Mary: The Virgin Mary in the Life and Writings of John Henry Newman

In this rich anthology of John Henry Newman's writing on Mary, we are invited to join in the spiritual journey and personal devotion of perhaps the greatest churchman of the last two hundred years in the English-speaking world. Drawn from the full range of his work, expertly and deftly brought together, it creates for the reader both a clear guide to the progression of Newman's though, and a deeply devotional volume of readings on Our Lady. In a world seeking reconciliation between the different Christian denominations, Newman can play a unique role as our companion and mentor, as one whose journey encompassed both the Protestant and the Catholic traditions. His sensitivity in dealing with Marian themes owes much to his personal experience of the ingrained suspicion in the minds of non-Catholics towards the Church's veneration of Our Lady, which as a convert himself, he was well able to appreciate. Newman contemplates Mary's place and dignity in the ensemble of Catholic doctrine as consequent on the doctrine of the Incarnation. Grounded in Scripture and the writings of the Fathers of the Church, his own thinking is penetrating and balanced. He illuminates our understanding of the Church's teachings on Mary, and draws an important distinction between immutable doctrine and devotion which can take many and varying expressions. The depth of Newman's own devotion is clear from his adoption of 'Mary' as his confirmation name. Here is material from Newman's liturgical, pastoral, and theological texts, from the letters and sermons, and from the spiritual and poetical works. Elegantly written, with a warmth of language and spiritual intensity that speaks directly to the heart, these writings afford a sound basis for contemplation and prayer and solid nourishment for the interior life. Bishop Philip Boyce is a native of Ireland. Born in 1940, he joined the Discalced Carmelites and made his first profession in 1959. After completing his philosophical studies in Dublin, he studied theology in Rome at the Pontifical Theological Faculty of the Carmelites (the Teresianum), where he was ordained in 1966. In 1974 he received a doctorate for his dissertation on the spirituality of John Henry Newman.

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