this case, I think the problem is more significant. The writers and director either don't understand Catholicism or (more likely) they have a superficial understanding and are totally unsympathetic. For example, in the novel Charles is presented as an agnostic. In the film he firmly claims the part of atheist and sticks to it. The Catholic characters are shown to be riddled with guilt. Their faith has no other dimension. Lady Marchmain is not the well meaning and simple (but sanctimonious) soul she is portrayed in the book and TV series. Instead she is a kind of cruel Mother Superior bashing her family with a harsh form of Catholic guilt. Not only do the film makers misrepresent the outward forms of Catholicism, but worst of all, they do not understand the really deep parts of Waugh's intention.

The motor for Waugh's whole story is the mysterious working of grace in the lives of the characters. The reason Brideshead Revisited is so fascinating as a novel is that we see God's grace working its merciful way out through the faults and sinfulness of the Flyte clan. This works in the novel as an invisible and very subtle and powerful thread running through the whole tale. It is something, I would argue, which remains invisible to the unbeliever who reads the work. They simply don't get it.

So it would seem in this film version. We never really see the providential resolution of grace in any of the characters' lives. We don't see the redemptive quality of Sebastian's final suffering. We don't see the simple depth and self sacrifice played out in Cordelia's life. We don't see the dignified denouement in Julia's final decision to give up Charles. We don't see the justice of Bridey losing Brideshead and Julia getting it. We don't see Lord Marchmain's final reconciliation as anything other than a superstitious moment and most of all we don't see Charles' final conversion. The film ends with him going into the Brideshead chapel and deciding to allow an almost flickering out candle to continue burning. Was that hope? Was that an indication of his own benevolent tolerance of the faith, or simply a resigned permission to allow faded old Catholicism to flicker out, gutter and die?

It was a good idea to do a film version. It's a shame that the film virtually reverses Waugh's intention.

Anglican Evangelical Bishop Favors Gay Marriage

Bishop James Jones of Liverpool (I went to Anglican seminary with him) has given a speech in favor of gay marriage. You can read about it in Ruth Gledhill's article here.

I do not wish to comment on the issue of homosexuality itself, but to observe another matter which is brought to light by the bishop's speech. When I criticize liberal Anglicans, conservative Anglicans will sometimes comment in sympathy and distance themselves from the liberal stance of many of their fellow churchmen. Especially Evangelical Anglicans will huff and puff and declare how very wrong people like Bishop Robinson or Bishop Kate Schori are.

While it is good that many Anglicans still want to uphold the traditional faith and morals of the Christian religion, it is unfortunately true that their views are built on the same philosophical and theological foundation as the liberals with whom they so vehemently disagree.

It's like this: both the liberal Anglicans and the conservative Anglicans rely on the 'three legged stool' of their authority theory. The 'three legged stool' is made up of Scripture, Tradition and Human Reason. This sounds good in theory, but when sat on, the stool collapses. This is because, while Scripture, Tradition and Human Reason sound like a good foundation for authority we have to come back and ask, "But who interprets Scripture? Who picks the Tradition we consider authoritative and who criticizes the reasoning that is going on? Without a higher agreed infallible authority one can interpret Scripture however one wishes, pick and choose which Traditions one likes and use human reason to come up with any conclusion one happens to like.

As a result conservative Anglicans use Scripture, Tradition and Reason to come up with a conclusion that prohibits homosexual marriage while liberal Anglicans use Scripture, Tradition and Reason to come to exactly the opposite conclusion. The conservative will bleat, "But that's the point! They're ignoring or distorting Scripture! They're deliberately distorting and changing the tradition! They're distorting and abusing human reason!" Meanwhile the liberals say, "Those conservatives! They insist on the letter of the law in Scripture, but miss the Spirit of the Scriptures which are always loving and accepting. They insist on a hide bound view of Tradition--not seeing that part of the Tradition is to change and grow and accept new things! How can they use human reason to hurt their fellow gay Christians and deny true love?"

