Book Description
Once a well-known Anglican clergyman, Newman left his living in the 1840's, recanted his former criticism of the Roman Catholic Church and entered the priesthood. Framing his Apologia in reply to a grave and gratuitous slander made by Charles Kingsley, Newman produced one of the masterpieces of spiritual writing: honest, passionate, scrupulous and moving, this work is also a highly accomplished prose paradigm.
Customer Reviews:
Read slowly.......2007-03-21
Cardinal Newman's journey from Anglicanism to the Roman Catholic Church cannot be told better than in his own words. Yet, in his own words, one must read slowly to get the style firmly in mind. Once done, the light of his words shines poetically and clearly. He is a man of great ability and devotion and worthy of hearing no matter how one feels about Anglicanism or Catholicism. A very economical value, too, as books go for the value of his words.
Cardinal Newman's classic defense of himself and his faith.......2006-11-11
This is an excellent defense of why one prominent Anglican intellectual and clergyman became a Catholic. Cardinal Newman gives a detailed account of his life through excerpting letters and other writings of his journey from the High-church Anglican Tractarian movement at Oxford, to a withdrawal from public life at a quiet parsonage, to final reception into the Catholic Church. Cardinal Newman gives his whole thought process and method of discovery that the fullness of the faith was only in the Catholic Church and why his longed for Via Media of Anglicanism existed only in his head. While written in the dry English style of the day, it is still an enjoyable read and a classic among conversion stories and apologetics.
Beautifully Written.......2005-10-10
It is interesting to note that John Henry Cardinal Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua is as well regarded for its literary value
as for its theological depth. Perhaps the greatest modern figure in Roman Catholic/Anglican relations, this is Cardinal Newman's personal account of his conversion to Catholicism.
A moving, beautifully written work.
Apologize For Nothing; Explain Everything.......2004-06-03
"Apologia Pro Vita Sua" is John Henry Cardinal Newman's explanation of his religious views and actions from 1833 to the time of his writing in 1864. In order to understand this work, it must be understood that "Apologia" is translated more precisely as an explanation, rather than as an apology. Newman apologizes for nothing. He explains everything.
John Henry Cardinal Newman was a major British religious figure of the Nineteenth Century. A prominent Anglican priest, leader of the Oxford Movement and proponent of the "Via Media", Newman's conversion to Catholicism created many hard feelings among his Anglican friends.
This book was written as an answer to specific charges brought against him by particular people at various times. Much of the book involves references to actions and words of those with whom he collaborated, corresponded or met. At times it is difficult to maintain interest in charge-counter charges which make up much of the book. Although some of the charge-counter charges seem of little import today, I cannot say that the book ever becomes boring.
In some sections, particularly in his footnotes, Newman explains theological issues, although that is not the main thrust of the work.
This book gave me a deeper understanding of Newman individually and of the religious environment in England during his time than I had had previously. This book reveals the Anglican Church as a "Big Tent", so to speak, including a "High Church" which valued hierarchy and formal liturgy and a "Low Church" which more resembled the Methodist and other Protestant churches.
Newman viewed the Anglican Church as a branch of Catholicism in England. He was troubled by various steps taken by the Anglican Church, particularly the establishment of a Bishop in Jerusalem. Newman's position was that there were virtually no Anglicans in Jerusalem and that the plan for the bishop to have authority over Protestants, a group with which Newman did not identify, was unjustified. If the Anglican Church was a branch of the Catholic Church in England, what business did it have establishing a bishop in Jerusalem, a non-British territory, as a cooperative venture with German Protestants? He regarded this attempt to use the Anglican Church to promote British prestige and national interests as another unjustified interference of politics in ecclesiastical matters.
I had always thought that Newman's conversion and rise in the Catholic hierarchy were unusual. In this book I learned that Newman was one of several Anglican clergymen who converted to Catholicism around his time, including another who became a Cardinal. The Catholic hierarchy was restored in England during Newman's day so his rapid rise may not have been as surprising as it would have been under more stable circumstances.
One might think that Newman's conversion from the Church of England to the Church of Rome and his subsequent treatment by some Englishmen may have dampened his patriotic enthusiasm. Nothing could be further from the truth. Newman's status as a proud Englishman remains obvious throughout this book.
