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to the sermons, a definitive text with textual variants, extensive annotation, and appendices containing previously unpublished material.

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.

These remarkable sermons by John Henry Newman (1801-1890) were first published at Oxford in 1843, two years before he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. Published here in its entirety is the third edition of 1872 for which Newman added an additional sermon, bracketed notes, and, importantly, a comprehensive, condensed Preface. In her introduction, noted Newman scholar Mary Katherine Tillman considers the volume as an integral whole, showing how all of the sermons systematically relate to the central theme of the faith-reason relationship.

Such is the clarity of its exposition and interest of its argument, that it can be recommended to those seeking an introduction to recent work in [epistemology]. The interest of the book, however, is greater than that. For the discussion of foundationalism and of recent reactions to it is subtly interwoven into a discussion of recent and not so recent philosophy of religion. — Colin Lyas Philosophy