At the end of the day conservative Anglicans and liberal Anglicans who have been duking it out in the ecclesial culture wars can only step from the ring bloodied and exhausted and say, either "Well, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree" or "Right. Time we parted ways" then tootle off to start a new denomination.

Finally, the bitter battles within Anglicanism seem to receive all the attention. It is often overlooked that the same battles are being fought within all the major Protestant denominations. The conservative Evangelicals like to think they rise above it, but the same battles are going on in those circles too as a new generation of 'socially aware' Evangelicals are stepping on to the leadership stage. The new wave of Evangelical leaders, like James Jones in Liverpool, will be nice, dynamic and articulate guys who will simply plead for tolerance in these matters, and just as the rest of Protestantism has historically followed the Anglican lead, so they too will go the way of the world in these current debates.

Why will they do so? Because they too are sheep without a shepherd.

Secular Britain

Damian Thompson provides this excellent explanation and analysis of the current legislation in Britain which, among other things, forces Catholic schools to teach sex and provide access to abortion, and may pressure clergy to allow gay 'weddings' in churches. The underlying anti religious bias of the present government there is astounding and Damian lays it all out neatly. What is most amazing about this anti religious government is that while they seem determined to root out what they perceive to be negative conservative forces within Christianity they also bend over backwards to grant 'equality' to Islam. Hammers and steamrollers for Christians who may object to sex ed for elementary school kids, homosexual marriage and women's ordination, but not a peep about a religion that buries adulterers up to the waist and stones them, forces women into burkhas and kills homosexuals. Weird.

Rare Painting Found in Bradford on Avon

This story of the rare and beautiful Quentin Metsys portrait of Christ found in a Wiltshire church is amazing. It's doubly amazing because this is the second time a rare masterpiece has been found in the same Wiltshire town.

The painting was found in Holy Trinity Church Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire. The first amazing discovery is right across the street from Holy Trinity. It is the beautiful Saxon church of St Laurence. It was discovered by an antiquarian in the nineteenth century. He noticed some unusual arches on a village house underneath some additions and later facades. At the core of the house was an unspoiled Saxon church which has since been carefully and beautifully restored.

We lived in Chippenham--just about a ten minute drive from Bradford an Avon, and I used to pass through the town frequently on my way to and from Downside Abbey. I usually stopped to pray in St Laurence and when we had friends visiting we would always take them to the little Saxon church and then walk through Holy Trinity as well.

I must have walked past the hidden Metsys masterpiece in Holy Trinity dozens of times.

Lenten Mission Report

I have had a wonderful time with the people and clergy of St John the Baptist, Edmond OK. Oklahomans are very friendly and natural and down to earth. The parish is very large and very active and we had a wonderful turn out for the three mission talks on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

On Monday evening I related my conversion story from Evangelical fundamentalism in Pennsylvania to Bob Jones University, Anglicanism, Oxford, a hitch-hiking pilgrimage to Jerusalem, then on to be a country parson and reception into the Catholic Church. There was also a focus on the question of authority in the church and its influence on my journey.

On Tuesday the topic was The Attack of the Ism's. I explained how certain philosophies lie deep in our culture and how they affect our lives and beliefs as Catholics. I outlined twelve 'ism's' which are all different examples of an underlying relativism in our culture, then showed how the four marks of the Church are the anti dote to this poison.

On Wednesday we asked 'How Can I Be One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic?'--going more deeply into the ways individuals, parishes and communities can live fully Catholic lives.

It was a blessed and enjoyable time, but now it's good to be heading home.

PS: More and more airports have free Wi-Fi. Forgive me for liking gadgets, but it's pretty neat to be able to sit in an airport and engage in my favorite hobby: blogging.

The Times Online

A version of my earlier post about Richard Harries--the former Anglican Bishop of Oxford-- who is now called Lord Pentregarth (sounds like a Harry Potter villain) has been posted in the Times Online. You can read it here. I admit the article is quite pungent, and I expect it will attract a good number of anti-Catholic and perhaps some anti-American comments. Go over and view the fireworks if you're interested.