In summation, this book is readable, interesting and gives the reader a taste of history and theology. I recommend it for anyone interested in Newman in particular and the history of the Church in general.
Apologize For Nothing; Explain Everything.......2004-06-03
"Apologia Pro Vita Sua" is John Henry Cardinal Newman's explanation of his religious views and actions from 1833 to the time of his writing in 1864. In order to understand this work, it must be understood that "Apologia" is translated more precisely as an explanation, rather than as an apology. Newman apologizes for nothing. He explains everything.
John Henry Cardinal Newman was a major British religious figure of the Nineteenth Century. A prominent Anglican priest, leader of the Oxford Movement and proponent of the "Via Media", Newman's conversion to Catholicism created many hard feelings among his Anglican friends.
This book was written as an answer to specific charges brought against him by particular people at various times. Much of the book involves references to actions and words of those with whom he collaborated, corresponded or met. At times it is difficult to maintain interest in charge-counter charges which make up much of the book. Although some of the charge-counter charges seem of little import today, I cannot say that the book ever becomes boring.
In some sections, particularly in his footnotes, Newman explains theological issues, although that is not the main thrust of the work.
This book gave me a deeper understanding of Newman individually and of the religious environment in England during his time than I had had previously. This book reveals the Anglican Church as a "Big Tent", so to speak, including a "High Church" which valued hierarchy and formal liturgy and a "Low Church" which more resembled the Methodist and other Protestant churches.
Newman viewed the Anglican Church as a branch of Catholicism in England. He was troubled by various steps taken by the Anglican Church, particularly the establishment of a Bishop in Jerusalem. Newman's position was that there were virtually no Anglicans in Jerusalem and that the plan for the bishop to have authority over Protestants, a group with which Newman did not identify, was unjustified. If the Anglican Church was a branch of the Catholic Church in England, what business did it have establishing a bishop in Jerusalem, a non-British territory, as a cooperative venture with German Protestants? He regarded this attempt to use the Anglican Church to promote British prestige and national interests as another unjustified interference of politics in ecclesiastical matters.
I had always thought that Newman's conversion and rise in the Catholic hierarchy were unusual. In this book I learned that Newman was one of several Anglican clergymen who converted to Catholicism around his time, including another who became a Cardinal. The Catholic hierarchy was restored in England during Newman's day so his rapid rise may not have been as surprising as it would have been under more stable circumstances.
One might think that Newman's conversion from the Church of England to the Church of Rome and his subsequent treatment by some Englishmen may have dampened his patriotic enthusiasm. Nothing could be further from the truth. Newman's status as a proud Englishman remains obvious throughout this book.
In summation, this book is readable, interesting and gives the reader a taste of history and theology. I recommend it for anyone interested in Newman in particular and the history of the Church in general.
Book Description
The Idea of a University is an eloquent defense of a liberal education which is perhaps the most timeless of all [Newman's] books and certainly the one most intellectually accessible to readers of every religious faith and of none . . . Only one who has read The Idea of a University in its entirety, especially the nine discourses, can hope to understand why its reputation is so high." —from the Introduction by Martin J. Svaglic
Customer Reviews:
Great endnotes and how to use them........2007-05-22
This edition of Newman's classic is greatly enhanced by copious endnotes pertaining to the first half, the nine discourses--if you know that one pertains to what you are reading and can find it. The notes are located just before the index and coded as x.y, where x is the page number and y is the line number. For each note, I went to the corresponding page, counted the lines, and wrote the line number by the line. Then, when I was reading, I knew there was a pertinent endnote and could easily find it (especially with a bookmark amongst the notes).
Simply Amazing.......2004-08-29
If you are looking for a book that will change your life .. This is the one!!!!!
What is real education?
What is perfection?
Blows the theories of education to pieces.. Defines what makes a human ... a Human!!... A must read!
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- The Titans of the new English Catholic Church
- A wonderful read!
