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St. John Henry Newman - The Oxford Sermons | 4. The Usurpations of Reason

Release Date: 10/31/2025

St. John Henry Newman - The Oxford Sermons | 6. On Justice, as a Principle of Divine Governance

Catholic Culture Audiobooks

"If, then, the infinite benevolence of God wins our love, certainly His justice commands it; and were we able, as the Saints made perfect are able, to combine the notion of both in their separate perfections, as displayed in the same acts, doubtless our awe and admiration of the glorious vision would be immeasurably increased." St. John Henry Newman's Oxford Sermons, delivered during his time as an Anglican preacher at the University of Oxford, were instrumental in shaping the Oxford Movement, which sought to revive High Church traditions within the Church of England and ultimately led to...

The Dream of the Rood

Catholic Culture Audiobooks

"Come—I sing of a splendid dream, a mighty marvel, that came at midnight when the tongues of men are silent. A strange tree—most wondrous strange!— stretched forth branches in a blast of light." The Dream of the Rood is an ancient Anglo-Saxon poem, composed as early as the 8th century. It takes the form of a dream-vision in which the narrator sees the Cross on which Christ was crucified, and most of the poem consists of a speech given by the personified Cross, telling the story of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, with the Wood sharing in the glory of the Word. The virile style and the...

New Lives of the Popes podcast

Catholic Culture Audiobooks

Lives of the Popes on Apple Podcasts: Lives of the Popes on CatholicCulture.org:

St. John Henry Newman - The Oxford Sermons | 5. Personal Influence, the Means of Propagating the Truth

Catholic Culture Audiobooks

"... we shall find it difficult to estimate the moral power which a single individual, trained to practice what he teaches, may acquire in his own circle, in the course of years. While the Scriptures are thrown upon the world, as if the common property of any who choose to appropriate them, he is, in fact, the legitimate interpreter of them, and none other; the Inspired Word being but a dead letter (ordinarily considered), except as transmitted from one mind to another." St. John Henry Newman's Oxford Sermons, delivered during his time as an Anglican preacher at the University of Oxford,...

Soul of the Apostolate | Ep. 5 - Interior Life Secures Deep and Lasting Results

Catholic Culture Audiobooks

"No work takes deep root, or has real stability, or will perpetuate itself, unless the apostle has begotten the interior life in other souls. Naturally, he cannot do this unless he himself is strong in the inner life." This episode concludes Part Four of the classic work by the French Trappist monk, Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard (1858-1935). Among other things, there is featured an illuminating description of the progressive stages of conversion, which Dom Chautard includes as an aid for spiritual directors. Episode 4: Part Four (sections e - g) 00:00 - Intro 00:39 - e. Because the Interior Life...

Soul of the Apostolate | Ep. 4 - Action Made Fruitful by the Interior Life

Catholic Culture Audiobooks

"Am I really one of those who depend upon their mental prayer, their visits to the Blessed Sacrament, above all upon their Mass or their Communion, to put real moving power into their preaching? If I am not, I may perhaps be a loudly 'tinkling cymbal,' or even give forth the more pompous din of 'sounding brass,' but I am not communicating to others any love, that love which makes the eloquence of the friends of God impossible to resist." Part Four of the classic work by the French Trappist monk, Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard (1858-1935), describes the many ways in which the interior life ensures...

St. John Henry Newman - The Oxford Sermons | 4. The Usurpations of Reason

Catholic Culture Audiobooks

"Human philosophy was beaten from its usurped province, but not by any counter-philosophy; and unlearned Faith, establishing itself by its own inherent strength, ruled the Reason as far as its own interests were concerned, and from that time has employed it in the Church, first as a captive, then as a servant; not as an equal, and in nowise (far from it) as a patron." St. John Henry Newman's Oxford Sermons, delivered during his time as an Anglican preacher at the University of Oxford, were instrumental in shaping the Oxford Movement, which sought to revive High Church traditions within...

Elizabeth Anscombe - War and Murder

Catholic Culture Audiobooks

"Two attitudes are possible: one, that the world is an absolute jungle and that the exercise of coercive power by rulers is only a manifestation of this; and the other, that it is both necessary and right that there should be this exercise of power, that through it the world is much less of a jungle than it could possibly be without it, so that one should in principle be glad of the existence of such power, and only take exception to its unjust exercise." Elizabeth Anscombe was a prominent 20th-century British philosopher, known for her influential work in ethics and her deep commitment to...

Christian Raab, OSB - In Search of the Masculine Genius

Catholic Culture Audiobooks

"When attention to the theological meaning of femininity is not accompanied by reflection on masculinity, men are left without a sense of the existential and sacramental significance of their own sex." A reading of a fascinating essay originally published in the journal Logos, about the work of Walter Ong, SJ. In the wake of an emphasis on the “feminine genius” as delineated by Pope St. John Paul II and others, this article attempts to develop a profile of the masculine genius. It supplements the teaching of Pope Francis on this subject in order to balance the more complete articulation of...

Soul of the Apostolate | Ep. 3 - Without Interior Life, Active Life Full of Danger

Catholic Culture Audiobooks

"These falls can be MOST CERTAINLY avoided when one knows how to use the precious balancing pole of the interior life. It is only the abandonment of this INFALLIBLE instrument that brings dizziness and the fatal false step into space." Part Three of this classic work by the French Trappist monk, Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard (1858-1935), warns of the spiritual perils of an active life divorced from a deep interior life, while offering the assurance of grace and progress in virtue for those who root their work in prayer and union with God. Episode 3: Part Three 00:00 - Intro 00:52 - 1....

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St. John Henry Newman's Oxford Sermons, delivered during his time as an Anglican preacher at the University of Oxford, were instrumental in shaping the Oxford Movement, which sought to revive High Church traditions within the Church of England and ultimately led to many conversions to Catholicism.

In addition to the profound influence these sermons had on both Anglican and Catholic theology, they also bore a personal significance for Newman’s own conversion to Catholicism years later.

These fifteen sermons, though deeply interconnected in theme and insight, are not sequential in nature; rather, each stands on its own as a distinct and self-contained reflection on faith and reason. Newman lays the groundwork for themes developed in later works, such as Grammar of Assent and Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine.

In this fourth sermon, Newman demonstrates how Reason oversteps its bounds when it sets itself up as the legitimate judge of religious truth, over and against childlike spiritual discernment.

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The Usurpations of Reason full text: https://www.newmanreader.org/works/oxford/sermon4.html

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