A generation ago apologetics was declared to be in a state of flux. Thirty years later this appraisal, so ominous in its implications, was still held. Whatever the merit of the recent claim that apologetics witnesses a rebirth, this does not seem to take place along lines set forth by Newman. The gist of apologetics as Newman meant it, lies in a vivid awareness of the enormity of sin as an offense against a most holy God. In that awareness does Newman see the only logical source of a vivid religion. He was anything but an "interiorist" apologist, productive of rhetorical flourish about the "positive" aspects of faith experience. In this his major inquiry into Newman’s thought, the author first analyzes the Grammar of Assent, which has become the victim of Newmanists who delight in logic chopping, but show no interest in Newman’s message about sin and deliverance from it. Next comes a presentation of Newman’s ideas on the four Notes of the Church, surely a stepchild of the "new" ecumenical apologetics. Finally such topics, all very dear to Newman, are taken up as doctrinal development, Church and culture, and Catholic universities - all of them presented with no apologies whatsoever.

By Fr. Stanley L. Jaki

ISBN 978-1-892548-49-8  •  xv + 419 pages  •  softcover