John Henry Newman’s Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent is a masterpiece of religious epistemology, providing astute descriptive analysis of how the human mind actually works in addressing itself to reality, as well as a novel prescriptive vocabulary for fruitfully considering the assent involved in Christian belief. While it is rightly numbered among the most important of Newman’s writings, the Grammar is a difficult and complex work, combining rigorous theoretical argumentation with deeply personal reflection.

In this Critical Guide to Newman’s Grammar, editors Frederick D. Aquino and Matthew Levering have assembled ten original essays on the work’s historical background and key themes and ideas. Topics discussed include Newman’s distinctions of real and notional apprehension and real and notional assent, his treatment of the role of conscience and dogmatic propositions in religious reasoning, his understanding of faith and rationality, his notions of the illative sense and the role of inference in intellectual inquiry, and his view of the relation between natural and revealed religion. The contributing authors are an international array of noteworthy Newman scholars, including Frederick D. Aquino, Christopher Cimorelli, John F. Crosby, Logan Paul Gage, Stephen Grimm, Thomas S. Hibbs, Lorraine Keller, Andrew Meszaros, Francesca Aran Murphy, Cyril O’Regan, and Geertjan Zuijdwegt. This collection of essays presents the riches of the Grammar in conversation with contemporary philosophical and theological concerns, guiding readers into its central topics while also advancing its scholarly reception.