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The Convert Cardinals: John Henry Newman and Henry Edward Manning
David Newsome
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Customer Reviews:
The Titans of the new English Catholic Church.......2003-09-04
The history of Catholicism in nineteenth-century England is not only that of the resurrection of a Church, but of an absolute explosion of spiritual and intellectual energy, running thorugh many of the greatest names of a very fertile century - the historian Lingard, the architect Pugin, the poet Gerald Manley Hopkins, the musician Elgar, running up to the towering genius of Chesterton - as though the Catholicity of England, long suppressed and denied, wished to assert itself at one go with one monumental manifestation of spiritual power. (Not, indeed, that even the most savage penal laws had prevented English Catholicism from being fertile even in the worst days; after all, Shakespeare, Dryden and Pope were all Catholics.) But at the centre of the whole burst of energy and briliance stood four extraordinary ecclesiastics: Nicholas Wiseman, William B. Ullathorne, and the two subjects of this book, John Henry Newman - the greatest Victorian writer after Dickens - and Henry Edward Manning. This is a superior piece of writing on a subject of extraordinary and absorbing interest: the relationship between two of the four giant re-founders of Catholicism in England. Indeed, it does not even restrict itself to them, since it also has plenty to say about Wiseman (to whom Newsome is perhaps more sympathetic that I would be) and Ullathorne.
Newsome's book demands a certain amount of basic knowledge of his protagonists, especially of Newman, but I do not think this need put anyone off. The book really tells its own story without need of much outside reference; its own story being the extraordinary story of these two Oxford graduates, both singled out from a very early age for certain eminence in the Anglican Church, both renouncing brilliant prospects in the Established Church for the dubious and obscure future of a convert, both supported by Wiseman and advanced against all expectations by successive Popes, both, finally - and in spite of all odds - fulfilling their blazing early promise in a completely unexpected environment. It is well known that these two men did not get along, and posterity has been kindly to Newman - thanks not only to his literary genius but also to the comparatively liberal tinge of his ideas - and unkind to Manning, who in his lifetime had been the most beloved and respected of all English Catholic prelates, and whose funeral was attended by crowds not seen in London since the State funeral of the Duke of Wellington. Rather like Pius XII with the ignoble Hochuth and Cornwell, Manning fell foul of a shameful hatchet job compiled by that odious little rat Lytton Strachey IN THE FULL KNOWLEDGE THAT HE WAS LYING, following, as Newsome shows, sources that were lying. Newsome manages to restore Manning's reputation without really lowering that of Newman, and in fact delivers a beautiful and very perceptive chapter about the latter's literary and philosophical genius. This is a very good work of history: four stars for style and approach, and an extra one for choosing a really important subject and treating it admirably.
A wonderful read!.......2003-07-06
A superb double biography of John Henry Newman and Henry Edward Manning. Manning has had a bad press. The book successfully rehabilitates him, without down-grading or denigrating Newman.
Customer Reviews:
Newman's Anglican Sermons.......2007-01-13
The great Oxford historian Owen Chadwick wrote in his short biography of Newman that the Parochial and Plain Sermons form as a whole one of the great works of moral theology ever achieved by an English-speaking Christian. I am not qualified to assess Professor Chadwick's opinion, but I can say that I have personally found these sermons to be pure gold and intensely useful, even today, to one working in parish and scholastic ministry. This collection is a wonderful resource! The sermons provide spiritual wisdom, learning, sound Biblical scholarship, and a penetrating knowledge of historical processes in relation to the Faith. Moreover, these sermons are quintessentially Anglican -- at least in the classical or orthodox sense of this designation. I told an Evangelical friend a few months ago, when he asked for a good sermon source, that I believe Newman's P&P Sermons are the most genuinely Evangelical sermon collection I know of. And I think it goes without saying that the Sermons are also deeply Catholic in the richest, most robust (I mean Patristic) sense of the word. This is a great price for a classic work of orthodox Christian divinity. Buy it and use it!
