Newman and the Key to Conversion, by Russell Shaw

Lately, I’ve had occasion to read two books by Saint John Henry Newman.

One is Newman’s first novel, Loss and Gain, while the other is that classic “history of my religious opinions” (Newman’s words), the Apologia Pro Vita Sua. Although the two volumes could hardly be more unalike in most respects, both are of considerable interest for what they tell us about the process of religious conversion.

Let’s start with Loss and Gain. Published in 1848, just two years after Newman’s own conversion, its central character is an Oxford student named Charles Reding whose religious journey, from Anglicanism to Catholicism, parallels Newman’s. The story is by no means autobiographical–Reding isn’t Newman by another name–but the process of conversion is much the same in both cases. …

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