maturation” of some truth on a large mental field. The process is a development only
if “the assemblage of aspects, which constitute its ultimate shape,” really belongs to
the idea from which it began (Dev, 38).
Five Kinds of Development
Newman delineates five kinds of development in ideas: political, logical, historical, ethical, and metaphysical (Dev,
54). The Episcopate, for example, would
be an instance of political development;
the doctrine of the Mother of God of
logical development; the determination
of the date of our Lord’s birth historical
development; the holy Eucharist moral or
ethical development; and the Athanasian
Creed metaphysical development. All five
kinds taken together are ways in which
the Catholic idea, or th