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The Heart of Newman
Brand new gift quality trade paperback
- GenresReligionPhilosophyPrayer
405 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1930
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About the author
John Henry Newman
2,022 books286 followersSaint John Henry Cardinal Newman was an important figure in the religious history of England in the 19th century. He was known nationally by the mid-1830s.
Originally an evangelical Oxford University academic and priest in the Church of England, Newman then became drawn to the high-church tradition of Anglicanism. He became known as a leader of, and an able polemicist for, the Oxford Movement, an influential and controversial grouping of Anglicans who wished to return to the Church of England many Catholic beliefs and liturgical rituals from before the English Reformation. In this the movement had some success. However, in 1845 Newman, joined by some but not all of his followers, left the Church of England and his teaching post at Oxford University and was received into the Catholic Church. He was quickly ordained as a priest and continued as an influential religious leader, based in Birmingham. In 1879, he was created a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in recognition of his services to the cause of the Catholic Church in England. He was instrumental in the founding of the Catholic University of Ireland, which evolved into University College Dublin, today the largest university in Ireland.
Newman was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on 19 September 2010 during his visit to the United Kingdom. He was then canonised by Pope Francis on 13 October 2019.
Newman was also a literary figure of note: his major writings including the Tracts for the Times (1833–1841), his autobiography Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1865–66), the Grammar of Assent (1870), and the poem The Dream of Gerontius (1865),[6] which was set to music in 1900 by Edward Elgar. He wrote the popular hymns "Lead, Kindly Light" and "Praise to the Holiest in the Height" (taken from Gerontius).
Originally an evangelical Oxford University academic and priest in the Church of England, Newman then became drawn to the high-church tradition of Anglicanism. He became known as a leader of, and an able polemicist for, the Oxford Movement, an influential and controversial grouping of Anglicans who wished to return to the Church of England many Catholic beliefs and liturgical rituals from before the English Reformation. In this the movement had some success. However, in 1845 Newman, joined by some but not all of his followers, left the Church of England and his teaching post at Oxford University and was received into the Catholic Church. He was quickly ordained as a priest and continued as an influential religious leader, based in Birmingham. In 1879, he was created a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in recognition of his services to the cause of the Catholic Church in England. He was instrumental in the founding of the Catholic University of Ireland, which evolved into University College Dublin, today the largest university in Ireland.
Newman was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on 19 September 2010 during his visit to the United Kingdom. He was then canonised by Pope Francis on 13 October 2019.
Newman was also a literary figure of note: his major writings including the Tracts for the Times (1833–1841), his autobiography Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1865–66), the Grammar of Assent (1870), and the poem The Dream of Gerontius (1865),[6] which was set to music in 1900 by Edward Elgar. He wrote the popular hymns "Lead, Kindly Light" and "Praise to the Holiest in the Height" (taken from Gerontius).
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 12, 2008
Read from 27 Mar '99 to 2 Jun '00. This is a collection of extracts from Newman's writings. I'd like (someday) to read his books in full, but decided to start with this. The selections come from his books, sermons and letters and are anywhere from a paragraph to several pages in length. I read this a section at a time day-by-day as a part of my daily prayer time. Most highly recommended!
June 1, 2022
This anthology of longer quotes from the writings of John Henry Cardinal Newman covers the wide swath of his career, including selections from sermons and more formal writings. The writings are grouped in thematic sets, covering topics like faith, God and His various relations to us, our relationship to this fallen world and to the next world. Most selections are only a page or two and all contain some nice insights or ideas.
Newman's writing style is very down-to-earth. He communicates ideas, even difficult ones, with a clarity and simplicity that does not have the Victorian stuffiness you'd expect from a British theologian from the mid- to late-1800s. His work is very easy to read and still has a richness that calls the reader to a deeper understanding of the faith. The individual selections are short enough to make this a good daily devotional (though that's not the way it is written), letting the reader spend some quality time with a great thinker and a holy Christian.
Highly recommended.
Sample Text:
The real love of man must depend on practice, and therefore, must begin by exercising itself on our friends around us, otherwise it will have no existence. By trying to love our relations and friends, by submitting to their wishes, though contrary to our own, by bearing with the their infirmities, by overcoming their occasional waywardness by kindness, by dwelling on their excellences, and trying to copy them, thus it is that we form in our hearts that root of charity, which, though small at first, may, like the mustard seed, at last even overshadow the earth. [p. 254]
Newman's writing style is very down-to-earth. He communicates ideas, even difficult ones, with a clarity and simplicity that does not have the Victorian stuffiness you'd expect from a British theologian from the mid- to late-1800s. His work is very easy to read and still has a richness that calls the reader to a deeper understanding of the faith. The individual selections are short enough to make this a good daily devotional (though that's not the way it is written), letting the reader spend some quality time with a great thinker and a holy Christian.
Highly recommended.
Sample Text:
The real love of man must depend on practice, and therefore, must begin by exercising itself on our friends around us, otherwise it will have no existence. By trying to love our relations and friends, by submitting to their wishes, though contrary to our own, by bearing with the their infirmities, by overcoming their occasional waywardness by kindness, by dwelling on their excellences, and trying to copy them, thus it is that we form in our hearts that root of charity, which, though small at first, may, like the mustard seed, at last even overshadow the earth. [p. 254]
June 3, 2024
Read on pilgrimage. Genius
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews