Apologia Pro Vita Sua (Latin Edition) Paperback – October 5, 2008

Free is a good price. I'd just like to point out that in the free Kindle edition of this book every letter with an accent mark gets a question mark substituted for the letter, so you get things like vis-?-vis whenever Newman uses a French phrase.Lucky English doesn't have accent marks on most of its words (my fiancee says it has them on some). Maybe not so lucky, since if we had them, the copiers would have had to deal with the problem instead of letting such enonsense go unpunished.

My criticism is of the publisher Northrop Frye, not the Blessed Newman. This book is an expensive Xerox copy of an old text. It has many imperfections including lost letters and spotty lettering and is hard to read. If I had known I never would have bought this version in the first place, it was not at all evident from the online page. In fact I plan to return it immediately. I'd advise paying a little more for an actual retyped reprint rather than a bound photocopy.

Kindle order and it was there in seconds.

I had read excerpts before, but reading the whole work was full of surprises. This is not at all a typical apologetically work. It goes much deeper, and gives an awe inspiring glimpse into an especially gifted mind and soul, who now has been beatified.

This edition is insulting. It is worse that a poor quality xerox and it cost $31. It is just a bunch of fuzzy printing bound with a cover showing a picture of the United States Code service books. Newman is in the public domain, but there are good quality editions of his works. Beware of Nabu!

Classic theological autobiography.

"Apologia Pro Vita Sua" is John Henry Cardinal Newman's explanation of his religious views and actions from 1833 to the time of his writing in 1864. In order to understand this work, it must be understood that "Apologia" is translated more precisely as an explanation, rather than as an apology. Newman apologizes for nothing. He explains everything.John Henry Cardinal Newman was a major British religious figure of the Nineteenth Century. A prominent Anglican priest, leader of the Oxford Movement and proponent of the "Via Media", Newman's conversion to Catholicism created many hard feelings among his Anglican friends.This book was written as an answer to specific charges brought against him by particular people at various times. Much of the book involves references to actions and words of those with whom he collaborated, corresponded or met. At times it is difficult to maintain interest in charge-counter charges which make up much of the book. Although some of the charge-counter charges seem of little import today, I cannot say that the book ever becomes boring.In some sections, particularly in his footnotes, Newman explains theological issues, although that is not the main thrust of the work.This book gave me a deeper understanding of Newman individually and of the religious environment in England during his time than I had had previously. This book reveals the Anglican Church as a "Big Tent", so to speak, including a "High Church" which valued hierarchy and formal liturgy and a "Low Church" which more resembled the Methodist and other Protestant churches.Newman viewed the Anglican Church as a branch of Catholicism in England. He was troubled by various steps taken by the Anglican Church, particularly the establishment of a Bishop in Jerusalem. Newman's position was that there were virtually no Anglicans in Jerusalem and that the plan for the bishop to have authority over Protestants, a group with which Newman did not identify, was unjustified. If the Anglican Church was a branch of the Catholic Church in England, what business did it have establishing a bishop in Jerusalem, a non-British territory, as a cooperative venture with German Protestants? He regarded this attempt to use the Anglican Church to promote British prestige and national interests as another unjustified interference of politics in ecclesiastical matters.I had always thought that Newman's conversion and rise in the Catholic hierarchy were unusual. In this book I learned that Newman was one of several Anglican clergymen who converted to Catholicism around his time, including another who became a Cardinal. The Catholic hierarchy was restored in England during Newman's day so his rapid rise may not have been as surprising as it would have been under more stable circumstances.One might think that Newman's conversion from the Church of England to the Church of Rome and his subsequent treatment by some Englishmen may have dampened his patriotic enthusiasm. Nothing could be further from the truth. Newman's status as a proud Englishman remains obvious throughout this book.In summation, this book is readable, interesting and gives the reader a taste of history and theology. I recommend it for anyone interested in Newman in particular and the history of the Church in general.

A very good book about a great man and Saint. A real conversion story about his journey into the Catholic church.

Great

After reading his book , one cannot but like John Henry Newman.Clearly a man of deep spirituality and uncompromising intellectual integrity, his life was one of conflict between his love and loyalty for his old friends, colleagues and the Anglican Church itself, and his true spiritual leanings, which after decades of study and original thought, he finally left to join the Roman Catholic Church, in which he became a cardinal.The book (explaining his whole life and spiritual journey, and its many, Bunyaneque trials) was written in reply to a withering critique by Charles Kingsley, which it admirably counters. In the process, it interestingly illuminates and contrasts the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches and their respective thinking, and gives the lay reader or agnostic a fascinating insight into the mind of a devout Christian.The book is best understood in the context of the history of the Oxford Movement and the ecclesiastical times in general, but much of its content is timeless and relevant today.

(Cardinal)Newman wrote his book to defend himself against charges of insincerity by Charles Kingsley. He tells his story to show how his beliefs developed , and why he entered the Roman Catholic Church. It is a scholarly read, and useful to anyone who wants to understand the man who is being considered for canonisation by the church.