A Primer On John Henry Newman's 7 Notes Of Doctrinal Development

Newman's Vatican II Influence, and his theory of development

St. John Henry Newman is perhaps most famous for his Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. This work has been massively influential in the thought of the Church. Since the First Vatican Council’s definition of Papal Infallibility up and through the documents of the Second Vatican Council, Newman’s theory of development in matters of doctrine has been essential for the Church to develop her own thoughts in meeting the challenges of the modern age.

If one just takes a cursory glance at the documents of the Second Vatican Council, Newman’s influence can be obviously felt. The Council’s “turn” to the Church Fathers, to the “source” of the early Church, is, in part, a nod to Newman, who, by all accounts, was a master of the Church Fathers and was a strong advocate in his time of the need to study, understand, and reflect upon the witness of the early Church Fathers. The Council’s emphasis on the role of the laity is another area in which a great debt is owed to Newman. Finally, to turn our attention to the subject-matter of this article, the Council’s emphasis on the nature of doctrinal development is perhaps Newman’s greatest contribution to Vatican II.

As an example, in Dei Verbum, the Council Fathers state that “this tradition which comes from the Apostles develops in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit.”¹ This simple affirmation of doctrinal development is a theological game-changer for the Church in her self-reflection. Immediately following the above quote, Dei Verbum states that

there is a growth in the understanding of the realities and the words which have been handed down. This happens through the contemplation and study made by believers, who treasure these things in their hearts (see Luke, 2:19, 51) through a penetrating understanding of the spiritual realities which they experience, and through the preaching of those who have received through Episcopal succession the sure gift of truth. For as the centuries succeed one another, the Church constantly moves forward toward the fullness of divine truth until the words of God reach their complete fulfillment in her.²

This purifying effect, or rather, this gradual unfolding of doctrine—of the realities which have been handed down—by both the believing people and through the authority of the hierarchy, could be a direct quote from An Essay on the Development of Doctrine. As we will discover below, Newman himself writes about this gradual unfolding—this move toward a fuller understanding of truth—in his Essay.

In the Essay, Newman writes, in one of the most-quoted passages:

It is indeed sometimes said that the stream is clearest near the spring. Whatever use may fairly be made of this image, it does not apply to the history of a philosophy or belief, which on the contrary is more equable, and purer and stronger, when its bed has become deep, and broad, and full.³

Is this not the exact meaning of the text of Dei Verbum quoted above? Do the Council Fathers themselves not say that as opposed to “sought-after purity” existing in some distant past, purity—fullness of doctrinal truth—exists in the gradual unfolding of doctrine as it is being lived, reflected upon, and purified through the centuries? The Fathers of Vatican II knew Newman, studied him, reverenced his thought, and clearly employed his theology in the Conciliar documents.

If Newman’s theory of doctrinal development is so important, it will be of great theological and spiritual benefit for us to consider what Newman himself says about this theory.

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An Introduction to Newman’s 7 “Notes”

As presumption, we take for granted that the Catholic system is the real and true development of the one Church of Christ as it did and has existed in the 1st, 5th, 12, 18th, and 21st Centuries. This Church, in its catholicity, extending to the ends of the world, embodying within itself that enormous body of traditions and doctrines, must be shown to be a true development of and in continuity with the same Church of the Apostles. If doctrine develops, which it seems it must, there must be a way to account for its development—to discern between true and corrupt doctrine. Thus, Newman says that “it becomes necessary in consequence to assign certain characteristics of faithful developments, which none but faithful developments have, and the presence of which serves as a test to discriminate between them and corruptions.”⁴ Newman then turns to list what he calls 7 “notes” of true doctrinal developments.

