THE
P RTAL
Advent Supplement
“. . . ardent Christians . . . [who] become
bearers of light, bright torches in a world of
darkness and gloom. Illuminated by the light
of Christ, they have an overwhelming influence
on others, enkindling the fire of Christ in their
hearts . . . A few such highly-endowed men will
rescue the world for centuries to come.” [11]
What Newman here described, and to what his
history of relationships and his correspondence bear
witness, is a method of evangelisation that is, in effect,
a theology of evangelisation by friendship. Indeed, the
Opus Dei priest and Newman scholar, Fr Juan Vélez,
has suggested that so strong is this theme in Newman’s
work that, should he be ever declared a Doctor of the
Church, it should be under the title doctor amictiae –
doctor of friendship.[12]
Page iii
passions, and by means of these indirectly become
operative’.[16] ‘Real assent’ is that assent which, when
we give it to a proposition, changes the way we behave,
the way we believe, the way we live and it is this ‘real
assent’, which is, for Newman, the character of true
‘belief