NEWMAN’s star continues to shine ever brighter. The priest and teacher whose long and controversial life straddled most of the 19th century and was regarded by ecclesiastical enemies as “the most dangerous man in England” is now revered as a saint. On the Solemnity of All Saints last year, he was also declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo. Newman never supposed that his calling and temperament — sometimes difficult, prickly, and liable to hurt others — might ultimately lead to such an exalted status. Now he belongs to a dazzling constellation that includes Augustine, Aquinas, the Venerable Bede, Pope Gregory the Great, and Teresa of Ávila.

In this short and absorbing book, Michael Rear introduces Newman’s life. Beginning with Newman’s childhood and youth and the influence of Evangelical Christianity, Rear then moves on to Newman’s years in Oxford and the influential movement that he led to restore a decent Catholicity to a worldly and forgetful Church of England. His secession to Roman Catholicism in 1845 generated a sea of troubles and disappointments before, in old age, he reached safe harbour and wide public acclaim.

It is a generous portrait of an extraordinary life that outraged England, baffled and sometimes incensed Rome, and evidenced a quite remarkable array of gifts. In these pages, we see Newman the unparalleled preacher of his day, the theologian whose capacious mind moved well beyond the confines of formulaic theology, and the prayerful and compassionate pastor whose death moved 15,000 people to line the streets of Birmingham on the day of his funeral.

More than half the book helpfully addresses Newman as a thinker. Later chapters reveal him as a seeker and guide who opens our horizons and encourages us to stand, even when “The night is dark” and the Church falls short.

Canon Rod Garner is an Anglican priest, writer, and theologian.

Doctor of the Church: An introduction to Saint John Henry Newman
Michael Rear
Gracewing £12.99
978-0-85244-951-6
Church Times Bookshop £11.69