A Spiritual Classic.......2004-03-11
John Henry Newman's Parochial and Plain Sermons are without a doubt one of the genuine classics of Western spirituality. If you are looking to get your spiritual house in order, buy this book. Newman was that rare genius and saint able to appeal to both the heart and the intellect at the same time. From the very first sermon, entitled, "Holiness, Without Which Man Shall Not See God," the reader is drawn to take seriously the urgency of conversion and spiritual reform. You will walk away from this text wondering how you could have ever done anything other than put God first in your daily life! Moreover, the book appeals to modern man's sense of reason. One of Newman's greatest contributions is to show just how reasonable the act of faith is and how foolish it is to fail to make that act. But more than anything Newman will convince you that with God what matters is doing His will, not just talking about your relationship with Jesus while ignoring the Lord's commands to repent and be converted. This book is guaranteed to help you in your spiritual growth while educating you theologically, no matter where you are on the journey. Eminently readable. These are sermons, not theological treatises. This book is of equal value to non-Catholics as well as Catholics, written as they were in Newman's pre-Catholic, evangelical phase.
A Modern "Father" of the Church from the Age of Victoria.......2002-02-25
Newman is a master with English prose, craftily writing each sentence, paragraph, page, and chapter thoughtfully and eloquently. As a master of prose, if, for no other reason, he deserves wide readership.
But, alas, Newman is first and foremost a theologian. Now this may cast aspersions on him to a larger audience, but at considerable distress to all concerned. He wrote as both an Anglican and a Roman Catholic (most of these sermons were written while he was a priest in the Church of England). Most of the sermons were delivered while he served as priest at Oxford. There he had a demanding audience, who wouldn't sit still for such simple ejaculations, such as, "the Bible says so."
Newman revered Holy Scripture, but he saw it through a prism of manifold colors and applications. It was above all else a book of spiritual perfection, dense and more complex than often acknowledged, and he set forth to elucidate many passages with his incisive prose. Some of these sermons address the Christian liturgical year; others address some spiritual issue of the day or of perennial value. But in any event, his use of scripture is devoutly and reverential, even a tad dogmatic, but never in the evangelical sense. For Newman, the Word was a catalyst to self-discovery and illumination, not some sword to cut believer from infidel.
This book is large, and fortunately will take a good deal of time to read. Each sermon is about four pages, which makes for relatively-short meditations upon ideas catholic and universal. While Scripture forms his benchmark, his methodology is atypically in the English Empiricist school. He doesn't pontificate as though an authority, but examines like a scientist; he's heuristic, and we share in his discoveries. And his method allows him to reach the largest possible audience, knowing, as he did, that he was fighting both modernism and scepticism that ravaged the Church of England at the time, and continues to this day.
His method prevents sentimentality, although he is immensely sensitive and spiritual. He appeals to reason, the one thing that distinguishes man from beasts, and he does so with such eloquent prose that the reading alone is itself a delight. His insights have made him the "Father" of Vatican II, and many of his ideas can be found in documents of the Council. He doesn't seem to have a personal agenda, just an unabashed search for revealed truth as it is applied by reason. At times, his Victorian Age comes through loudly and clearly, but even so, his temperament is not one of self-righteousness, but of universal holiness. He's mediating the search for truth and holiness, not making it his own.
Roman and Anglican Catholics will be pleased with the results. Curious non-Christians will find Newman to be more than capable exegete, a rigorous and deft rhetorician, and a charming voice in a wasteland of mediocrity.
Newman Masterfully Blends Doctrine With the Spiritual Life.......1999-07-16
In these sermons Newman shows that the ultimate purpose of Church Doctrine is to grow in the spiritual life--to attain unity with God amidst the lures of the world. In addition, the themes he touches on are so contemporary for this day that you'd think he had written them yesterday. Newman demonstrates that the truths of the Christian faith are timeless.
Ignatius Press has given a great gift to the United States by putting 8 volumes of Newman's sermons together in one volume. It is a beautifully bound volume that will stand the years of reading and rereading it will get. My only criticism is the small size of the font used. However, if it was any bigger the number of sermons would shrink considerably.
Great Writing, Great Publication.......1999-01-05
Newman is a consummate rhetorician and compelling author, who, at a century after his death, remains one of the most influential religious authors. Newman wrote so many fine books, but his plain and parochial sermons, while he was still and Anglican, are among the best. This one-volume, completely reset edition, contains nearly 180 sermons. Most of the sermons are designated by their time given in the liturgical year, making it an excellent companion to liturgical lectionaries. One sees the keen mind of Newman operating at his most basic level, that of a parish priest. It's arresting at every fold, and a treasure and resource one will revisit with pleasure.
