April 27, 2020
St. John Henry Newman was involved in several art forms throughout his life. In literature, he was perhaps the greatest English prose writer of his time and a highly accomplished poet. In the field of music, he was an accomplished amateur violinist, taught music to boys at Littlemore’s school, and supervised liturgical music as head of the Oratorian community. In architecture, he commissioned numerous church buildings and was involved in the debate over the role of the Gothic style in modern British Catholic church architecture.
Although Newman never wrote a book about beauty, comments on beauty and art are scattered throughout his writings, sometimes in surprising contexts. in Extraordinary Beauty: The Aesthetics of St. John Henry NewmanFr. Guy Nicholls of Birmingham Chapel brings together these comments to provide an overview of the role of beauty in Newman’s life and thought. For Newman, the true purpose of earthly beauty is to draw us beyond itself to a higher, truer divine beauty.
content
[4:02] Integrating Newman’s various comments on beauty into a coherent whole
[4:57] Newman’s ethereal beauty and earthly beauty, and the dangers of the latter.
[10:49] reality and unreality
[14:46] The danger of art: separating noble emotions from action.
[20:43] Problems with treating morality as a matter of taste
[23:18] How people were shocked by Newman’s personal beauty
[31:00] Two formative experiences of beauty that Newman associated with paradise: the holiness of his sister Mary and the landscape of Sicily.
[39:09] Newman’s relationship with church architecture and his views on it
[46:36] Newman is an amateur musician. His views on the power of music
[57:45] the importance of primitive music and art and especially of “scientific” music and realistic art in the liturgy;
[1:03:43] The importance of music in the rules of the Bar. St. Philip Neri’s practice of using entertainment to “tempt” people to God
[1:06:55] The difference between devotional music and liturgical music. Newman’s use of popular songs and chants
[1:12:58] Music for the Little Chapel conducted by Newman. Adapt to the needs of the community (especially the poor)
[1:19:25] Origin of the musical genre “oratorio”, St. Philip’s Chapel and other oratorios of the time
[1:23:13] Comparing and contrasting the experience of conscience and the experience of beauty
link
Out-of-this-world beauty: The aesthetics of St. John Henry Newman http://www.gracewing.co.uk/page190.html
Father Guy Nichols
https://www.bfriars.ox.ac.uk/people/rev-fr-guy-nicholls-cong-orat/
Newman’s sermon on “The Danger of Achievement”:
http://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume2/sermon30.html
Image of Newman College Church, Dublin, founded by Newman for the Catholic University of Ireland and designed by John Hungerford Pollen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newman_University_Church#/media/File:Newman_University_Church_Interior,_Dublin,_Ireland_-_Diliff.jpg
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