Realizations

What is the secret of John Henry Newman’s enduring appeal? It perhaps lies in the freshness and persuasiveness and brilliance of his descriptions of Christianity. He continues to enthrall us because through him we come to recognize Christianity not as a languid assent to a series of propositions, but as a vivid encounter with concrete realities. It seizes the whole person. The word Newman often uses to describe the process of becoming a Christian is not ‘faith’ or belief’ but ‘realization’. A ‘realization’ is a moment when ‘one opens one’s heart to a truth’. This collection of his sermons – the ones Newman himself felt were his best – is the ideal introduction to one of the greatest writers in the Christian tradition.