Customer Reviews

Fifteen Sermons Preached: Between A.D. 1826 and 1843 (Notre Dame Series in the Great Books)

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This is a collection of sermons preached by John Henry Newman while he was the vicar of the Anglican church of St Mary's in Oxford, ie. before Newman became a Catholic. Because they were aimed at the university students, the sermons are somewhat academic in style, perhaps more like lectures than sermons, and I must admit that this book is not really an easy read. However it is definitely worth the effort.
This book contains ideas that were developed in later works by Newman. Sermons 10 to 14 focus on the relationship between faith and reason, a subject which the author would later explore most fully in his "Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent". And the final sermon is on the "Theory of Development in Religious Doctrine" , a subject to which Newman of course returned in his "Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine."
I would definitely say that the sermons on faith and reason - "Faith and reason contrasted as habits of mind", "the nature of faith in relation to reason", "Love the safeguard of faith against superstition", "Implicit and explicit reason", and "Wisdom as contrasted with faith and with bigotry" - are worth reading for themselves. Newman's brilliance has not been dimmed by the passage of time since the 1800's, and I would say he still has a lot to say to us today, when there is, arguably, a danger of religion as a whole falling into disrepute, due to the actions of religious extemists on one hand, and the writings of people like Richard Dawkins on the other hand! Newman does remind us that faith in God can be a rational choice, does not have to lead to prejudice or bigotry,and that faith involves the mind and the heart.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Cardinal Newman's thought, and in fact it should be in the library of anyone with ambitions to be a Christian intellectual!

No one plumbs the deeps of faith more illuminatingly than John Henry Newman, and in these fifteen sermons he affirms the dignity of our state with an eloquence and conviction that place him in the very first rank of Catholic apologists.

Pounce, gentle reader.