For the first time, the majority of John Henry Cardinal Newman's contributions to the ground-breaking series Tracts for the Times have been collected in one volume, with an introduction and notes supplied by James Tolhurst.

The Tracts for the Times will always be connected with the Oxford Movement. John Henry Newman and other leaders of the movement sought a renewal of "catholic," or Roman Catholic, thought and practice within the Church of England. They published their ideas on the theological, pastoral, and devotional problems that they perceived within the church in ninety "Tracts for the Times" (1833-1841).

Newman, who edited the series, either wrote or compiled a third of the tracts. Increasingly, the tracts were expanded into treatises—especially after Tract 36—and were often composed of quotations from patristic writers and the English Divines. Tracts 83 and 85 are included in Discussions and Arguments on Various Subjects, volume VII of the Birmingham Oratory Millennium Edition of his works. Tracts 74, 76, and 88 have been omitted here. In Tract 75, the introductory explanation of the breviary has been included.