Reproduction of the original: The Dream of Gerontius by John Henry Newman

The prayer "Go forth Christian Soul, on your journey from this world" has supported generations of Christians in the moments of their dying. In this original biography of the prayer known as the Proficiscere the author traces the history of this well-known text from its origins in eighth-century France to the present day. During 1,200 years of biography we meet an extraordinary range of people whose lives have affected or interacted with the life of the prayer. These include Thomas Cranmer, William Caxton, Cardinal Newman, General Gordon of Khartoum, Edward Elgar, and Cardinal Basil Hume. Versions of this famous prayer have found their way into contemporary funeral liturgies. The author draws on liturgical scholarship history and not least his own experiences as a minister to the dying. At the end of this biography you will never look on your own dying, or that of others around you, as you have before. You will be better prepared, at your death, to hear the words "Go forth Christian Soul."

Many books exist devoted to the life, thought, and writings of Blessed John Henry Newman, the premier Catholic theologian in nineteenth-century England. His influence has been enormous, perhaps especially on Vatican II (1962–65). This book is a Newman primer, and not only a primer about Newman himself, but also about his time and place in church history. It attends to the papacy during his lifetime, his companions and friends, some of his peers at Oxford University, the First Vatican Council (1869–70), as well as some of his writing and theology. It should be especially helpful to an interested reader who has no particular background in nineteenth-century church history or in Newman himself.

By reason of Newman's text and the religious antecedents of the composer, Elgar, The Dream of Gerontius has assumed a unique place in English music. This book examines its relationship to the English Catholic tradition. The significance of music within the centuries of struggle towards emancipation and the importance of music and musicians attached to the Catholic Embassy chapels in London during the 18th and 19th centuries are considered in relation to the creative careers both of Newman and Elgar.