John Henry Newman’s Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent is a masterpiece of religious epistemology, providing astute descriptive analysis of how the human mind actually works in addressing itself to reality, as well as a novel prescriptive vocabulary for fruitfully considering the assent involved in Christian belief. While it is rightly numbered among the most important of Newman’s writings, the Grammar is a difficult and complex work, combining rigorous theoretical argumentation with deeply personal reflection.
In this Critical Guide to Newman’s Grammar, editors Frederick D. Aquino and Matthew Levering have assembled ten original essays on the work’s historical background and key themes and ideas. Topics discussed include Newman’s distinctions of real and notional apprehension and real and notional assent, his treatment of the role of conscience and dogmatic propositions in religious reasoning, his understanding of faith and rationality, his notions of the illative sense and the role of inference in intellectual inquiry, and his view of the relation between natural and revealed religion. The contributing authors are an international array of noteworthy Newman scholars, including Frederick D. Aquino, Christopher Cimorelli, John F. Crosby, Logan Paul Gage, Stephen Grimm, Thomas S. Hibbs, Lorraine Keller, Andrew Meszaros, Francesca Aran Murphy, Cyril O’Regan, and Geertjan Zuijdwegt. This collection of essays presents the riches of the Grammar in conversation with contemporary philosophical and theological concerns, guiding readers into its central topics while also advancing its scholarly reception.
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Frederick D. Aquino is Professor of Systematic Theology at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. His research interests are religious epistemology, John Henry Newman, Maximus the Confessor, and philosophy of religion. His publications include Communities of Informed Judgment (CUA Press, 2004), An Integrative Habit of Mind (NIU, 2012), Receptions of Newman (with Benjamin J. King, Oxford, 2015), The Oxford Handbook of John Henry Newman (with Benjamin J. King, Oxford, 2017), The Oxford Handbook of the Epistemology of Theology (with William J. Abraham, Oxford, 2018), and Perceiving Things Divine: Towards a Constructive Account of Spiritual Perception (with Paul Gavrilyuk, Oxford, 2022).
Matthew Levering holds the James N. Jr. and Mary D. Perry Chair of Theology at Mundelein Seminary. He is the author or co-author of over thirty-five books, including Newman on Doctrinal Corruption (Word on Fire Academic, 2022) and Proofs of God: Classical Arguments from Tertullian to Barth (Baker Academic, 2016). His many co-edited books include most recently John Henry Newman and Joseph Ratzinger: A Theological Encounter (with Emery de Gaál, CUA Press, 2025). He is the co-editor of two theological quarterlies, Nova et Vetera and the International Journal of Systematic Theology; and he is the senior editor of The New Ressourcement. He is the past president of the Academy of Catholic Theology.