The notes are as follows: “Preservation of Type”; “Continuity of Principles”; “Power of Assimilation”; “Logical Sequence”; “Anticipation of Its Future”; Conservative Action Upon Its Past”; and “Chronic Vigor”.⁵

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Note 1—Preservation of Type

The first note is what Newman calls preservation of type. This serves to demonstrate whether or not a development, with its current parts and image, corresponds truthfully to its existence at the beginning. In other words, whether the doctrine at current is, at least in principle, a similar type of thing to what it claims to have developed from. This principle is easily understood by way of example. Suppose you have a son, who, at brith, has a certain size, weight, hair color, etc. Suppose 10 years later, you see a boy who claims to be that same infant, only 10 years older. Is the boy the same boy? Or is he something new all together? While looking different now, the boy is the same boy, only he has developed from infancy to boyhood. He is a human development of that infant, but he is the same boy. He has not, for instance, developed from infancy to become a horse. While parts and appearance might differ, his development is an authentic preservation of type of what came before. A doctrine develops, but it must remain the same type of thing. This is the first note of development.

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Note 2—Continuity of Principles

The second note is continuity of principles. This note specifically addresses the underlying principles of doctrines, not the doctrines themselves. As Newman puts it, “Principles are abstract and general, doctrines relate to facts; doctrines develop, and principles at first sight do to; doctrines grow and are enlarged, principles are permanent;”⁶ Doctrines are the living, breathing, developing ideas which are shaped by, and dependent upon firm principles. For example, that Peter was given the keys and the promise that the gates of Hell would not prevail against Christ’s Church is the principle that the doctrines papal authority and infallibility are based upon. Those doctrines are logical and true developments of those principles; the Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura is a corruption of the principle of Petrine authority in biblical and primitive Christianity. The doctrines, if they are true developments, must be in continuity with the principles that they are founded upon.

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Note 3—Power of Assimilation

The third note is the power of assimilation. Simply, the test of a true idea is the fact that it has the ability to grow, take into itself what surrounds it, and makes it its own. Thus Newman states “in the physical world, whatever has life is characterized by growth, so that in no respect to grow is to cease to live. It grows by taking into its own substance external materials; and this absorption or assimilation is completed when the materials appropriated come to belong to it or enter into its unity.”⁷ Using the image of organic growth, Newman shows that the true test of a healthy organic substance is its ability to adapt and change; to take into itself whatever is needed for its sustenance and growth. Consequently, corruption, in this example, is marked by an inability to adapt and assimilate. Thus, “a power of development is a proof of life… A living idea becomes many, yet remains one.”⁸ The note of the power of assimilation is another test of a healthy development because the mark of any development is its ability to actually take into itself various ideas and assimilate them into a healthy harmony. A static idea is not a mark of health; but rather, death.

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Notes 4—Logical Sequence

The fourth note is logical sequence. To my mind, this makes perfect sense, especially when understood analogously to vocational discernment. Newman states that “logic is the organization of thought, and, as being such, is a security for the faithfulness of intellectual developments; and the necessity of using it is undeniable as far as this, that its rules must not be transgressed.”⁹ Newman believes that a mark of an authentic development is the logical consistency of its history and idea. Concluding his explanation, Newman states that “a doctrine, then, professed in its mature years by a philosophy or religion, is likely to be a true development, not a corruption, in proportion as it seems to be the logical issue of its original teaching.”¹⁰ Thus in vocational discernment, one mark of God’s will is the ability to trace the sequence of Providential events leading you to the exact moment you are in. Analogously, this logical sequence is a note of a true development of doctrine.

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Notes 5—Anticipation of Its Future

The fifth note of doctrinal development is anticipation of its future.