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- CALLISTA OPENS UP ALL OF JOHN HENRY NEWMAN
- A rare novel from Newman
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Callista: A Tale of the Third Century
John Henry Cardinal Newman
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CALLISTA OPENS UP ALL OF JOHN HENRY NEWMAN.......2002-09-19
John Henry Newman's CALLISTA, especially as introduced in this fine year 2000 edition by Alan G. Hill, stands on its own merits as a rollicking good love story, almost gothic in its plague of locusts, demonic possession of the young North African Juba, realistic depiction of mob violence, state torture and intolerance of the rising Christian religion whose adherents refused in the year 250 to worship the persecuting emperor Decius.
It is the story of a beautiful 17-year old Greek orphan who finds work as an artisan in Roman Africa, mainly fashioning statues and other adornments of various pagan cults. The evils of third century Roman imperial life depress her. She is tempted by the beauty of Christianity as hinted to her years ago by a Christian slave. Later she is wooed by the Christian Agellius who gives her another slant into his religion--though he fails to persuade Callista to marry him. Finally, Saint Cyprian, bishop of Carthage and the Gospel of Luke which he persuades her to read in a prison where she languishes falsely accused of being a Christian, tip the scales. She is baptized, confirmed and takes the Eucharist in one ceremony in prison. Shortly thereafter she is brutally martyred. The story stands on its own feet. It is a great read independently of any external impact or uses.
But CALLISTA is also, in my opinion, the most illuminating first book which any serious or prospective student of ALL the works of John Henry Newman should read (or now re-read). For CALLISTA opens the door to Newman's spiritual autobiography of conversion, APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA. It also adumbrates DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, RISE AND PROGRESS OF UNIVERSITIES, his sermons and Newman's many musings on the echo of God's voice definitively heard in conscience. And what CALLISTA does not lead into, Newman's earlier novel LOSS AND GAIN most certainly does lead into: ARIANS OF THE FOURTH CENTURY, THE IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY, A GRAMMAR OF ASSENT and literally every serious thing the great Cardinal ever penned. Fortunately, the best edition of LOSS AND GAIN is by Alan G. Hill who gives us the best CALLISTA as well.
CALLISTA, perhaps the greatest of "Christian Romances," indeed deserves to be read both internally for itself and also externally as a first step into the huge ocean of Newman's essays, poems (e.g. "Lead Kindly Light"), sermons, histories, satires, educational theory, philosophy, theology and more than 20,000 letters. CALLISTA, set in Africa, paradoxically invites readers to step into the almost as little known spiritual world of 19th Century England, one of the most creative times and places the world has yet known.
-OOO-
A rare novel from Newman.......2001-05-15
Written by John Henry Newman in 1855, Callista is a fictional tale of life in the early Christian church. One of only two novels from his pen, this tale is set in northern Africa, near Carthage, about the year 250 AD, during the reign of the Emperor Decius. The talented and lovely young greek native Callista, along with her brother Aristo ply their handicraft in the shop of Jucundus, in the small provincial town of Sicca, by finishing and decorating the pagan images of gods, idols, charms and other items of superstition. Jucundus, appreciating her many talents, attempts to play the matchmaker between her and his poor befuddled nephew Agellius. This nephew, much to his continued dismay and consternation seems to be obsessed with the notion of Christianity, and worse, considers himself to be of their number. As the story unfolds, we become aware of the strange status Christians held in the Roman World. Rather than being hated for their zeal toward God, they are thought to be atheists, anarchists and traitors. Callista, though not a Christian, feels the emptiness and insufficiency of the Roman, and even the Greek world of morality and philosophy, and never did believe in their gods. Agellius, with much internal turmoil, because Callista is not Christian, wishes to propose marriage. But these are troubled times, natural disasters, Imperial edicts, demonic possessions and the breakdown of civil order bring this story to an exciting conclusion. Obviously Newman wishes to use this story as a sort of parable, while at the same time painting a picture for us of what the early Christian church was actually like. And while he may succeed in this aim, some may think the story occasionally bogs down in pedantics. For this reason I gave the story 4, rather than 5 stars.
