Issue 07 Preaching JusticeBlog | The Late Greats John Henry Newman
The Late Greats John Henry Newman
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 13.06.16
In a letter to a seminarian at Maynooth in 1868, John Henry Newman advised the student preacher to try to say ‘simply and exactly what [you] feel or think, what religion demands, what faith teaches, what the Gospel promises.’1 It was advice that he drew from experience and which points to key features of his own preaching.
T he record of Newman’s preaching is remarkable not only for its longevity (he preached as a curate in 1824 and continued for over 60 years) but also for comprising two distinct periods. Brought up a member of the Church of England, Newman studied and later became a fellow at Oxford. He was Vicar of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin and leader of a group of Anglican scholars known (from the publication of a series of Tracts for the Times), as the Tractarians.
