THIS day we celebrate one of the most remarkable feasts in the Calendar. We commemorate a saint who gained the heavenly crown by prayers indeed and tears, by sleepless nights and weary wanderings, but not in the administration of any high office in the Church, not in the fulfilment of some great resolution or special counsel; not as a preacher, teacher, evangelist, reformer, or champion of the faith; not as Bishop of the flock, or temporal govornor; not by eloquence, by wisdom, or by controversial success; not in the way of any other saint whom we invoke in the circle of the year; but as a mother, seeking and gaining by her penances the conversion of her son. It was for no ordinary son that she prayed, and it was no ordinary supplication by which she gained him. When a holy man saw its vehemence, ere it was successful, he said to her, “Go in peace; the son of such prayers cannot perish”. The prediction, was fulfilled beyond its letter; not only was that young man converted, but after his conversion he became a saint; not only a saint but a doctor also, and “instructed many unto justice”. Aeterna Press

An edition, with introduction and comprehensive notes, of one of Newman's best-known works. The sermons, which explore the relation of faith and reason, are a key document of the Oxford Movement.

Newman himself called the Oxford University Sermons, first published in 1843, `the best, not the most perfect, book I have done'. He added, `I mean there is more to develop in it'. Indeed, the book is a precursor of all his major later works, including especially the Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine and the Grammar of Assent. Dealing with the relationship of faith and reason, the fifteen sermons represent Newman's resolution of the conflict between heart and head that so troubled believers, non-believers, and agnostics of the nineteenth century, Their controversial nature also makes them one of the primary documents of the Oxford Movement. This new edition provides an introduction to the sermons, a definitive text with textual variants, extensive annotation, and appendices containing previously unpublished material.