Review by Choice Review
Eight essays by a number of distinguished persons connected, for the most part, with Oxford University. None of the writers is noted as a Newman scholar; several appear to be hostile to Newman. More than once Newman seems to be dismissed as simply a clever writer. The Chancellor of Oxford confessed that he had not read much Newman before his invitation to lecture on the occasion of this collection, and his contribution shows a definite impatience with what he repeatedly calls Newman's rhetoric. The past Archbishop of Canterbury attempts to read Newman in an ecumenical perspective, which does not work very well; and Henry Chadwick states that Anglicans can read Newman's Catholic works with a pleasure not unlike that of Catholics, which is not exactly the way Newman's contemporaries read those same volumes. Even the editor has made a number of historical errors, especially in his suggestion that Newman was acclaimed as a saint by many shortly after his death. Oxford was and is the perfect place to hold a gathering in honor of Newman. One wishes, however, that more care had been taken in checking the credentials and aptitude of those who gave the papers. The collection reminds us how very difficult to understand Newman can be. For graduate libraries. -J. R. Griffin, University of Southern Colorado
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