Here is Newman’s explanation:

Since, when an idea is living, that is, influential and effective, it is sure to develope according to its own nature, and the tendencies, which are carried out on the long run, may under favourable circumstances show themselves early as well as late, and logic is the same in all ages, instances of a development which is to come, though vague and isolated, may occur from the very first, though a lapse of time be necessary to bring them to perfection.¹¹

This fifth note seeks to explain how a development, if it is authentic, should show, at an early point, a sign or an expectation of what it will eventually be. For instance, it might be said that the doctrines, defined in 1854 and 1950, of Mary’s Immaculate Conception and Assumption, were a corruption of the primitive creed. However, it can be found in many of the Church Fathers that they reverenced Mary, defended her as the New Eve, the New Ark of the Covenant, and the Woman in Revelation; Likewise, they sang hymns to her, and venerated her. Furthermore, we see in Scripture that it says “Arise, O Lord, and go to thy resting place, thou and the ark of thy might” (Ps. 132:8). If Mary is the New Ark, then what else could the Psalm be speaking of other than Mary and her Assumption? The complementary dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption are the anticipations of the Scriptures and the high place at which the early Church placed the Virgin Mary.

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Note 6—Conservative Action Upon Its Past

The sixth note that Newman describes is that a true development will have conservative acton upon its past. “As developments which are preceded by definite indications have a fair presumption in their favour, so those which do but contradict and reverse the course of doctrine which has been developed before them, and out of which they spring, are certainly corrupt;”¹² This note seeks to illustrate the inner necessary continuity with a doctrine’s past that must be present in any future development. For a development to be true and authentic, it must be in harmony with and not contradictory to the stages of its past developments. A simple example of this is Jesus’s words in Matthew’s Gospel: ““Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Mt. 5:17). Our Lord, in his fulfillment of the Old Testament, did not simply retract or contradict the Old Law; rather, Our Lord fulfilled and perfected the Old Law in the New. Finally, quoting Vincentius of Lerins, Newman states profectus fidei non permutatio—the faith advances, it does not change.¹³

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Note 7—Chronic Vigor

The last note Newman theorizes, is in regard to the duration of a corruption. Newman states that a corruption—an aberration from what is true—is a so-called crisis and it tends to be of short duration; thus chronic vigor is a note to test true development from a corruption.

While ideas live in men’s minds, they are ever enlarging into fuller development: they will not be stationary in their corruption any more than before it; and dissolution is that further state to which corruption tends. Corruption cannot, therefore, be of long standing; and thus duration is another test of a faithful development.¹⁴

Corruption, a negative state of a living thing, by necessity tends towards its own destruction. Poison introduced to a plant, while perhaps slow at first, always tends towards the plants destruction. Perhaps a better example, a heresy, a corruption of doctrine, tends to be rapid and voracious. Often times, it comes on strong, takes hold, but tends towards its own destruction. Thus, you will see the history of Arianism, while lasting a while, tends towards further fracture, such as the semi-Arian heresy. A corruption, as a corruption, ushers in its own future destruction. Rather than tending towards unification and growth, corruption in an idea moves towards splintering and internal disunity. For Newman and this final note, chronic vigor is characteristic of corruption because “while a corruption is distinguished from decay by its energetic action, it is distinguished from a development by its transitory character.”¹⁵

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Thus we have the seven “notes” to “test” an idea as being an authentic development or a corruption. When evaluating a doctrine or an idea, in deciding upon its authenticity or its corrupting nature, these seven notes are of inestimable value in theological inquiry. I would advise, when critically evaluating, to take each of the notes and apply them to the idea. These, I believe, are not necessarily comprehensive or exhaustive, but they serve as a highly beneficial theological tool when put in practice.

As the Church has seen John Henry Newman’s thought as invaluable to her theological reflection, we should also take the time to learn about him and his theology. I invite you to let this Saint and soon-to-be Doctor of the Church’s theology inform the way you read and understand theology.

Take advantage of our Newman sale!

1. Dei Verbum, 8.

2. Dei Verbum, 8.

3. John Henry Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, p. 32-33.

4. Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, p. 140.

5. Cf. An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, pp. 141-169.

6. Ibid., 146.

7. Ibid., 152.

8. Ibid., 153.

9. Ibid., 155.

10. Ibid., 160.

11. Ibid., 160.

12. Ibid., 163

13. Ibid., 165.

14. Ibid., 167.

15. Ibid., 169.