William George Ward

[Timoteo]

William George Ward. An English writer and convert, eldest son of William Ward, Esq., born in London, 21 March, 1812; died 6 July, 1882. He was educated at Winchester College and at Christ Church, Oxford, matriculated at the university in 1830. Though he confessed to a lack of appreciation of the finer branches of letters and poetry, he took a second class in them as well as in mathematics in 1834. He was a musician of no small attainments, a distinguished mathematician, and a profound philosopher. Indeed, though there is no lack of a straightforward and rugged elegance in his writings, especially in those of later date, his metaphysical bias may be always recognized. In 1833 he was elected to a scholarship at Lincoln College and, in the following year, was admitted to the degree of B.A. and became a fellow of Balliol College, subsequently taking orders. As mathematical tutor at the latter college he found himself in a position in which his strong intellectual influence soon became a power in the university. His keen perception and logical faculty, trained to no small extent by debates in the Oxford Union, gave weight to his opinions, while his growing power in the metaphysical sciences was fitting him for the unique part which he had to play later. The Tractarian Movement began in 1833. At this time Ward was a follower of Dr. Arnold, a latitudinarian in his principles, and thoroughly out of touch with the views of the newer school. But, in 1838, he definitively changed his position, and, from standing aloof with suspicion and almost with contempt, he became a fervent supporter of the movement.

He joined the party then led by Dr. (afterwards Cardinal) Newman; and, when the famous Tract XC appeared in 1844, he joined issue with the army of critics who attacked it, by writing two pamphlets in defense of the principles it advocated. What he did he did thoroughly; and, having taken his place among the Tractarians, he lost no occasion of employing his skill as a dialectician. Not only among men of his own standing, but even in his mathematical classes, which not seldom ended in religious discussions, was the force of his trenchant logic felt. So much so that the authorities took fright, and after the appearance of the famous tract he was deprived of his tutorship. Thenceforward, his attitude was one in which ultimate submission to Rome seemed to be inevitable. When Newman retired to Littlemore, Ward became the most prominent figure among the Tractarians. In his contributions to the British Critic (1841-3) he advocated a policy of gradual assimilation of Catholic doctrine by which the way should be paved for corporate reunion. In 1844 he published his work entitled "The Ideal of a Christian Church considered in comparison with existing practice", in which he further elaborated his views. From this work he acquired the sobriquet of "Ideal" Ward. Shortly after the appearance of this book, on 13 Feb., 1845, he was deprived of his university degrees; and seeing the hopelessness and illogical nature of his position and the impossibility of realizing his ideal in the Establishment, he made submission to the Catholic Church in September, 1845, the month before that in which Newman was received. Ward retired to Old Hall, near Ware (1846); and after holding the chair of moral philosophy there for a year was professor of dogmatic theology n St. Edmund's College between the years 1852-8. In the latter year he published "On Nature and Grace — a Theological Treatise", containing the substance of his theological lectures.

As a contributor to, and later on as editor of, the "Dublin Review", of which he was offered the editorial chair by Cardinal Wiseman in 1863, he was a strenuous defender of papal authority, against Döllinger principally (1860-70), and a subtle critic of the tents of the "Experience School" as exemplified in the teaching of John Stuart Mill and Alexander Bain. After the death of Cardinal Wiseman, Dr. Ward, keenly alive to the circumstances and needs of the restored hierarchy, strongly advocated the appointment of Dr. Manning. He was a prominent member and, indeed, a co-founder with Mr. James Knowles, of the Metaphysical Society (1869); of which, in the following year, he became the president. This society embraced representatives of almost every possible shade of thought and intellectual bias. The names of such members as Huxley, Tyndall, Martineau, Leslie Stephen, Frederic Harrison, Ruskin, John Morley, and Cardinal Manning are a sufficient indication of its heterogeneous nature. In 1878, his health compelled him to resign the important post which he held as editor of the historic "Dublin Review," using his great gifts in defense of the Church and the philosophical bases of the Faith. His contributions to the philosophy of Theism are valuable and solid. In his attitude he may be described as a thorough representative of the demonstrative school: but he lays the greatest stress upon the distinction between explicit and implicit reason. He follows Newman, and especially Kleutgen, in tracing the genesis of certitude: but he is clear in his teaching that all implicit reasoning is capable of being formally and explicitly expressed, that the whole of theistic teaching can be so presented as to claim the assent of all reasoning men.

Catholic Encyclopedia (1913).

[Timoteo]

George W. Ward fu uno strenuo difensore del Papato e dell'infallibilità pontificia, materie sulle quali scrisse molto in particolare nella Dublin Review.

