Imagination and Belief- Newman’s Contribution to the New Evangelization

• Authors: Thomas Szydlik
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

PL

As the Church follows the call of John Paul II for a New Evangelization, she must consider how the individual person actually comes to belief. Bl. John Henry Newman, soon to be canonized, addressed this question in An Essay in Aid of A Grammar of Assent. According to Newman, religious belief is not just a logical acceptance of intellectual propositions. It is a commitment of the whole person to God, according to the image of God formed in the person’s imagination. (The imagination is that faculty possessed by every human person, which coordinates real life experiences and allows the person to comprehend the real world around him).It is by intentionally employing the imagination, rather than demonstrative logic, that the human person arrives at a belief that is well-grounded, neither cold nor fanatical. Accordingly, our evangelical activity, while never neglecting the truth of the Gospel, should seek to engage the senses and feelings of the human ­person and not merely the intellect.

Keywords

EN

Newman; Belief; Imagination; New Evangelization

PL

Newman; Belief; Imagination; New Evangelization

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Papieski Jana Pawła II w Krakowie
• Journal: The Person and the Challenges. The Journal of Theology, Education, Canon Law and Social Studies Inspired by Pope John Paul II
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 1

Dates

published

2019

online

2019-08-31

Contributors

author

Thomas Szydlik

Identifiers

DOI

10.15633/pch.3368