These remarkable sermons—of which Newman himself said “I must say I think they are, as a whole, the best things I have written…”—were first published at Oxford in 1843, two years before he was received into the Roman Catholic Church.

From the back cover: “More accessible to the beginning Newman reader than the Grammar of Assent, these highly original sermons are ‘of the nature of an exploring expedition into an all but unknown country,’ says Newman; for they were written ‘with no aid from Anglican, and no knowledge of Catholic theologians.’ Often overlooked, these early sermons provide indispensable insights and clues about the leading ideas of his later well-known works.”

We will discuss the following 5 sermons:

• Personal Influence, the Means of Propagating the Truth
• Faith and Reason, Contrasted as Habits of Mind
• The Nature of Faith in Relation to Reason
• Love the Safeguard of Faith against Superstition
• Implicit and Explicit Reason

It must not be forgotten that reason too needs to be sustained in all its searching by trusting dialogue and sincere friendship. A climate of suspicion and distrust, which can beset speculative research, ignores the teaching of the ancient philosophers who proposed friendship as one of the most appropriate contexts for sound philosophical enquiry.