Newman on women
From Ian Ker
Sir: I think Paul Johnson (And another thing, 1 April) has confused Cardinal Newman with someone else. The view of the Last Judgment he attributes to Newman is indeed ‘alarming’ but is not to be found in his writings. As an Anglican preacher, Newman speculated that Hell might be the state of being in Heaven as an unwilling resident. As a Catholic, Newman defined Hell as being ‘shut up inside’ oneself.
Johnson mischievously wonders if Newman imagined there would be segregation of the sexes in the afterlife, ‘given his views on women’. As an Anglican, Newman thought that Catholic countries, through religious life, offered women independence and opportunities that were denied in Protestant countries where marriage was the only outlet. Given that some of his closest friends were women, it is not surprising to find Newman writing at the end of his life, ‘It is one of the best points of this unhappy age, that it has made so many openings for the activity of women.’ Father Ian Ker Oxford
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