An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent

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Belief and experience: these realities are necessary for the continuation of life. In an age deeply scored by empiricism, materialism, and skepticism—as were the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—it is belief which comes under close scrutiny; under the harsh light of new scientific standards and methods, belief—the assent to mystery—is interrogated, its legitimacy as a rational exercise contested, its standing as a faculty of human nature dismissed.

Widely considered Newman’s most important work and a pivotal text in the philosophy of faith, An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent is a challenging and technically elaborate apologia for belief—the means by which men and women come to believe in God, to freely assent to propositions which they do not or cannot fully understand and to propositions for which there is not absolute empirical proof. In the words of Martin Cyril D’Arcy, S.J., A Grammar of Assent “remains the masterpiece which no one can safely neglect” on the subject of belief and intellectual assent.

Can I believe as if I saw? … How can I assent as if I saw, unless I have seen? But no one in this life can see God. Yet I conceive a real assent is possible, and I proceed to show how. (Saint John Henry Newman)

First published in 1870, the fruit of twenty years’ labor, and re-issued here with the 1955 Introduction by renowned French Catholic philosopher Étienne Gilson, An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent is a text of profound significance and singular import for those seeking to plumb the mysterious depths of man’s rational power to believe.

John Henry Newman (1801–1890) had a notable career at Oxford University and was an Anglican priest before becoming a Roman Catholic in 1845 and a Catholic priest in 1847. A prolific author and preacher, he also founded Oratory houses and served as rector of the Catholic University of Ireland. In 2019, he was canonized a saint of the Catholic Church.

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