Folia Theologica 1. (1990)

Péter Erdő: The Theological foundations of Canon Law according to the works of John Henry Newman

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P. ERDŐ

merits of Martyrs and Saints, their invocation and cultus. From the Sacramental principle come the Sacraments properly so called; the unity of the Church, and the Holy See as its type and centre; the authority of Councils; ...".2 Given that the sacramental principle will have a special importance in the estimation of the juridical nature of the Church, one can say that the ultimate foundation of Canon Law, according to Newman’s understanding of it, is the very mystery of the Incarnation.

2. Sacramentality

As we have seen above, Newman deduces from the Incarnation firstly the general principle of sacramentality, and, from this are derived the sacraments in the strict sense. But from this principle also arises the unity of the Church with those institutional forms that lead it and effect it. Moreover, as Yves Congar rightly observes, the sacramental principle, according to our author, is one of unity between the invisible and the visible in the Church.3 This visibility and sacramentality of the Church plays a key role in the development of Newman’s personal spirituality. In fact, already in his youth he had arrived at the conclusion that the transmission of Christian doctrine consists not in the popularization of the discoveries of exigetical science, but in contacts with other Christians, from generation to generation. The Church is necessary for the transmission of the true faith; without which the mere private study of Scripture leds to heresy.4 In the following years it became clear to him that in the economy of salvation, the bonds between Christians take on an efficacious function for salvation itself. The community of the faithful willed by God, as well as in teaching, manifests itself in rites and in the hierarchy. In all this it transmits the Holy Spirit to us. The spiritual efficacy of the rites, and of the institutional activity, is connected with the social dimension of the

2 Dev 93-94.

3. CONGAR, Y., Die Lehre von der Kirche. Vom Abendländischen Schisma bis Gegenwart (Handbuch der Dogmengeschichte III, 3 d), Freiburg-Basel-Wien 1971,96.

4. Cf. The Arians of the fourth Century. London 1901, 50-515.