NEWMAN'S APOLOGIA: A Classic Reconsidered

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 7, 1964

The history of ideas is full of bizarre births. When the novelist Charles ingsley reviewing Froude's History foolishly wondered in print whether Cardinal Newman ever told the truth, he could hardly have imagined the Catholic convert's rebuttal resulting in the Apologia pro Vita sua. The essays here, from both the clergy and laity, analyze that classic's varying characteristics, the occasion being last year's centenary commemoration. The work, notable as autobiography, as argument, and as art, is discussed in terms of historical setting, literary style, and theological and philosophical implications. Unfortunately, the papers are proper than penetrating; a cheerless academicism, a committee's voice hovers everywhere. Newman's heroic proportions, his adventurous Canterbury to Rome, are remarked upon quite often but felt only rarely. Still is circumspection carries the symposia, the inventory is interesting: Newman as both humanist and pessimist, as survivor of mid-Victorian spiritual shifts vis-a-vis the oxford Movement, Church-State relations and Ultramontanism, as ethical warrior combatting a shoddy liberalism and subordinating culture to sanctity and grace.

Pub Date: Oct. 7, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt, Brace & World

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION