John Henry Newman was the most celebrated English convert toCatholicism of the nineteenth century and is still widely revered asone of the great Catholic scholars and theologians of all times. Acomplex personality, he caused huge controversy when he left theAnglican Church for Rome. His beatification, carried outby Pope Benedict XVI in Birmingham on 19 September, followed theVatican’s recognition as a miracle of the healing of a US deacon, JackSullivan, from a severe back condition. In this series of Tablet articles writers explore his legacy, teaching and close friendships.

Newman’s diffident holiness
Cardinal Newman was one of the most notable Victorians. He is not onlyan historical figure, says his biographer, but a man for our time
Roderick Strange
18 September 2010

‘I solaced myself with verse-making’
Newman wrote poems – sometimes three a day – as an alternative way ofrecording the thoughts he would otherwise have expressed in prose. Butthe author of the grave and ghostly “Dream of Gerontius” was equallyskilled at light verse, too
Michael Glover
18 September 2010

Ideas of a modern university
The pursuit of knowledge was always at the centre of Cardinal Newman’sideal of higher education, a pursuit that acknowledged the importanceof connections between different disciplines. Could contemporaryacademia learn from him?
Don Briel
18 September 2010

Wisdom of the future
Newman recognised that great church councils have always causedtectonic plates to shift under the Church, often leading to acrimony.Their work, he said, needs explaining, completing and interpreting – ajob better done by posterity than by contemporaries
Ian Ker
18 September 2010

Life lessons
The beatification of John Henry Newman on Sunday will be one thehighlights of the papal visit to Britain. Newman’s teaching,particularly on conscience, has long had a profound influence on thePope’s thinking, as this presentation made on the first centenary ofthe cardinal’s death made clear
Joseph Ratzinger
18 September 2010  

Tracing the Brighton line
Much of the research and writing on Cardinal Newman focuses on thepriest and academic. Here, the man who now lives in the seaside townhouse that was once Newman’s home recalls how it helped him discoverthe thinker, the priest – and the rounded person
11 September 2010
Roger Moss

In all conscience
When Pope Benedict beatifies the great English cardinal on 19September, what will he make of Newman’s famous after-dinner toast, ‘Iwill drink to Pope by all means – still, to conscience first, and tothe Pope afterwards’?
11 September 2010
John Wilkins

Apologias for other great lives
Attention has naturally focused on the life and works of John HenryNewman as his beatification approaches. But it leaves the resoundingcontributions of the other great Victorian Catholic clerics Wiseman andManning in danger of being obscured
4 September 2010
Frank M. Turner

Saints and subversion
It is well known that John Henry Newman was a leading figure in theChurch of England who caused huge controversy when he became aCatholic. So why will Anglicans be celebrating his life and work in theyear of his beatification?
31 July 2010
Nicholas Henshall

A place to map out the universe
Cardinal Newman’s The Idea of a University had a profound influence onfigures as diverse as James Joyce and Edward Said. Here Newman’s latestbiographer explains the genesis of the Idea and why it has endured
19 June 2010
John Cornwell

Illusions of morality
In a series of lectures in Dublin first published in the middle of the nineteenth century under the title The Idea of a University,John Henry Newman examined the purpose of higher education,highlighting at one point the dangers of the then prevalent moralidealism. It is just as relevant today
10 April 2010
Alasdair MacIntyre

One soul, two bodies
Friendship is a preparation for a greater love, according to CardinalNewman, whose own relationship with his fellow priest Ambrose St Johnwas profound, and essential to understanding his thinking
3 April 2010
Mark Vernon

Reasons to believe
Earlier this month in his Tabletcolumn, Clifford Longley was critical of canonisation miracles andcited the case of Cardinal Newman in this regard. But the spokesman forNewman's forthcoming beatification says the cardinal believed thatmiracles served the Church's mission
23 January 2010
Jack Valero

An absence, yet a presence
When work began to exhume Cardinal Newman from his grave earlier thisyear, few expected that there would be nothing left of his body. But onSunday, relics were ‘translated’ to Birmingham Oratory during a Massmarked by high ritual and Mozart. Those who attended expect that theman already acknowledged as one of the inspirations of Vatican II willsurely soon be beatified
8 November 2008
John Cornwell

Wedded friendship
Spiritual same-sex friendships have been celebrated in the history ofthe Church with rites that gave them a standing akin to marriage. Thatis the belief of an ecclesiastical historian and honorary researchfellow of Birkbeck College in the University of London, who herepresents some of the evidence for his view.
8 August 2001
Alan Bray

Rocky road to Rome
In 1845 Newman left the Church of England for the Church of Rome. Henever subsequently doubted that he had found the truth, but it was apainful passage. A leading ecclesiastical historian of the period,former master of Selwyn College, Cambridge, describes Newman's complexrelationship with the Church of England.
10 March 2001
Owen Chadwick

Breaking the mould
Newman’s theological method was disconcerting in his own time, becauseit was so independent. An Augustinian priest who lectures in the IrishSchool of Ecumenics in Dublin explains how much was at stake in thecontroversies around Newman.
3 March 2001
Gabriel Daly

Victorian ways of faith
It is 200 years this week since the birth of John Henry Newman. This isthe first of a series of articles assessing his achievement andinfluence. The author of The Convert Cardinals sets the scene – the age of Queen Victoria, who died 100 years ago.
24 February 2001
David Newsome

Podcasts

Bath priest Fr Peter Cornwell presents a series of podcasts on Cardinal John Henry Newman. Fr Cornwell is the former vicar of Newman’s old Anglican church in Oxford, the University Church of St Mary the Virgin. If you are unable to open the MP3 files you can read transcripts of the podcasts.

1 Getting to know Newman (MP3)
1 Getting to know Newman (PDF)
2 Newman the pastor (MP3)
2 Newman the pastor (PDF)
3 Battered Newman (MP3)
3 Battered Newman (PDF)
4 Newman the thinker (MP3)
4 Newman the thinker (PDF)
5 Journey’s end (MP3)
5 Journey’s end (PDF)