Roderick Strange
London: DLT, 2008 pp xiv +162
It is expected that the beatification of John Henry Newman by Pope Benedict XVI will occur soon. Newman, one of the leaders of the Oxford movement in the Anglican Church, was received into the Catholic Church in 1845 and later became a cardinal.
In his preface to the book, Rod Strange indicates that he is “writing for people who are curious about Newman…. but have little time for long books…” His hope is “that those who only have time to read one book about Newman will find that this is the one.”
Among other things, Strange provides a chapter which sketches the life of Newman and then a chapter, on the mind of Newman, ‘A Mind Alive’. Strange’s claim is that Newman was not just an “icy intellectual” but one who “reached out to touch the heart and engage the whole person”. Then follow chapters on a range of issues Newman championed during his lifetime: infallibility, Mariology, the laity, ecumenism and Divine providence.
Msgr Strange is the Rector of the Beda College in Rome and the author of The Catholic Faith, Living Catholicism and The Risk of Discipleship – the latter a widely acclaimed presentation of the Catholic priesthood. His latest book is written in a style that, as with his previous books, is lucid and articulate. At the same time, the book reflects an expertise developed and honed over a lifetime.
The particular appeal that this book had for me is the way Strange reveals how Newman touched and influenced his own life. As he says in the first chapter, his book is an “attempt to explore Newman’s influence on me, his part for me in ‘God’s noiseless work’”. In this respect, chapter one in itself is quite striking. But, in fact, Strange’s book is sprinkled with personal references to Newman’s influence on him regarding the celibate priesthood and the humanity of Jesus, obedience and faith and crosses and crises in our lives. We all benefit, I believe, from reading or hearing of the efforts of others in the daily call to conversion we all share.
Others will also appreciate Strange’s inclusion of Newman’s meditation, “I am created to do something or to be something for which no-one else is created”, of the comparison between Newman and Sir Thomas Moore and the last chapter reflecting on Newman’s poem, The Dream of Gerontius.
Kevin Kiem, Taree