Chust for Nice

Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. Full notes and pictures at NLM

The Infant of Prague and Childhood Innocence

It was my privilege today to visit the National Shrine of the Infant of Prague in Prague, Oklahoma. (They pronounce it Prage). This was a very interesting stop because the pastor of the parish is a convert from Episcopalianism. Also, it was intriguing because I have to admit that the devotion to the Infant of Prague is not something which is, errr, shall we say,  immediately accessible to the male Evangelical convert to Catholicism.

In the end I bought an image of the Infant of Prague for my little chapel and learned to appreciate this not immediately winsome devotion. I felt happy about this: I like the Infant of Prague now! I guess that means I'm really a Catholic at last...

Here's how it happened: Catholics should understand that the Infant of Prague is very alien to the typical Bob Jones graduate...The first impression is, "Good heavens! Why is baby Jesus dressed up like that? Is that some kind of fancy Catholic idol or what?" But putting my prejudice on one side and wanting to 'affirm and not deny' I learned about the history of the devotion and was given a very nice tour of the shrine including a look at a cupboard full of all the different outfits they had for him. It prompted a question on the drive back, "Can you get Infant of Prague kits? You know, buy the baby in diapers and then you buy the outfits separately? What does baby Jesus wear under the royal robes?"

Seriously, I wanted to try to understand this rather unusual devotion. Then I learned that the Infant of Prague actually started out with Saint Theresa of Avila. She had a devotion to the child Jesus. Bingo! A connection with my favorite Therese of Lisieux who also had a devotion to the child Jesus and spiritual childhood and spiritual innocence. I'm beginning to get it.

So after the tour I thought I'd kneel down and see if I could get hold of this a little bit more. As I'm kneeling I begin to understand the child dressed in royal robes and crown, for the whole image tells us that although he was a child born naked and squawking in a stable he was at the same time the royal prince of the house of David. He was a simple child, yet King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Furthermore, this is my destiny. I cannot enter the kingdom unless I become as a little child, but to enter the kingdom and be a royal adopted prince, a Son of God and a brother of Jesus is my ultimate destiny.

Then as I'm kneeling there I begin to see that this child is also the focus of our prayers for spiritual childhood and innocence for ourselves, but it should also be the one we turn to pleading for protection for our own children and for the innocence which is being lost every day to the corrupt morals of our day. Then thinking about innocence and children, lo and behold, I come home and check my emails only to find this horrible link: specially designed condoms for twelve year olds. Can you imagine? The world rightly bewails pedophilia and the sexualization of children, then turns around and offers pole dancing kits to little girls and condoms called 'Hotshots' for seventh graders.

So, may the Infant of Prague deliver us from such evils, protect our children and grant us the gift of spiritual childhood.

Contraception and the Vocations Crisis

Go here for my latest article for InsideCatholic; in which we analyze the connections between the contraceptive culture and the vocations crisis.

UPDATE: The Anchoress links and comments with further insights here.

Chust for Nice

St Lawrence, Nuremburg. Go to NLM for full picture gallery.

The New Adamites

Do you remember this post by the Vicar about the Ancient Order of Anglican Adamites? There really were such folks called Adamites long ago, and it seems that they have made a comeback, but they're not Anglicans--Christian nudists of a different denomination. Yucch. H/T The American Papist.

Oklahoma OK

I'm having a great time in Edmond Oklahoma, leading the parish mission for Lent. I was here to preach at all the masses on the weekend, then last night, tonight and tomorrow I'm speaking in the evening.

The people of Oklahoma (are they called Okies? Sooners?) are very friendly and St John the Baptist is a very large, very active parish with lots going on. It's a joy to be here.

Last night I told my conversion story with an emphasis on the question of Authority in the Church. Tonight we're talking about 'the attack of the ism's'. Twelve different modernist modes of thought which infect our American way of life and how they affect our life as Catholics. At the end the remedy is presented and tomorrow night we think about how this affects our life practically.

Sand in Holy Water Stoops?

Fr Z has a rant about sand in holy water stoops and quotes a letter from the Vatican forbidding the dopey practice. Go here.

