Apologia pro vita sua being a history of his religious opinions

About the book

Newman explains the development of his religious opinions through reading, friendship, argument, and successive changes of allegiance. The narrative is a defence of intellectual and moral sincerity, but it does not present belief as the result of one isolated proof. Instead, distinctions that once seemed secure become difficult to maintain, and earlier judgments are reconsidered in the light of later commitments. His account of the Anglican years and movement towards Roman Catholicism also records the personal cost of theological controversy. This edition includes the later framing of the work as a history of religious opinions, along with additional explanatory material. Readers need not share Newman's conclusions to examine how he reconstructs continuity within change, or how a retrospective defence selects and orders a life.

• Belief and conscience
• Intellectual change
• Self-explanation

Why read it

For a sustained account of conviction that treats doubt, loyalty, and public judgment as intertwined experiences.

English religious autobiography · 1890 edition text