About the Journal

    Intellectus ante Fidem is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, to be published bi-annually under the auspices of the Francis William Newman Society by the Philosophy Documentation Center, and to be made available to institutional and individual subscribers through the scholarly database Poesis. We are still accepting submissions for the inaugural issue, now scheduled for Spring 2010.
 
    Intellectus ante Fidem has two independent, although sometimes related, concerns and missions:
 
    First, as the title suggests, this journal is devoted primarily to a philosophical, non-dogmatic, approach to the study of religion. From a developmental perspective, faith precedes understanding, yet—in the natural progression of human knowledge—“the province of Faith, and indeed of Religion, is necessarily more and more circumscribed.”[1] A mind unfettered by dogmatic presuppositions is left free to embrace a faith that is implied by, congenial to, or (at least) permitted by its understanding, and as knowledge increases, it is natural for the contents and confidence of faith to change along with its dimensions. It is not the purpose of this journal to contest the ecclesiastical and sectarian function that dogma exercises in preserving the boundaries that distinguish communities of worship; nor is it the purpose of this journal to undermine those boundaries. Rather, the existence of this journal simply recognizes that the disintegration of dogma and the secularization of society have left untouched—indeed, have brought into sharper relief—the peculiarly human yearning for religious or spiritual truth and a faith compatible with truth. Whereas advances in teleological theory have recently persuaded one prominent former atheist to admit superior cogency in the arguments for theism,[2] another atheist assures us that there is nothing inherently incompatible between atheism and spirituality.[3] One of the purposes of this journal is to publish some of the best arguments being written, from any perspective, that would have an appeal to unfettered minds in pursuit of truth as it concerns religion.
 
    Second, this journal aims to promote Francis William Newman studies and to advance scholarly knowledge and assessment of his work. As Frederic Harrison—writing at the end of the nineteenth century—observed, “The main work of Francis Newman has been to take a leading part in the evolution of religious thought out of that superstitious Bibliolatry in which it was sunk in the first half of this century, in freeing so many an earnest spirit from the thraldom of a hide-bound orthodoxy of mechanical creed and ignorant Pharisaism.”[4] Explications and critical analyses of his thought on religion may satisfy both of the concerns of the journal; however, the journal welcomes scholarly articles regarding all facets of Professor Newman’s work—whether religious, philosophical, historical, political, literary, philological, mathematical, or dietary. As foundational principles or underlying concerns are often demonstrated to establish some organic unity between the intellectual labors of a single mind that may, at first sight, appear disparate, one of the objects of the journal is to publish original research that furthers our understanding of the complete mind of F. W. Newman, along with its relation to the mind of his age and ours.

   ¹ F. W. Newman, “Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation,” in The Works of Francis William Newman on Religion: A Critical Edition, ed. Tod E. Jones. 10 vols. The Philosophy Documentation Center, 2009. 10: 21-47, 24.
   ² Antony Flew, There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. New York: HarperOne, 2007.
   ³ Andre Comte-Sponville, The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality. Trans. Nancy Huston. New York: Viking, 2007. The claim itself, however, is much older; see, e.g., “Theism,” The Westminster Review 104 (October 1875): 217-26 (provided in the Francis William Newman Society Research Library).
   ⁴ Frederick Harrison, “Francis W. Newman,” The Positivist Review 5 (November 1897): 189-93, 190. “Bibliolatry”—as the term was understood and used by Newman—signifies the conscious submission of the intellect, or prostration of the moral and spiritual sensibilities, to the dictation of a text that, were it not for the presumption of sacredness that shields it from critical thought, would be recognized as an inferior guide.