Attention UK Readers

Please sign this online petition in support of the Holy Father's UK visit. Pass the link on through email, blogs and facebook. The petition against the visit is far bigger at this time, yet the support for the Pope's visit is greater. Get people to sign!

Abortion and Eugenics

African Americans are getting the message that the abortion industry and the Sanger inspired eugencis organization Planned Parenthood intentionally targets black for abortion. New York Times reports on the growing trend for the racist roots of the abortion industry to be named and shamed. Read it here.

Why I Like Mark Shea

Because he posts videos like this, and because I like having more followers than he does (386) even though he has massively more readers than I do. What does that mean? He has lots of people stop by and never come back???

Can Holiness Stop Earthquakes?

Pat Robertson hit the headlines after the Haiti earthquake speculating that the disaster was a punishment for Haiti's voodoo practices. Rationalists were quick to pooh pooh such an idea, and anyone who believes in a merciful God should have trouble with the idea that the Almighty is up there doling out natural disasters to sinners. More questions arise than are answered with such a scenario. If God is punishing sinners, why does he let so many off the hook? If he is interested in visiting disaster on people, why an earthquake or tsunami which must kill an awful lot of innocent people as well as the wicked. No, the simplistic idea of God meting out such arbitrary 'justice' doesn't make sense.

However, what if there were other forces in play which do alter the equation somewhat? We know that sin causes stress. You hurt me. I get angry with you. I feel stressed. You feel stressed. Maybe I hurt you back. Perhaps that starts a spiral of revenge and violence and negativity. So far so bad. We also observe that the negativity spreads to other people. Our hatred and violence and revenge and rage touches other people too. I talk to my friends and they take my side. You talk to your friends. They all get caught up in our spiral of rage. Before long we have a war going on. The same spiral of ugliness and sin and suffering applies to any kind of sin. Lust breeds lust. Rage breeds rage. Killing breeds killing. So it goes on.

It goes further: what if all this ugliness actually spirals out of control in a society? So we see that lust or rage or violence or revenge sometimes erupts in mass murder, genocide, massacres, rape and abuse. Sometimes a whole nation can be overtaken by sin. It's like the whole tribe or the whole nation is infected with a terrible virus of evil or infested with an evil spirit. A mood takes over. A dark Lord reigns. The light goes out and inexplicably a whole nation drifts into the dark side.

Here's the jump: what if these negativities and this darkness actually move across into the rest of the created order? Can the whole earth somehow pick up that virus of evil and take on the darkness and turmoil the way a whole society can? What if the natural order picks up the negativities and starts to boil over itself as if it is sharing society's sickness? There seem to be hints in Christian theology that this is exactly what happens. The doctrine of original sin includes the idea that the whole natural order has also fallen into a broken condition and St Paul speaks of the whole of creation "groaning for redemption as a woman giving birth" (Rom.8:22) What if this interaction and identification of the whole created order with human choices is a constantly dynamic relationship and not just a once and done event?

So, while God isn't up there throwing a dice to decide which wicked people get an earthquake today, it could be that there are mysterious links between human behavior and the behavior of the created order. Too much greed and rage and lust and violence might just boil over and manifest in natural disasters--as if the created order is reflecting our own corporate disharmony, violence and broken-ness, and this stress and corporate negativity erupts at the weak points--tectonic plates, dormant volcanoes or volatile weather cycles.

If this is so, then the opposite must also be true. A cycle begins with every act of sacrifice we make. A wheel turns with every prayer, every action of love and forgiveness and every little kindness matters. Everything in God's good world is connected, and the good I do has eternal consequences. A science teacher once told me that every beam of light goes out into the dark universe and continues to travel forever. It's the same with every action of love and goodness.

If this is so, then holiness doesn't simply transform me. It transforms the world.

Understanding Anglicanism

If anyone is interested to really understand Anglicanism go here. Richard Harries, the former Bishop of Oxford is your classical Anglican liberal. The Church of England, he argues, is the best since it is the 'part of the Catholic Church' that is open to the future. He goes on to reference Cardinal Newman's famous Development of Doctrine, stealing Newman's idea and twisting it beyond recognition.

