"Heart Speaks to Heart": Saint John Henry Newman and the Call To Holiness ed. by Kevin J. O'Reilly (review)

True, the intellectual content of the sermons (and thus of Dr. GuérinBoutaud’s book on them) is impressive, but by keeping before the reader’s eye the pastoral and spiritual aims of Newman, Dr Guérin-Boutaud goes back to the heart of theology. A very positive point is also Dr. Guérin-Boutaud’s excellent mastery of English. His translations are of a very good quality and can be checked against the original text in the footnotes. The introduction draws attention to some difficulties he encountered as a translator (for example the distinction between “unseen” and “invisible” while the French would tend to translate both as “invisible”), but there is no doubt that Dr. Guérin-Boutaud’s translation keeps as close as possible to Newman’s style. To conclude, the present book is aimed at an educated audience, who is already versed in theology and is already at least broadly familiar with Newman’s life and thinking. It is also a very enriching book, both intellectually and spiritually. It should in no way be confined to the French-speaking readership, and this reviewer hopes that it will one day be made accessible to the English-speaking public.