Tag: sermons
Ecclesiology in Newman’s Sermons, 1825–1835
The cumulative effect of the theological debates at Oxford, together with his pastoral experience and personal reflections, gradually led Newman to a more high church ecclesiological approach, especially on visibility, invisibility, and apostolicity of the church.
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John Henry Newman’s Pandemic Ministry: A Balm for the Bereaved
Newman ministered to the sick and dying cholera victims and their families in Oxford, Birmingham, and Bilston.
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Enemy or Sacrament? Newman on Wealth and Holiness
Newman tended to talk about wealth and commerce in two ways: one prophetic and denunciatory, particularly of nations of shopkeepers, and one with applause—this is the nation of free enterprise.
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“Twelve Ways of Looking at a Saint”: Review of “A Human Harp of Many Chords”
Recently, a friend and I realized over a beer that we did not know what a good confession looked like. We had seen good (and bad) Masses; we had witnessed the efficacious baptism and confirmation.
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The Healing of the Liturgical Imagination: The Sweet Rhetoric of John Henry Newman’s Liturgical Sermons
Dr. Timothy O’Malley presented this lecture as the keynote address for the National Institute for Newman Studies Spring 2020 Newman Symposium. The full lecture is posted at the end of the blog article.
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“Lead, Kindly Light”: Trusting God in the Midst of a Pandemic
One of the most important turning points in John Henry Newman’s life involved contracting an illness (probably typhoid fever) while on a trip to Sicily in 1833. Newman was accompanied on the trip by his best friend, Hurrell Froude, and Froude’s father, Robert.
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Unlearning the Love of This World: Newman’s Sermons as Spiritual Reading during Lent
If you are anything like me, you have on at least one occasion squandered the holy season of Lent. The Church has established such times on the liturgical calendar so that we might enter more deeply into the mysteries of Christ’s life.
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The Cry of Repentance Versus the Bitter Cry of Regret
It’s easy to read this account from Scripture and to cast aspersions on Esau. “How could he have been so foolish?” we wonder. “I’d never act that rashly,” we tell ourselves. Yet how often in our own lives do we make a similar, yet graver mistake by squandering the gifts of God—in our case, the graces that we receive through the sacraments—in exchange for some lesser good?
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Lent, the Season of Repentance
In reading Newman’s letters and diaries, it’s clear that he knew of divine mercy not as an abstract theological idea, but at a deeply personal level as a core part of his spiritual journey. Because he himself had experienced the grace of God in many profound ways, Newman was eager to encourage others to cast themselves before the mercy seat.
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Recent Articles
History and Person: Newman’s Approach and Contemporary IssuesNovember 10, 2022Following in the footsteps of Benedict XVI, I, too, probe here whether and how Newman might shed light on some contemporary difficulties. […]
Science’s Equivocal CrisisSeptember 22, 2022This essay seeks to clarify the nature of science. It examines popular approaches to science, these approaches’ potential effects, and the perspective that theology can provide to our potential misunderstandings of science. […]
Newman’s Campaign in Ireland: A Review of Paul Shrimpton’s New Edition (part II)August 30, 2022In 2021, the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory and Gracewing Press published My Campaign in Ireland Part I: Catholic University Reports and Other Papers and released the companion volume My Campaign in Ireland Part II: My Connection with the Catholic University in March 2022. […]- Newman’s Detractors … at NINS?June 8, 2022It was all the more remarkable when I discovered a collection of “Newman detractors” on the premises, a collection indicating the conflict between Newman, the champion of Roman Catholicism in England, and mainly evangelical Free Church academics around the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. […]
Newman and Locke on the Epistemic Scope of CertitudeApril 27, 2022In the scholarly literature, John Locke (1632–1704) features as a formative influence on Newman’s philosophical thought. What usually gets highlighted, for example in the Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent, are Newman’s criticism of Locke’s notion of degreed assent and his call for a broader and more nuanced account of the rationality of religious belief. However, some have argued that the Grammar largely focuses on the psychological conditions of religious belief. […]