Loss and Gain by John Henry Newman

First published: 1848

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Philosophical and bildungsroman

Time of plot: 1840’s

Locale: Oxford and environs, England

Principal characters

• Charles Reding, an Oxford University student
• William Sheffield, a fellow student and Charles’s close friend
• Bateman, an Oxford tutor and High Church proponent
• Freeborn, a proponent of Evangelicalism
• Vincent, an Oxford scholar
• Carlton, an Anglican pastor
• White, an Oxford student
• Willis, an Oxford student, later a Roman Catholic priest
• Campbell, an Anglican rector

The Story:

Charles Reding, son of an Anglican clergyman from the English midlands, enrolls at Oxford at a time when the university is in the throes of significant religious controversy. A number of the university’s influential professors and religious leaders have been questioning the legitimacy of the Church of England, and a number have already converted to Roman Catholicism. Charles, too, has doubts about aspects of his Anglican faith. He confides some of his concerns to his friend William Sheffield, who is even more skeptical about religious matters.

In his first year, Charles speaks of these matters with tutors and several fellow students. At various breakfasts and dinners, and on long walks with others, he hears cogent reasons to accept the Anglican faith despite his doubts but also gets strong encouragement to abandon the Church of England and convert to another denomination. Older men suggest that the current crisis at Oxford over matters of faith is simply a fad. Some of these scholars, such as Vincent and Bateman, present a rationale for remaining in the Anglican faith, although they have different reasons. Vincent stresses the theological soundness of the Anglican Church. Bateman suggests that the cure for the Anglican Church’s woes lies in restoring many of the Roman Catholic rituals that it had abandoned over the years. By contrast, Freeborn, a proponent of Evangelical doctrine, urges Charles to reject the entire priestly theology on which the Catholic Church is built, insisting that one can be saved only through a direct and personal relationship with God.

Charles sees other young men like his friends White and Willis undergoing some of the same struggles. Both seem tempted to convert to Catholicism, which most in Charles’s circle seem to think the worst possible solution to solving one’s crisis of faith. Charles attends a sermon by a college official who suggests that there is room for all the sects currently at odds over matters of religious doctrine and practice, but Charles sees that factionalism has gripped Oxford. His discovery of Willis at a Dissenters’ chapel is particularly disturbing, given that Oxford students are under instruction not to associate with either Dissenters or Roman Catholics. Shortly thereafter, however, Willis becomes a Roman Catholic and is expelled from the Oxford community.

After a brief respite at home, where questions of faith seem less compelling, Charles returns to Oxford. There his doubts about the efficacy of Anglican doctrine return; he finds especially troubling the contradictions he sees in the Thirty-nine Articles, the summation of the Anglican Church’s doctrine. Once again his conversations with both High Church supporters and Evangelicals leave him confused. Charles’s intellectual trials are suspended when his father dies suddenly, forcing him to assume responsibilities as head of his family. Reflecting on his father’s life, Charles realizes he was a good man whose actions were directed by his faith. Fortified by this example, Charles reasserts his commitment to the Anglican Church and vows to put aside doubts about its legitimacy.

Nearly two years later Charles is back at Oxford completing his studies for a bachelor’s degree, aiming to become a clergyman like his father. Nevertheless, the doubts that plagued him earlier have not gone away. Conversations with William, Vincent, Freeborn, and Bateman only serve to reinforce his belief that the Anglican Church cannot offer him the surety he seeks in matters of faith. Meanwhile, his friend White, once a doubter, has become a staunch advocate for the Church of England. During a vacation from the university, Charles engages in a series of conversations with Carlton, an Oxford graduate who serves as a mentor for him. The two discuss matters such as celibacy, sin and redemption, and other issues on which Anglicans have sharp differences with Catholics. Charles is particularly disturbed by Carlton’s inability to give him clear and compelling reasons for accepting the Thirty-nine Articles. Increasingly, Charles finds himself siding with Catholic doctrine. Additionally, he finds comfort in the unity of belief he sees within the Roman church, founded on and supported by a theology built on the premise that God speaks authoritatively through the pope, the bishops, and the priests.

