Stray Essays on Various Controversial Points includes three essays written later in Newman’s life. The first essay, “Inspiration in its Relation to Revelation”, is an attempt to account for the biblical foundation for Catholic teachings. The second, “Further Illustrations” is a continuation of the first essay and was written in reaction to some criticism he received from the Catholic community regarding certain statements made in “Inspiration in its Relation to Revelation”. The final essay, “Revelation in its Relation to Faith”, outlines Newman's mature response to the the place of faith and religion within the reasoned human experience.
The quality of his literary style is so successful that it succeeds in escaping definition. The quality of his logic is that of a long but passionate patience, which waits until he has fixed all corners of an iron trap. But the quality of his moral comment on the age remains what I have said: a protest of the rationality of religion as against the increasing irrationality of mere Victorian comfort and compromise.
The philosophical and theological thought and the spirituality of Cardinal Newman, so deeply rooted in and enriched by Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Fathers, still retain their particular originality and value.
—Pope John Paul II
Newman placed the key in our hand to build historical thought into theology, or much more, he taught us to think historically in theology and so to recognize the identity of faith in all developments.
—Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)