This volume contains sermons delivered during Newman's post at Oriel College, Oxford. Most of the sermons in this collection include the date of delivery, making it easy to compare the practical, homiletical presentation of Newman's theories to the more intricate nuances of his argument in a corresponding essay.
“Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto Him, Follow Me.’ Again, ‘Philip findeth Nathanael” (Pages 20–21)
“the word of call is spoken and is gone; if we do not seize the moment, it is lost. Christ was” (Page 21)
“Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they” (Page 20)
“When, then, Satan comes against you, recollect you are already dedicated” (Page 60)
“We do not understand that His call is a thing which takes place now.” (Page 24)
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)