"When Christian preachers made a convert during the Apostolic period, it was involved in the very fact of his conversion, that he submitted himself to a certain corporate Society or Church: a Society which extended indefinitely over the orbis terrarum, but which was wrought into hierarchical unity by the precept of submission to one supreme authority. This Church possessed infallibility, not only in her formal, but also in her practical teaching. Her formal infallible teaching moreover was not confined to the condemnation of tenets directly contradictory to the Faith; on the contrary it extended on occasion to a condemnation of those which issue by necessary consequence in such contradiction. The convert, then, at once abandoned all private judgment, within that wide sphere which appertained to infallibility" (Dublin Review, 1867).

"But a man may imaginably take a much more extreme ground. He may say that the doctrines, taught practically by the Church, inflict a most grave injury on souls, by obscuring those fundamental truths which God has committed to her keeping. Or he may go still further, and say that the former doctrines are absolutely inconsistent with the latter truths. In either case we do not see how such an opinion can deserve a lower censure, than that of heretical. For it directly contradicts the Dogma, so undeviatingly proposed by the Church as revealed by God, concerning her own office and prerogative; the Dogma namely, that she is infallibly protected in every age, as the witness and faithful guardian of the Deposit. According to the lesser error above named, she has ceased to be its faithful guardian; according to the graver, she has ceased even to be its true witness" (Essays on the Church's Doctrinal Authority, 1880).

[Timoteo]

Papa Pio IX indirizzò al Dr. Ward questo Breve il 4 luglio 1870:

PIUS P.P. IX.

Dilecte Fili, Salutem et Apostolicam Benedictionem.— Gratulamur tibi, dilecte fili, quod in filiorum Dei lucem vocatus, idem lumen aliorum mentibus offundere certes, et, in gremium sanctse Matris Ecclesiaa receptus, sanctitatem ejus ostendere et illustrare studeas, supremique ejusdem Pastoris divinam asserere auctoritatem, vindicare praerogativas, jura omnia tueri. Nobilitatem in hoc videmus animi, qui ad veritatem maturo conipulsus, examine eo incensiore ignis flagrat amore, quo majore contentione illam est adeptus; et eo impensiore nisu tenendum acceptum latius porrigere satagit, quo miseriorem, propria doctus experientia censet errantium conditionem. Indefessus autem labor quo pluribus ab hinc annis dona omnia ingenii, sciential, eruditionis, eloquentiaa tibi a Domino largita, confers ad religionis nostraa Sanctissimoa et hujus Apostolicaa Sedis causam piopugnandam fidem, perspicue prsefert inditam menti tuaa et charitatem in tuo corde difiusam, quibus urgeris ad redimendum praateritum tempus, et certamen imprudenter alias pro errore fortasse commissum rependendum per alacrem ac strenuam veritatis defensionem. Quoniam vero merces fidelis paratur seminanti justitiam, et qui ad eain erudiunt multos fulgebunt quasi stelku in perpetuas aaternitates, dum te tuum ita sertum texere gaudemus, te simul hortamur ut instes proposito tuo, et impigre praeliari pergas praalia Domini, quo et plures semper ad viam veritatis adducas et splendidius tibi compares aaternae gloriaa pondus. Necessarias idcirco ad hoc vires tibi ominamur, copiosaque adprecamur gratiae coelestis auxilia et fausta omnia; eorumque auspicem et pateruae nostraa benevolentiae pignus Apostolicam Benedictionem tibi peramanter impertimus.

Datum Romaa, apud Sanctum Petrum, die 4 Julii, anno 1870, Pontificates Nostri anno vicesimo quinto.

PIUS P.P. IX. Dilecto Filio Geoeoio Ward.

[Timoteo]

Qui si può leggere e scaricare in pdf un'importante opera di George W. Ward intitolata "Essays on the Church's Doctrinal Authority" (1880), nella quale l'autore tratta dell'infallibilità della Chiesa e del Papa: Essays on the Church's Doctrinal Authority : William George Ward : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive.

[Guelfo Nero]

Come vedi, caro Timoteo, all'Università Cattolica di Milano il Ward è stato onorato (nel limite dei tempi iniqui), ponendolo su una delle ante della biblioteca "Monsignor Umberto Benigni", per l'esattezza in basso a sinistra per chi guarda. Lieto che tu abbia pensato ad un thread che ne approfondisca l'opera e la ricchezza d'ingegno.

[Luca]

Spero in futuro di potermi occupare di Ward con un saggio

[Luca]

Era grande amico del cardinale Manning.

[Luca]

La promessa si avvererà