ST. PIUS V BOOK CLUB  

Tues., September 8, 7:00 p.m., School Faculty Lounge

  John Henry Newman, Loss and Gain:  the Story of a Convert.

Charles Reding arrives at Oxford University planning to follow the advice and example of his father, and to submit to the teachings of the Church of England without becoming involved in any factious parties. Reding is inclined towards a form of Latitudinarianism following the maxim "Measure people by what they are, and not by what they are not."His conversations with his friend Sheffield convince him, however, that there must be right and wrong answers in doctrinal matters. In order to follow the right views, Reding seeks a source of Church authority, and is disappointed to find only party dissension and the Protestant doctrine of Private Judgment, which locates interpretive authority in the individual and thereby leads (in Newman's view) to the espousal of contradictory views.  Furthermore, Reding begins to have doubts about the Thirty-Nine Articles, to which he must subscribe in order to take his degree. His doubts are briefly dispelled following the death of his father, but return soon afterward. In particular, several brief encounters with Willis, a former Oxford peer who converted to Roman Catholicism, greatly excite and trouble him. 

All are welcome!

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