John Henry Newman Sermons 1824-1843: Volume II: Sermons on Biblical History, Sin and Justification, the Christian Way of Life, and Biblical Theology

From 1824 to 1843 Newman was an active clergyman of the Church of England; during this time, he entered the pulpit about 1270 times. Newman published 217 of the sermons which he wrote during these years; a further 246 sermons survive in manuscript in the Archives of the Birmingham Oratory, some only as fragments but the majority as full texts. The aim of this series is to transcribe the sermon accurately, with sufficient editorial apparatus for the theological development within them to be understood, and their historical situation to be clear. This volume presents 58 previously unpublished sermons of John Henry Newman. Those preached in his early days as a vicar of St Mary’s Oxford include a series of sermons devoted to biblical history, and contain some searching moral portraits of patriarchs and kings. Another series of sermons on the Epistle to the Romans with subsequent extensive revisions reveals the development of Newman’s views on Justification and Faith leading up to the Lectures on Justification published in 1838. Of the sermons surviving from St Clement’s, 1824-1826, when Newman held Evangelical views, this volume contains a number of practical sermons dealing with details of Christian living. These are followed by sermons devoted to biblical theology in which Newman, among other issues, explores various aspects of the Jewish religion as presented in the Old Testament. As many of these sermons were revised and subsequently preached again, they are useful for an understanding of the growth of Newman’s spiritual theology.