starting point, also in modern theology, has not yet been fully evaluated. Fruitful possi- bilities awaiting development are still hidden in it.


At this point, I would only like to refer again to the biographical background of this concept. It is known how Newman’s insight into the ideas of development influenced his way to Catholicism. But it is not just a matter of an unfolding of ideas. In the concept of devel- opment, Newman’s own life plays a role. That seems to become visible to me in his well- known words: “… to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often”. Throughout his entire life, Newman was a person converting, a person being trans- formed, and thus he always remained and became ever more himself.


garden at Cassiciacum, he understood con- version according to the system of the revered master, Plotin, and the Neo-Platonic philoso- phers. He thought that his past sinful life would now be definitively cast off; from now on the convert would be someone wholly new and different, and his further journey would be a steady climb to the ever-purer heights of closeness to God. It was something like that which Gregory


H


of Nyssa described in his Ascent of Moses: “Just as bodies, after having received the first push downwards, fall effortlessly into the depths with ever greater speed, so, on the contrary, the soul which has loosed itself from earthly passion rises up in a rapid upward movement … constantly overcoming itself in a steady upward flight.” Augustine’s actual experience was a differ- ent one. He had to learn that being a Christian is always a difficult journey with all its heights and depths. The image of ascensus is exchanged for that


of iter, whose tiring weight is lightened and borne up by moments of light which we may receive now and then. Conversion is the iter – the roadway of a whole lifetime. And faith is always “development”, and precisely in this manner it is the maturation of the soul to truth, to God, who is more intimate to us than we are to ourselves. In the idea of “development”, Newman had


written his own experience of a never finished conversion and interpreted for us, not only the way of Christian doctrine, but that of the Christian life. The characteristic of the great Doctor of the


Church, it seems to me, is that he teaches not only through his thought and speech but also by his life, because within him, thought and life are interpenetrated and defined. If this is so, then Newman belongs to the great teachers of the Church, because he both touches our hearts and enlightens our thinking.


■This was a presentation made in Rome on 28 April 1990 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to mark the first centenary of the death of Cardinal Newman.


R28786 Registered charity no. 285776 Illustration: Andy Smith


ere the figure of St Augustine comes to my mind, with whom Newman was so associated. When Augustine was converted in the


18 September 2010 | THE TABLET | 17


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