John Henry Newman

A Mind Alive

By: Roderick Strange

Narrated by: Bob Sinfield

Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

John Henry Newman: A Mind Alive paints a vivid and nuanced portrait of Newman as a thinker, a friend, a priest, and shows us how he approached some of the controversial issues that still divide Christians. Those who want to come to know Newman better and to learn from him will be able to meet him in this concise and elegant new study.

©2008 Darton, Longman and Todd (P)2013 Prospero Media

Outstanding narration, vibrant subject

listened to this with a wonderfully donnish and avuncular performance by Bob Sinfield. That enlivened this already entertaining study by Fr Roderick Strange, who's written often about Newman. While the melodramatic choir snippets at the end of each chapter in the audio format laid it on too thick, both the book itself and the reading of it made for a valuable introduction to JHN. He intersperses his own experiences, too, to lighten the content a bit and to keep it from becoming dry. After an initial chapter on JHN's life, there are thematic chapters on various aspects. The one on the role of the laity I found particularly sharp, and the one on his vision of the university enlightening.

Excellent

I love the book. Both the material and performance. I will recommend it to anyone.

Still influential after more than a century

John Henry Newman is a figure that is frequently referenced, but I have not read anything by or about him directly. The recent biography by Ian Kerr is a more comprehensive biography, but it also does not have either a kindle or audiobook edition and it is much longer and much more expensive. So I picked up this short introduction.

Roderick Strange is a Catholic priest that and inserts himself and his thoughts into the biography frequently. Mostly that is helpful and Strange’s interjections gives some historical import to how Newman is perceived today.

Mostly what I was interested in was enough background on Newman to be able to read two of his books that were recommended in Eugene Peterson’s Take and Read (Grammar of Ascent and Apologia Pro Vita Sua). I think this was helpful for that. In addition to the brief biography, Strange spent about half of the book talking about Newman’s ideas, which is helpful.

The book was not constructed as a full biography but a short introduction. And it was based on different lectures that Strange gave previously. So there are several places where there was unnecessary repetition. And the overall structure could have been more cohesive. But in spite of the weaknesses it was a decent introduction.

Excellent intro to Newman

I was looking for an introduction to the life of JHN and this book was an excellent one! Great performance.