Loss and Gain

Loss and Gain
	Philosophical novel, Campus novel
Publisher	Burns & Oates
Publication date	1848
Publication place	England

Loss and Gain is a

Oxford University in the mid-Victorian era and the conversion of a young student to Roman Catholicism. The novel went through nine editions during Newman's lifetime,^[1] and thirteen printings.^[2] It was the first work Newman published after his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1845.^[3]

Plot introduction

Loss and Gain describes the religious climate of

Protestant doctrines, renouncing the development of doctrine through tradition and instead emphasising private interpretation of scripture. Against these and other liberal religious factions, the Oxford Movement, of which Newman was a leading member, advocated a Catholic interpretation of the Church of England, claiming that the Church and its traditions were authoritative. Amongst all of these thinkers, however, the Roman Catholic Church was despised as having abdicated its claim to doctrinal authority by introducing superstition into its practice. Accordingly, when Newman converted to Roman Catholicism in 1845, he met with vehement criticism. In Loss and Gain, Newman's first publication after his conversion, he expressed the intellectual and emotional development that led him to Roman Catholicism and the response his conversion elicited. Newman was in his 40s and was an esteemed theologian at the time of his conversion, but in the novel he displaces his experience onto Charles Reding, a young student entering Oxford and experiencing its intellectual climate for the first time. Although Charles attempts to follow a conventional path and avoid being influenced by "parties" (i.e. cliques advocating trendy sectarian views), he soon discovers that he is inclined towards Roman Catholicism. He struggles against this inclination but eventually decides he must convert

, a decision that causes great consternation to his family and friends but leads to personal fulfilment.

Plot summary

Charles Reding arrives at

Passionists

Convent, where he joins the Roman Catholic Church.

Characters

Charles Reding – A young Oxford student inclined to submit to tradition and the authority of the Church of England. He comes to feel, in spite of himself, that the Roman Church is the true Church. He is also inclined towards celibacy. Although he is much younger than Newman himself was when he converted, Reding is commonly seen as an autobiographical figure.^[8] Newman did, though, warn readers that the novel was not autobiographical and that no identification of characters should be made.^[9]
Reverend Reding – Charles' father, a country clergyman who follows an intellectually conservative path.
Mary – Reding's sister, who despite her love for her brother, is intolerant of his religious doubts and his conversion.
William Sheffield – A friend of Reding, described as "viewy" in that he participates in religious fads at Oxford, but is ultimately uncommitted to any particular religious view.
Carlton – Tutor of both Reding and Sheffield over a vacation period, and a close friend of Charles. Charles appreciates his deep thoughtfulness over serious issues, and Carlton respects Charles, but cannot understand his conversion.
Willis – An Oxford student who converts to Roman Catholicism, and later helps convince Reding to convert.
Bateman – An Oxford student inclined towards high church Anglican Catholicism, particularly because of its architecture and vestments. He unsuccessfully attempts to reconvert Willis.
Mr. Malcolm – A friend of Rev. Reding, who condemns Charles for his conversion.
Jennings – Vice-principal at Oxford; he suspects Reding of sympathising with Catholicism and therefore sends him away from Oxford.
Campbell – An Anglican friend of Reding, who sympathises with Reding, although he does not support his conversion. He marries Mary.
Mr. Upton – Lecturer on the Thirty-nine Articles. He reports Reding's questions as suspicious.
Mr. Vincent – A junior Tutor to whom Reding looks for guidance. However, he advises Reding to avoid religious factions instead of guiding him towards any positive beliefs.
Freeborn – An Evangelical who hosts a religious conversation over tea.

Analysis and major themes

Ed Block has described Loss and Gain as a

Catholicism, the Thirty-nine Articles, the Athanasian Creed, and apostasy. Each character has a personal as well as an intellectual relationship with Charles, and possesses at best a partial truth from which Charles draws his own conclusions.^[15] The novel has also been considered a satire because of its accounts of the inconsistencies adopted by Anglican thinkers^[16]

and of the trendy religious beliefs that urge themselves on Charles in London.

Origins

Newman wrote Loss and Gain as a response to From Oxford to Rome: And how it fared with some who lately made the journey, a novel by Miss Elizabeth Harris, originally published anonymously. Harris had converted to Roman Catholicism along with a number of former Oxford Movement leaders, but had become disillusioned and reconverted to Anglicanism. Her novel was intended to deter potential converts to Roman Catholicism, and suggested that Newman and other converts were considering returning to the Church of England.^[17]

Publication and reception

The novel went through nine editions in Britain during Newman's lifetime, and two editions each in America, France, and Italy during the 1850s. A German translation is recorded in 1861.^[1] The book was serialized in the Bengal Catholic Register in 1850, and a Dutch edition was published in 1882.^[18]

The first reviewers of Loss and Gain tended to judge it according to its theological principles rather than its literary merits, and accordingly were divided along denominational lines.^[7]
^[19] Mrs. Humphry Ward referred to Loss and Gain, along with Sartor Resartus, The Nemesis of Faith, Alton Locke, and Marius the Epicurean, as one of the works "to which the future student of the nineteenth century will have to look for what is deepest, most intimate, and most real in its personal experience.".^[20]

Notes

^ ^a ^b Hill, Intro, p. xx
^ Lipscombe, Intro., p. xix
^ Hill, Intro, p. x; Lipscombe, Intro., p. xvii.
^ The novel lacks specific dates but the text contains clues setting this during Newman's own time of study at Oxford, rather than the time of his conversion. See Part III Chapter 4, referencing the Catholic Relief Bill, adopted in 1829 as the Catholic Relief Act. The same chapter describes the main character, Charles Reding, as having started at Oxford four to five years previously. Thus the novel's beginning can be set at approximately 1823-24.
^ Newman, p. 16
^ Ker, p. 10
^ ^a ^b Hill, "Originality", p. 35
^ Hill, Intro, p. xiv
^ Lipscombe, Intro. p. xxi
^ ^a ^b Block, p. 24
^ Hill, Intro, p. xiii
^ Hill, "Originality", p. 27
^ Hill, "Originality", pp 27–33
^ Hill, Intro, p. xvii
^ Block, p. 32
^ Ker, p. 15
^ Crawford, p. 415
^ "Lipscombe, Intro., p. xix
^ Lipscombe,Intro., p. xix-xx
^ Qtd. in Hill, Intro, p. vii