Newman in November

This morning was unusual for various reasons, so I don't have many thoughts collected. Even less than usual, in fact.   This will be a bit random....basically about books.

I have a Cardinal Newman anthology on my Kindle that appears to be arranged in chronological order. I have been reading through it in honor of his new status as Doctor of the Church. First I read The Arians of the Fourth Century. Now I'm reading his Tracts for the Times. Both the book and the Tracts were written when he was an Anglican, and some of the tracts are pretty hostile to what he called the Romanist or papist Church. Since he was often arguing for things that would have looked very Roman Catholic to some Anglicans, like reverence for bishops, apostolic succession, sacraments, tradition in liturgy, he seemed to use his arguments against papal supremacy as a way to distinguish the Tractarian position from that of the Catholic Church. Or that is how it sounds to me.

Newman is very interesting to read because his times were not altogether unlike ours, but distinct enough so that his work is often prophetic. I may give examples some other time, but this blog is mostly going to be bits and pieces of things, just to have something written down.

During the summer I read part of a collection of Anthony Trollope's books. Some of them -- the Barchester Chronicles in particular -- were rereads. I think I read them first before I converted to Catholicism, or maybe soon afterwards. Anyway, I hadn't remembered how many references he made to Newman and the Tractarians, especially in Barchester Towers.

And now came the moment of his great danger. After many mental struggles, and an agony of doubt which may be well surmised, the great prophet of the Tractarians confessed himself a Roman Catholic. Mr. Newman left the Church of England and with him carried many a waverer. He did not carry off Mr. Arabin, but the escape which that gentleman had was a very narrow one. 

Since I am writing about books, as much as about anything, I finished Giants in the Earth the other day. It was a good read. It read a bit like a saga or fairy story to me. Trolls are mentioned very often. It concerned Norwegian immigrants moving west to South Dakota and settling on the prairie there. I don't want to give too many details in case you happen to be also reading the book and dislike spoilers.

All three of these books -- the Newman and Trollope collections, and the Ole Rolvaag one -- are available for under 3$ on Kindle. This is because they are all in public domain, as well, so you can also find them easily online. But buying them on Kindle for about the price of a protein bar lets me highlight them and save my highlights to a Kindle app so that is useful.