Newman and His Contemporaries

Description

This is a book on John Henry Newman's influence on some of the most fascinating characters of the 19th century - and their influence on him. No one in nineteenth-century England had a more varied circle of friends and contacts than John Henry Newman (1801-1890), the priest, theologian, educator, philosopher, poet and writer, who began his career as an Anglican, converted to Catholicism and ended his days a Cardinal. That he was also a leading member of the Oxford Movement, brought the Oratory to England, founded the Catholic University in Dublin and corresponded with men and women from all backgrounds from around the world made him a figure of enormous interest to his contemporaries. In this study of Newman's personal influence, Edward Short looks closely at some of Newman's relations with his contemporaries to show how this prophetic thinker drew on his personal relationships to develop his many insights into faith and life. Some of the contemporaries covered include Keble, Pusey, Gladstone, Matthew Arnold, Richard Holt Hutton, Lady Georgiana Fullerton, and Thackeray. Based on a careful reading of Newman's correspondence, the book offers a fresh look at an extraordinary figure whose work continues to influence our own contemporaries.

Edward Short is the author of Newman and his Contemporaries. His latest book, Newman and his Family will be published by Bloomsbury in August of 2013. He lives with his wife and daughter in New York.

This book... with its rich cast-list and broad sweep, will be a valued addition to the libraries not only of the Newmaniacs but of anyone who takes the 19th century seriously and who wishes to explore its often alien ideas and characters. -- A.N. Wilson * The Spectator * This formidably researched and carefully organised book provides a valuable approach to a much-covered subject from a novel angle. A very rigorous and readable account of the personal impact of one of England's greatest intellectuals on a fascinating range of his contemporaries and is a valuable addition to the Newman literature. -- Conrad Black * The Catholic Herald * Newman and his Contemporaries sets out to place Newman in context and in dialogue with a range of his contemporaries. Newman famously said that 'a man's life is in his letters.' The 30 or so volumes of Newman's Letters and Diaries provide a significant quarry for Short's exploration ... In its rich citations from Newman's correspondence Newman and his Contemporaries reminds us of Newman's skill as a pastoral theologian and theological apologist ... Newman saw that there were hard questions for Anglicans to answer, with which we need to continue to wrestle-about authority, about the right discernment of development, and, fundamentally, about the nature of the Church. If this book provokes us to do this, then it will have achieved one of its purposes. -- Geoffrey Rowell * Church Times * Newman and His Contemporaries offers a fresh voice to the field by... looking at the impact that Blessed Newman had upon a number of his contemporaries ... Perhaps most impressively, Short demonstrates an intimate familiarity with the relevant literature, navigating with ease both Newman's writings as well as the published works and personal correspondence of Newman's interlocutors ... His prose is exceedingly readable ... Overall, I found Short's monograph to be both impressive and also accessible. -- Ryan Marr * Catholic Book Reviews * Edward Short's Newman and His Contemporaries is that most intellectually satisfying phenomenon; a deeply-researched, beautifully-written and important book that answers all the questions it sets itself, and all that any reader may also ask. The Oxford Movement might not engage many people today, but in Victorian England it was an absolutely revolutionary concept and the author blows pure oxygen onto its almost-dead embers in recreating its crises and controversies. Moreover, the reader doesn't need to know anything about Tractarianism to enjoy the perceptive and witty essays covering the Cardinal's relations with such figures as Gladstone, Thackeray, Arnold, Clough and the Froudes. -- Andrew Roberts * BBC History Magazine Books of the Year 2011 * Edward Short puts us in contact with Newman's opinions and decisions, but does so via a well-chosen selection of his contemporaries. The result is a fresh reading of, and insight into, the dramatic character of Blessed John Henry Newman's eventful, even iconic, life. Newman and his Contemporaries can be highly recommended to both Newman specialists and Newman beginners. -- Thomas Norris * Irish Theological Quarterly * Interesting and massive ... Admirers of Ian Ker's John Henry Newman: A Biography should find Short's book a useful complement to that study. Despite its 403 pages of dense small print, the main text reads easily and is full of rich material from Newman's Letters and Diaries and many other sources. It illuminates well-known contemporaries of Newman and helpfully introduces others who are less well-known ... an excellent book which belongs in every serious library. -- Walter E. Conn, Villanova University, USA * Horizons * One of the greatest merits of this book (in addition to the author's lively style) is Short's extensive use of Newman's correspondence, a voluminous collection of letters that would otherwise remain largely unknown except to dedicated researchers ... Short allows the sources to speak for themselves and he presents them in a wonderfully readable and even entertaining fashion while managing, at the same time, to introduce his readers to the essential elements of Newman's theology ... Eminently readable and enlightening. -- Terrence Merrigan, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium * Recusant History * Throughout he demonstrates an extensive knowledge of the novels, the criticism each has received, the author's life, and the Bible and its traditional exegeses. -- George P. Lanndow * Victorian Studies * Novelists, social critics, politicians and journalists, scientists and clergymen are all well-represented ... The numerous photographs which illustrate the book help to bring its many characters to life. Highly recommended! * Newsletter of the Friends of Cardinal Newman * Here Short offers an engaging account of how [Newman's] inner life gave manifestation to his role in the public life of the nineteenth century. * Touchstone Magazine * Another Newman book? Well, yes, and a particularly fine one that explores Newman's relationships with the great ecclesiastical, literary, political and journalistic figures of his time. Short's close reading of Newman's vast correspondence also demonstrates just how many of our post-Vatican II arguments were anticipated in the 19th century among Newman and his interlocutors. -- George Weigel * First Things Books for Christmas 2011 * Chosen by Andrew Roberts as one of his favourite books on thedailybeast.com * www.thedailybeast.com * I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Blessed John Henry Newman, especially if they have general knowledge of Newman's life and works. * Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation Blog * In this well-researched book, Edward Short shows how Newman, far from being the self-absorbed introvert as some have claimed, had a wide circle of friends who benefited from his extraordinary powers of empathy. Newman and his Contemporaries is a useful introduction to this essential quality of the man and will send readers back not only to Newman's published works but to his wonderful letters. -- Ian Ker, St. Benet's Hall, Oxford, author of John Henry Newman: A Biography (1988) This book is a charming blend of erudition, lively commentary and judicious selection of sources. Eavesdropping on heart-to-heart conversations with novelists and social critics, politicians and journalists, scientists and clergymen, Short has succeeded in bringing alive some of Newman's most engaging correspondence and setting it within its proper historical framework. The Newman that emerges from this study confronts the modern reader on the burning issues of the times - both his times and ours - and captivates us by his subtlety of mind, his exquisite prose style and his genius for friendship. -- Paul Shrimpton, Magdalen College School, Oxford, author of A Catholic Eton? Newman's Oratory School (2005) Newman and His Contemporaries is like a Victorian Dance to the Music of Time, except the characters are all real historical figures. Social historians, Spectator readers, literate people in general, young BXVI generation Catholics and those old enough to finish the sentence 'Introibo ad Altare Dei' will love it. This is a book to be taken on a summer holiday and read under a palm tree with a gin and tonic. Social histories can be boring and sag in the middle, but this one isn't. It's a souffle that doesn't flop. -- Tracey Rowland, Dean and Professor of Political Philosophy and Continental Theology at the John Paul II Institute Melbourne, Australia, and author of Ratzinger's Faith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI (2008)