Why did Newman decide to become an Oratorian? This article examines the life and vision of St. Philip Neri (1515-1595), the founder of the Oratory, in relation to the apostolic ministry that John Henry Newman and his fellow Oxford-converts hoped to exercise in the Roman Catholic Church. This article concludes with reflections about the Oratory’s role, present and future.

The publication of his Apologia pro Vita Sua (1864) brought Newman back into contact with many of his Anglican friends—two of whom gifted him with a violin. In his letter of appreciation, Newman mused: “Perhaps thought is music.” Such would seem to be the case with his poem, The Dream of Gerontius (1865), which was set to music by Sir Edward Elgar (1900). This essay explores the relationship between Newman’s Apologia and The Dream of Gerontius and then analyzes the latter’s structure and content and compares it with other Christian classics.

What is the reason for the continued interest in Newman’s theology? This article’s reply that Newman was a contextual theologian is based on a consideration of three questions:Was Newman a theologian? What was the context of his theology? What are the reasons for Newman’s theological longevity?

For two decades (1859-1879), ultramontane Roman Catholics viewed Newman with suspicion and surreptitiously questioned his orthodoxy; such covert charges were practically impossible to refute. Vindication came only in Newman’s declining years, when Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) named him a cardinal. Such an honor was an irrefutable riposte to Newman’s critics. His elevation to the cardinalate unleashed a torrent of congratulations from religious communities and civic organizations, from personal friends as well as from the general public. This article revisits Newman’s cardinalatial years and samples some of the “Addresses” and messages of congratulation that he received along with his replies

Newman’s theology is known for its personalism: Newman was concerned not only with a notional or intellectual appeal, but also with eliciting a real assent from his audience. This article locates the beginnings of that “personalist theology” in his pastoral ministry at St.Clement’s (Oxford) and his first theological treatise, The Miracles of Scripture.

This article examines two statements that Hopkins made on Newman as a poet and as a critic of poetry. Hopkins carefully analyzed the literary genealogy of Newman’s poetry, indifferently assessed its general achievement, and specifically criticized one point in Newman’s judgment of a poet. Hopkins’ statements, which came late in his own career, give no hint of a process of change in his response to Newman’s poetry. But Newman’s numerous remarks, gleaned from random sources over forty years, demonstrate change in his theory of poetry.

Most people believe in an afterlife, but is such a belief warranted? While Newman did not specifically treat the doctrine of afterlife, his Grammar of Assent furnishes a trajectory that shows that Christians can believe in this doctrine with a warranted assent, precisely because the Church is a warranted belief.

This article, originally delivered at the Third Oxford International Newman Conference (Somerville College, 15 August 2004), looks at the long association between Newman and Gladstone and finds a combative mutual respect that survived not only Newman’s conversion but also Gladstone’s attack against Pope Pius IX and English Roman Catholics.

It is often asserted that Newman was an invisible peritus at the Second Vatican Council—in a sense, Newman was a “Father of the Modern Church.” But what does it mean to be a “Father of the Church”? This article reflects on selected aspects of Newman’s thought that were influential at Vatican II and continue to be important today.

Victorian devotional life, both Anglican and Roman Catholic, often focused on the feast days of the Church. Indeed, even the three academic sessions at Oxford University were named after the feast days at the beginning of each term: Michaelmas (St. Michael, September 29), Hilary (January 14), and Trinity (First Sunday after Pentecost); similarly, events on the ecclesiastical calendar often anchored events in Victorian religious novels. This article explores the possible symbolism in the feast days that frame events in Newman’s novel, Loss and Gain.