Charles is shocked when he returns to Oxford for his last term. He discovers that word of his doubts has reached university officials, and he is denied permission to live in his college. He goes back to his family, now living in Devonshire, where he completes his studies. A meeting with Willis convinces him that his friend is happy in his new faith, while Charles still struggles with his doubts. Although Charles is allowed to return to Oxford to sit for his final examinations, he chooses not to accept his bachelor’s degree, because doing so would involve subscribing to the Thirty-nine Articles.

Two years later, despite last-minute attempts by Anglican rector Campbell (Charles’s sister’s fiancé) to dissuade him from leaving the Church of England, Charles decides he will become a Catholic. He plans a trip to London to present himself to the superior of the Passionist Convent in East London, where Willis is living. Word of Charles’s impending action spreads throughout the Anglican clergy and the university. As he travels to the convent he finds his defection from the Anglican Church to be a subject of discussion and even newspaper articles. When he reaches London, Charles stops for the evening at a bookseller just outside the convent, where he is accosted by several people who encourage him to take up other forms of religion, such as Evangelicalism, Swedenborgianism, or Judaism. So opposed to Catholicism are his persuaders that they even urge Charles to establish his own sect rather than convert to Catholicism. He rejects all of the suggestions, however, and the next morning goes to the convent. He is welcomed by the superior and his friend Willis, now Father Aloysius.

Bibliography

Arthur, James, and Guy Nicholls. John Henry Newman. New York: Continuum, 2007. An overview of Newman’s life and work. Includes an intellectual biography, a critical exposition of his work, and discussion of his work’s reception, influence, and continued relevance.

Block, Ed, Jr. “Venture and Response: The Dialogical Strategy of Newman’s Loss and Gain.” In Critical Essays on John Henry Newman, edited by Ed Block, Jr. Victoria, B.C.: University of Victoria Press, 1992. This chapter explains how the series of dialogues in the novel provide structure to the work. Compares the work to a Platonic dialogue in which individuals take up various positions on a subject, in this case religion, to illustrate the ultimate soundness of the protagonist’s decision to convert to Roman Catholicism.

Hill, Alan G. Introduction to Loss and Gain: The Story of a Convert, by John Henry Newman. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Describes the historical context in which Newman composed Loss and Gain and discusses the work’s characterizations and themes.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Originality and Realism in Newman’s Novels.” In Newman After a Hundred Years, edited by Ian Ker and Alan G. Hill. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. This chapter discusses Newman’s accomplishments as a novelist, focusing on his ability to present complex theological debate in the guise of fiction and to vivify Oxford University life in the 1840’s.

Levine, George. “Newman and the Threat of Experience.” In The Boundaries of Fiction: Carlyle, Macaulay, Newman. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968. This chapter elucidates some of the technical virtues and weaknesses of Loss and Gain, particularly Newman’s treatment of personal experience as a guide for moral judgment.

Martin, Michael. “Enlargement of Mind and Religious Judgment in Loss and Gain.” In Personality and Belief: Interdisciplinary Essays on John Henry Newman, edited by Gerard Magill. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1994. This chapter explains how the novel dramatizes the development of a system of thought that Newman felt was essential for modern Catholics, a system Newman describes in greater detail in his The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated (1873).

Rule, Philip C. Coleridge and Newman: The Centrality of Conscience. New York: Fordham University Press, 2004. Compares works by Newman and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in which the two argue that God exists as the moral conscience of humankind.

Strange, Roderick. John Henry Newman: A Mind Alive. London: Darton Longman & Todd, 2008. An introductory overview of Newman’s life and thought designed for students and general readers.

Wolff, Robert Lee. “It Takes Time: The Novels of John Henry Newman.” In Gains and Losses: Novels of Faith and Doubt in Victorian England. New York: Garland, 1977. A chapter offering an autobiographical reading of the novel in which Charles, standing for Newman, undertakes an intellectual and spiritual pilgrimage that leads him to the Catholic Church.