St. John Henry Newman—The Oxford Sermons | 1. The Philosophical Temper, First Enjoined by the Gospels

By James T. Majewski ( bio - articles - email ) | Feb 07, 2025 | In Catholic Culture Audiobooks (Podcast)

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“The philosopher might speculate, but the theologian must submit to learn.”

St. John Henry Newman’s Oxford Sermons, delivered during his time as an Anglican preacher at the University of Oxford, were instrumental in shaping the Oxford Movement, which sought to revive High Church traditions within the Church of England.

In this collection of fifteen sermons, Newman especially explores the relationship between faith and reason, and lays the groundwork for themes he would later develop in works like his Grammar of Assent and Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. In addition to the profound influence these sermons had on both Anglican and Catholic theology, they also bore a personal significance for Newman’s own conversion to Catholicism years later.

In this first sermon, Newman argues that it was Christianity which first promoted a properly philosophical disposition, by encouraging a mindset and instilling the virtues essential for a truly scientific approach to the pursuit of truth.

Links

The Philosophical Temper, First Enjoined by the Gospel full text: https://newmanreader.org/works/oxford/sermon1.html

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