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Mary the Second Eve
John Henry Cardinal Newman
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Customer Reviews:
great book.......2003-06-27
this book is great in showing how the Blessed Virgin Mary is the second Eve. only problem is that it is a collection of quotes from many works otherwise it would get 5 stars. Newman was a great writer and you will find a lot of great quotes [and ideas] here
Customer Reviews:
A neglected and unusual work by John Henry Newman.......2006-02-25
This is the first volume in what apparently is projected as a complete edition of the Works of Cardinal John Henry Newman, published jointly by Gracewing in England and by the University of Notre Dame Press in the United States, under the general editorship of James Tolhurst. Seven volumes have so far been published in the series, which is called The Birmingham Oratory Millennium Edition. I have been unsuccessful in finding any advertisement for the series. The scheme may be to publish at the beginning of the series, works by Newman which are more difficult to find in existing editions. So far as I have been able to determine, this edition of the Lectures is the first to be published in over 80 years.
Occasioned by the "No Popery" tumult which began in England in 1850, the nine Lectures were delivered in a weekly series at the London Oratory in the summer of 1851. Although "Addressed to the Brothers of the Oratory," the lectures were expressly meant to be popularly attended, and a cheap offprint of each lecture was available for purchase by those attending. Newman later edited the lectures for more formal publication, and it is that edited version which is here again made available.
Both newcomers to Newman's writings as well as his long-time fans should be forewarned that this work is very different from anything else he wrote. Nowhere else in the Newman oeuvre is satire so central or so sharply edged. I did not realize just how much of satirical comment I was reading until I was well along in this volume. That is perhaps because I am, or was, so unused to satire in Newman's writings. It is perhaps, too, because I am a twenty-first century American and not a mid-nineteenth century Britisher. Satire has of it something of humor and so it is unsurprising that just as different nationalities have different senses of humor they will have different appreciations of satire. And the line in satire between merely poking fun and simmering outrage depends for its detection on an intimate feeling for the social and historical context in which the satire is offered. The nuances in this work are not easy for us to appreciate, because we are not immediately familiar with the excesses of anti-Catholicism in Britain around the year 1851 when these lectures were delivered. Toward the end of the lectures Newman comments that Catholics should be willing to stand the ultimate test of martyrdom, which test, he added, should not be expected to come in Britain at that time. But he does not say it was unthinkable or that it simply could not happen. He clearly implies that the anti-Catholic hysteria, if carried a very little further, could indeed issue in blood in the streets. In fact, Catholics were attacked in the streets for no other reason than they were Catholics. Against that background, the precise nature of Newman's writing takes on more clarity.
That the lectures were received as satire of a high order is shown in the jacket art which reproduces a contemporary print (by Maria Giberne) of Newman delivering these lectures. Look carefully and you will see that even while Newman is addressing them with a deadpan expression, some or most of the audience are roaring in laughter. For the reasons I have mentioned, we have great difficulty in finding the lectures quite that entertaining. Undoubtedly, the manner of delivery was critical to the satire. Yet we can find it useful to consider the substance of Newman's remarks on the Elizabethan attack against Roman Catholicism.
Newman makes it clear that not all "Protestants" engaged in the anti-Catholic attacks that called forth his lectures. He is concerned only with a narrowly defined, although at the time populous, class of persons who would have found themselves at a loss had they not had anti-Catholicism with which to structure their religious lives. The case he makes out against the beliefs and behaviors of this class of persons is devastating. His incisive analysis of the religious bigot has perhaps not been improved upon.
This volume includes a very full (85 pages) stylistic and historical introduction, and extensive textual notes, by Andrew Nash, closely based on work he did as a student of the famous Newman scholar, Fr Ian Ker.
I particularly recommend this volume for those with an interest in Cardinal Newman, in Victoriana, or in the history of English religious opinion.
Book Description
Regarded as the most important book on education ever written, The Idea of a University is a living classic that defines for grouping, late-20th Century souls what it truly means to be educated.
Customer Reviews:
A little clarification........2007-05-22
A review currently listed for this book pertains to "this Yale edition" and says it leaves out "about half" of what Newman published. However, Amazon indicates that the publisher is "Gateway Editions." The copy that Amazon shipped to me (which matches the picture of the book) indicates "Regnery Publishing" as the publisher. Moreover, it appears to leave out nothing.
