A Long-Overdue Recognition of Newman’s Philosophical Genius

Like William James, John Henry Newman recognized how humans make important decisions in life

Pope Leo XIV’s decision to name St. John Henry Newman as the 38th Doctor of the Church represents more than ecclesiastical recognition. It acknowledges one of the most profound philosophical minds of the modern era.

Newman’s elevation, announced on July 31, 2025, finally gives proper due to a thinker whose ideas influenced not just Catholic theology but much of contemporary analytic philosophy.

I first discovered Newman not through his famous Apologia or his famous Oxford sermons but through Bernard Lonergan.

While studying Lonergan’s method in theology, I was startled to learn that his chief influence wasn’t Thomas Aquinas, as everyone assumed.

It was Newman and his Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (1870).

When I looked into it, I expected another dry Victorian treatise on religion. Instead, I found a revolutionary analysis of how human minds actually work.

Newman did something remarkable: he took seriously how people form their deepest convictions.

Many philosophers of his era demanded that belief follow strict logical proof.

Like his contemporary William James, Newman argued this was impossible.

What’s more, it left out the most important considerations when it came to major decisions in life.

Newman’s revolutionary insight was recognizing that empiricist demands for rigorous logical evidence miss how humans operate.

We reach certainty and make genuine life commitments -- including the commitments of religious faith -- through means that include but ultimately transcend formal logic.

This isn’t anti-intellectual surrender. Rather, it’s a sophisticated analysis of real-world decision-making.

The Illative Sense: Newman’s Greatest Gift

Newman’s concept of the illative sense describes the faculty by which our minds move from probabilities and partial evidence to firm conviction.

This anticipates modern developments in epistemology by decades.

Contemporary studies of tacit knowledge, implicit reasoning and non-formal logic all trace back to Newman’s pioneering work.

Michael Polanyi’s influential research on tacit knowledge explicitly builds on Newman’s foundation.

Even artificial intelligence researchers studying how humans process incomplete information find Newman relevant.

Real vs. Notional: A Crucial Distinction

Newman’s division between “real assent” and “notional assent” provided vocabulary many still use today.

Notional assent is abstract, theoretical -- like agreeing that “all men are mortal.”

Real assent is personal and existential. An example is believing that you persoanlly will die someday.

This distinction helps explain how people can believe in realities they cannot fully comprehend.

Religious mysteries, scientific theories, even love -- all involve real assent that goes beyond formal logical demonstrations.

The Grammar of Assent endures because it offers something rare: a robust defense of faith as genuinely rational without reducing it to a mere logical proof.

Newman treated faith as a legitimate form of knowledge, giving intellectual grounding to personal and communal religious commitment.

This approach influences contemporary debates in philosophy of religion, cognitive science and educational theory.

Philosophers such as Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff explicitly draw on Newman’s epistemology.

Theologians across denominational lines find his work essential for understanding religious belief.

Even secular philosophers studying the nature of conviction reference Newman’s insights.

We are not computers processing data through pure logic. We are embodied beings who integrate reason, experience, intuition and tradition in forming our deepest convictions.

His work explains how people can reach different conclusions while still thinking rationally. It harmonizes well with Richard Swinburne’s explanation that people have different sets of beliefs as well as different inductive criteria with which they evaluate such beliefs.

This doesn’t lead to relativism but to intellectual humility -- recognizing that certainty emerges through personal engagement with evidence, not just abstract proof.

A Living Legacy

Newman’s elevation to Doctor of the Church acknowledges what scholars have known for decades: the Grammar of Assent remains a masterpiece of philosophical analysis.

Newman didn’t just defend religious faith; he illuminated the nature of human conviction itself.

For anyone grappling with questions of belief, certainty and knowledge, Newman’s work remains essential reading.

And his recognition as one of the 38 Doctors of the Church finally gives proper honor to a philosophical achievement that continues shaping how we understand the deepest operations of the human mind.

Robert J. Hutchinson is the author of numerous books of popular history, including Searching for Jesus: New Discoveries in the Quest for Jesus of Nazareth (Thomas Nelson), The Dawn of Christianity (Thomas Nelson), The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible (Regnery) and When in Rome: A Journal of Life in Vatican City (Doubleday). Email him at: roberthutchinson@substack.com