John Henry Newman in His Time

John Henry Newman is undoubtedly the greatest English churchman of the modern era. An Oxford don and vicar of the Church of England in his twenties, he is best remembered as the leader of the Oxford Movement which rocked the establishment in the 1830s and early 1840s. After converting to the Catholic Church and training for the priesthood in Rome, he settled in Birmingham where he introduced the Oratory in England, working tirelessly for the local community and on a variety of endeavours in both England and Ireland. A gifted writer and preacher, he left more than sixty volumes of treatises, sermons, letters and diaries, as well as poems and hymns, some of which, like his ‘Apologia’ or ‘The Dream of Gerontius’, are still widely known today. Curiously, despite these many claims to fame, the great English cardinal himself remains largely unknown, even in his own country. This book, aimed at the general public, is an introduction to the life and personality of John Henry Newman, written by fourteen Newman scholars from around the world. The chapters cover Newman’s activities in Oxford, Littlemore, Rome, Birmingham and Dublin, as well as exploring various facets of his rich personality – as preacher, educator, Oratorian, letter writer, novelist, poet, confessor, and convert. A well-rounded portrait of Newman emerges, revealing why many people consider him a future saint of the Church.