Having verified, from the Table of Contents on line, that all of the parts were present, I purchased this edition in hopes that it might contain some comments or analysis that would add to the understanding that I received from reading the Notre Dame Press edition (Martin J. Svaglic author), with its excellent notes and commentaries. (Otherwise, why would reviewers recommend it?) My anticipation was rewarded by an interesting seven-page introduction.
However, the endnotes by Svaglic are of such great value in understanding the Newman's references to then-present and past events and authors and even in translating some of his Latin that I greatly prefer that edition. For that reason, in comparison, I witheld one star.
This is NOT Newman's IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY!.......2003-04-15
Unfortunately, this Yale edition leaves out about half of what Newman himself published in 1873 as the definitive edition of THE IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY. Published here are only the nine "Dublin Discourses" from Part I on "University Teaching" and but four of the ten chapters of Part II, "University Subjects Discussed in Occasional Lectures and Essays." For the hundred-page displacement of Newman's essays, the editor substitutes five interpretive essays supposedly inquiring into the relevance of Newman's book for today's higher education debates. These interpretive essays have major inconsistencies and repetitions among themselves and are of mixed quality, with inaccuracies and serious misunderstandings of some of Newman's central ideas. As accurate forays of the Newmanian mind into the twentieth- and twenty-first century university, only the engaging and intellectually challenging essays by George Marsden and George Landow succeed. (COMPLETE paperback editions of Newman's IDEA are available from Loyola University Press, 1987, and University of Notre Dame Press, 1982).
In Defense of Knowledge.......2000-07-18
Newman's work is not only an eloquent, erudite, and careful defense of the virtue of knowledge and the value of a liberal education; it is also a brilliantly reasoned and felt argument for the prevention of hubris on the part of any particular branch of knowledge.
Newman's sound warnings against the overreaching of scientific fields and the triumph of smug materialism and positivism are still urgent, of course. Newman is also careful to point out that the liberal arts and even theology may attempt to establish a single, inadequate framework for the discovery of truth.
Newman's complex epistemology does not fall prey to the heresy that truth is not one, but reminds us that in our present state, truth present various aspects and that the tyranny of any particular branch of knowledge is the victory of ignorance.
A beautiful presentation of of a classic work........1997-12-18
A strong case can be made that Englishman John Henry (Cardinal) Newman reinvented the religious univeristy in the 19th century and that most such universities, regardless of their denomination, functioned quite well until the computer age. Now, with all universities being forced to rethink their own identity and mission, the values which Newman enuntiated for them over 100 years ago will return to guide their reinvention in our own day. Or, they can return, if they are given the chance. Yale University is to be commended for putting Newman's ideas on the university back on the table in such a splendid format. Every aspect of this work deserves praise, from the editor's introduction and special footnotes, to the analytical essays which merit a careful reading in their own right. I did a complete review of this excellent work in "National Catholic Register" 9-15 Feb. 1997, p. 6. I recommend this book highly for this who need to understand and apply Newman's vision of the university.
Product Description
No man was ever better qualified to write such a book as The Idea of a University than Cardinal Newman was. And the subject has never been more pressing than it is today. In this classic, Newman poses a number of important questions: What is the purpose of education? What does it mean to be educated? What is the role of a university? And where does Catholicism fit in? The issues Newman examined with incomparable insight continue to be relevant today, one hundred and fifty years after it was first published. This book has been recognized as probably the greatest of its kind, and no one interested in the relationship between religion, learning, culture and politics can afford to neglect it.
Customer Reviews:
Newman's Interior Life.......2002-03-15
Newman is rarely perceived as a private fellow, known more for his public writings and activities. This fine compilation of Newman's own spiritual writings shows Newman was ever the same person, private or public. These "interior" writings have the same landscape and flavor that his public writings do -- without the usual rhetorical flourishes. And that's what makes this volume disappoint. Newman is exquisite when it comes to logic, rhetoric, and exposition, among the very best of the Victorian Age. Strip his writings of his logic and exegesis, and the eisegesis becomes somewhat banal and distant. This interior exposition cannot be compared to that of the Carmelites or other spiritualists. It's genuine Newman -- intelligent and mannered, but not a very exciting read.
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