This volume considers the impact of Newman's Essay on Development (1845) on Roman Catholicism of the time immediately after his conversion.
This book is best suited for the graduate classroom and beyond, though the advanced undergraduate with adequate knowledge of Newman's theory of doctrinal development and its reception history would find this work useful. Shea's work is notably a reappraisal of a long-held narrative of the reception of Newman's Essay on Development, which is one of the most influential theology works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Shea's work, most importantly, demonstrates that Newman's theory of doctrinal development gained traction much earlier than the Second Vatican Council. Because of this, Newman scholars and historical theologians interested in nineteenth-century European reception history should be acquainted with Shea's thesis.