'An excellent, very readable summary of Cardinal Newman's intellectual achievement - Ker's most original contribution lies in his attempt to credit Newman with an original theory of knowledge and enduring significance as a philosopher.' --Library Journal

The Achievement of John Henry Newman

Christian Books & Bibles

Ker, Ian

Churches & Church Leadership

Collins

'An excellent, very readable summary of Cardinal Newman's intellectual achievement - Ker's most original contribution lies in his attempt to credit Newman with an original theory of knowledge and enduring significance as a philosopher.' Library Journal

Religion & Spirituality

T&T Clark International

The first comprehensive biography of the great religious leader John Henry Newman (1801-90), this compelling and well-written volume draws on a number of published and unpublished sources to examine his extraordinarily varied life and career. Ker stresses the complexity of Newman's character and the range of his achievement as major prose writer, dominant religious leader who anticipated the Second Vatican Council and the modern ecumenical movement, and universal Christian thinker, whose significance transcends his culture and time.

John Henry Newman: A Biography

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Oxford University Press

The first comprehensive biography of the great religious leader John Henry Newman (1801-90), this illuminating study draws on a number of published and unpublished sources to examine his extraordinarily varied life and career. Ker stresses the complexity of Newman's character and the range of his achievement as major prose writer, dominating religious leader who anticipated the Second Vatican Council and the modern ecumenical movement, and universal Christian thinker, whose significance transcends his culture and time.

John Henry Newman is often described as "the Father of the Second Vatican Council." He anticipated most of the Council's major documents, as well as being an inspiration to the theologians who were behind them. His writings offer an illuminating commentary both on the teachings of the Council and the way these have been implemented and interpreted in the post-conciliar period. This book is the first sustained attempt to consider what Newman's reaction to Vatican II would have been. As a theologian who on his own admission fought throughout his life against theological liberalism, yet who pioneered many of the themes of the Council in his own day, Newman is best described as a conservative radical who cannot be classed simply as either a conservative or liberal Catholic. At the time of the First Vatican Council, Newman adumbrated in his private letters a mini-theology of Councils, which casts much light on Vatican II and its aftermath. The leading Newman scholar, Ian Ker, argues that Newman would have greatly welcomed the reforms of the Council, but would have seen them in the light of his theory of doctrinal development, insisting that they must certainly be understood as changes but changes in continuity rather than discontinuity with the Church's tradition and past teachings. He would therefore have endorsed the so-called 'hermeneutic of reform in continuity' in regard to Vatican II, a hermeneutic first formulated by Pope Benedict XVI and subsequently confirmed by his successor, Pope Francis, and rejected both 'progressive' and ultra-conservative interpretations of the Council as a revolutionary event. Newman believed that what Councils fail to speak of is of great importance, and so a final chapter considers the kind of evangelization--a topic notably absent from the documents of Vatican II--Newman thought appropriate in the face of secularization.

Newman on Vatican II

Product Description 
This full-length life of John Henry Newman is the first comprehensive biography of both the man and the thinker and writer. It draws extensively on material from Newman's letters and papers. Newman's character is revealed in its complexity and contrasts: the legendary sadness and sensitivity 
are placed in their proper perspective by being set against his no less striking qualities of exuberance, humour, and toughness.\nThis book attempts to do justice to the fullness of Newman's achievement and genius: the Victorian 'prophet' or 'sage', who ranks among the major English prose writers; the dominating religious figure of the nineteenth century, who can now be recognised as the forerunner of the Second Vatican 
Council and the modern ecumenical movement; and finally, the universal Christian thinker, whose significance transcends his culture and time.\nAbout the Author 
Ian Ker, 
Fellow, Blackfriars, Oxford\nIan Ker is a Senior Research Fellow at Blackfriars, Oxford, where he is a member of the theology faculty. He has taught both English literature and theology at universities in both the United Kingdom and the United States. His books include 
John Henry Newman: A Biography (1988; subsequently 
re-issued in both hardback and paperback prior to the beatification of Newman in 2010), 
The Catholic Revival in English Literature, 1845-1961 (2003), and 
G. K. Chesterton: A biography (2011). He is generally regarded as the leading authority on Newman, on whom he has written and edited more than 20 
books.

This full-length life of John Henry Newman is the first comprehensive biography of both the man and the thinker and writer. It draws extensively on material from Newman's letters and papers. Newman's character is revealed in its complexity and contrasts: the legendary sadness and sensitivity are placed in their proper perspective by being set against his no less striking qualities of exuberance, humour, and toughness. This book attempts to do justice to the fullness of Newman's achievement and genius: the Victorian 'prophet' or 'sage', who ranks among the major English prose writers; the dominating religious figure of the nineteenth century, who can now be recognised as the forerunner of the Second Vatican Council and the modern ecumenical movement; and finally, the universal Christian thinker, whose significance transcends his culture and time.

This full-length life of John Henry Newman is the first comprehensive biography of both the man and the thinker and writer. It draws extensively on material from Newman's letters and papers. Newman's character is revealed in its complexity and contrasts: the legendary sadness and sensitivity are placed in their proper perspective by being set against his no less striking qualities of exuberance, humour, and toughness. This book attempts to do justice to the fullness of Newman's achievement and genius: the Victorian 'prophet' or 'sage', who ranks among the major English prose writers; the dominating religious figure of the nineteenth century, who can now be recognised as the forerunner of the Second Vatican Council and the modern ecumenical movement; and finally, the universal Christian thinker, whose significance transcends his culture and time.

G. K. Chesterton is remembered as a brilliant creator of nonsense and satirical verse, author of the Father Brown stories and the innovative novel, The Man who was Thursday, and yet today he is not counted among the major English novelists and poets. However, this major new biography argues that Chesterton should be seen as the successor of the great Victorian prose writers, Carlyle, Arnold, Ruskin, and above all Newman. Chesterton's achievement as one of the great English literary critics has not hitherto been fully recognized, perhaps because his best literary criticism is of prose rather than poetry. Ian Ker remedies this neglect, paying particular attention to Chesterton's writings on the Victorians, especially Dickens. As a social and political thinker, Chesterton is contrasted here with contemporary intellectuals like Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells in his championing of democracy and the masses. Pre-eminently a controversialist, as revealed in his prolific journalistic output, he became a formidable apologist for Christianity and Catholicism, as well as a powerful satirist of anti-Catholicism. This full-length life of G. K. Chesterton is the first comprehensive biography of both the man and the writer. It draws on many unpublished letters and papers to evoke Chesterton's joyful humour, his humility and affinity to the common man, and his love of the ordinary things of life.

G. K. Chesterton: A Biography

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Books by Ker, Ian

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ker, Ian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Achievement of John Henry Newman

The Achievement of John Henry Newman

John Henry Newman: A Biography

John Henry Newman: A Biography

Newman on Vatican II

Newman on Vatican II

John Henry Newman: A Biography

John Henry Newman: A Biography

John Henry Newman: A Biography

G. K. Chesterton: A Biography