Be warned, you are likely to come away from the video and the accompanying article spitting with frustration and rage. "How," you will ask, "can anyone who is obviously so learned and intelligent make so many glaring errors, speak so many half truths and miss the target so completely." Welcome to liberal Anglicanism--a kind of half way house for the seriously deluded.

He says the Church of England is 'open to the future'. What he really means is that the Church of England always conforms to the spirit of the age. Is it possible that this former senior bishop of the Church of England is so ignorant of his own church's history? In the reign of Henry VIII the spirit of the age was one of the nation state and the pre eminence of the monarch. Anglicanism sucked it up, yea was founded by it. In the eighteenth century the spirit of the age was freemasonry and Deism. Anglicanism sucked it up. In the nineteenth century the spirit of the age was triumphalistic colonialism. Anglicanism sucked it up. Now the spirit of the age is feminism, homosexualism and ethical utilitarianism. Anglican sucks it up. The Church of England is 'open to the future'? Of course it is. Whatever the future brings Anglicanism will adapt itself happily. Timeless truth? Fugdeddaboudit.

The former bish reveals all when he says that truth is revealed not just through the 'cold and distant church' but through the society that we live in and the church needs to listen to society and learn from society which way to go. That sums up the Anglican liberal position. Lick the index finger. Stick arm upward. Feel coolness on one side of finger. That's the way the wind is blowing. Cut your sails accordingly.

Continually irritating is the Bishop's little line, 'The Church of England is that part of the Catholic Church that is open to the future." The Church of England 'open to the future'? Is it possible that this little Englander cannot see that not only his church, but his whole culture is poised to go down the plug hole of history? Future? There is not future for his like. Can he really, really be ignorant of the fact that the future of his own Anglican Church is in Africa and Asia where his own fellow Anglicans reject most of his liberal agenda totally? Can he possibly be ignorant of the fact that the future of global Christianity is not only Africa, but Catholic? Globally speaking (and for that matter in the UK too) the one church that is young and vibrant and growing (along with the pentecostals) is the Catholic Church.

He says in passing the Church of England is 'part of the Catholic Church.' Note the underlying assumption that liberal Anglicans like Harries never even question, the old 'branch theory' that the Church of England is not a minor nationalistic Erastian sect, but 'part of the Catholic Church on an equal with the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church.' This is simple self delusion and intentional misinterpretation of history and contemporary facts.

Furthermore, this smug line... 'I am an Anglican Catholic you know' used to be used only by Catholic minded Anglicans. Now it is used by the liberal Anglicans and liberal Protestants of every stripe and the Evangelicals too. It is meaningless. If the former Bishop of Oxford is a 'Catholic' in the broadest sense, then so is anyone who is baptized. Once at Mass a dear Presbyterian lady who is married to a Catholic came out of church and squeezed my hand and said with a sweet smile, "I'm a Presbyterian Catholic you know." The former Bishop of Oxford with his smug assumptions is as facile and sentimental as that old lady, only she doesn't know any better. He should.

Finally, the Bishop should not get away with sheltering in the shade of Cardinal Newman. How dare he claim the great Cardinal as one of his own when Newman's whole life was an exquisite repudiation of the sort of nauseating liberalism that Harries and his ilk stand for. Development of Doctrine indeed! The liberal Anglicans have been hi-jacking this concept of Newman's ever since they first started arguing for women's ordination and now they use it to excuse everything. Harries is supposed to be some sort of theologian. Has he actually ever read Newman's essay on the Development of Doctrine or is he content to claim the title as some sort of game show catch phrase to justify his heresy?

Anyone who has read Newman's essay must instantly howl with outrage at the idea that his idea would be used to justify women's ordination, same sex marriage, artificial contraception and in vitro fertilization. Harries and his ilk who pretend Newman is one of them (when in fact Newman's life is a rejection of the whole Anglican Oxford establishment facade) should go back and do their homework and read just how Newman set out the criteria for proper and authentic development. None of their innovations would even come close to the criteria Newman sets up.

Here endeth the rant.