Welcome back to the Word on Fire show.

I'm Dr. Matthew Patrusick, Senior Director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the

Word on Fire show. Thank you, as always, for joining us.

Friends, in honor of St. John Henry Newman's recently being named a doctor of the church,

we're bringing you Bishop Barron's entire Word on Fire Institute lecture series on John Henry Newman.

In this last week, we'll conclude our deep dive into one of Bishop Barron's spiritual and intellectual

heroes. As always, enjoy.

Well, Word on Fire Institute members, thank you hanging in there with me. We've gone through four of John Henry Newman's major works, the Apologia

Provita Sua, the essay on development, the idea of a university, and then finally, grammar of ascent.

I hope you're sensing that I've just been able to touch, you know, highlights of these wonderful books. They're all really worth plowing through. Thanks for

hanging in there with me. For this last lecture, I'm going to look at a final issue,

one that has been very important in our time and where Newman has played a key role in

influencing things, namely the issue of authority, infallibility, and theological

freedom. What's the proper play between these things? So theologians speculate and lay people

wonder about religious truth, and then authority as a role to play, what is the right

relationship between them? And Newman has a lot to say about it, and he's been very influential.

Just two texts I'll look at briefly. The first one is the famous and controversial article

on consulting the faithful in matters of doctrine. Remember it got him in such trouble when he was editor of The Rambler magazine.

And then secondly, the final chapter of the Apologia Provitasua,

when he finally answers Dr. Kingsley.

Remember Charles Kingsley had critiqued him,

and then Newman decided to write the whole opologia to answer him.

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