What is the secret of John Henry Newman's enduring appeal? It perhaps lies in the freshness and persuasiveness and brilliance of his descriptions of Christianity. The word Newman often uses to describe the process of becoming a Christian is not 'faith' or 'belief' but 'realization'. The moment when 'one opens one's heart to a truth'. This collection of sermons - the ones Newman himself thought were his best - is the ideal introduction to one of the greatest writers in the Christian tradition.

This study of Newman's religious development from his childhood to his conversion to Roman Catholicism explores Newman's growth in holiness and truth, i.e., religious truth, and the mutual influence of one upon the other. The former, the author states, "is the more difficult to explore, since it involves not only a study of words and actions but of his inner life and motivation, which are often hidden." This exploration is undertaken here with the aid of materials not hitherto fully exploited: verses, sermons, prayers, and letters both by and to Newman. The book examines Newman's changing views on conversion; re-examines the Oxford Movement, highlighting Newman's spiritual and religious impact on it; and charts his voyage of self-discovery.

From 1824 to 1843 Newman was an active clergyman of the Chruch of England; during these years he entered the pulpit about 1,270 times. Newman published 217 of the sermons which he wrote during these years; a further 246 sermons survive in manuscript in the Archives of the Birmingham Oratory, some only as fragments but the majority as full texts. Volume I was published in 1991; the series will consist of five volumes in all. This volume presents 58 previously unpublished sermons of John Henry Newman. Those preached in his early days as Vicar of St Mary's Oxford include a series of sermons devoted to Biblical history and contain some searching moral portraits of patriarchs and kings. Another series of sermons on the Epistle to the Romans with subsequent extensive revisions reveals the development of Newman's views on Justification and Faith leading up to the Lectures on Justification published in 1838. Of the sermons surviving from St Clement's, 1824-1826, when Newman held Evangelical views, the present volume contatins a number of practical sermons dealing with details of Christian living. These are followed by sermons devoted to Biblical theology in which Newman among other issues explores various aspects of the Jewish religion as presented in the Old Testament. As many of these sermons were revised and subsequently preached again, they are important for an undrestanding of the growth of Newman's spiritual theology.