When St John Henry Newman met Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, he “could not help liking him.” At first glance, this hardly seems surprising. Newman, one the finest English prose stylists, and Pugin, one of greatest English architects, both had exquisite aesthetic sense. Both loved Christian history. Both converted to the Catholic Church. Yet these two geniuses were bound to drift apart. Their understandings of Catholic identity were profoundly opposed, on lines that still define intra-Catholic debate.
2:56 PM
Pugin or Newman? The debate over tradition that still divides Catholics
The architect, as Newman saw, was too attached to the past. But he understood the needs of his time
Matthew Schmitz
5 min read
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