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Apologia Pro Vita Sua [A Defense of One's Life]
- Narrated by: Greg Wagland
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
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Apologia Pro Vita Sua [A Defense of One's Life]
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Summary
Apologia Pro Vita Sua (A Defence Of His Life) by Cardinal Newman offers a marvellous insight into the mind of a devout Christian, a colossal figure of the nineteenth century. It is, moreover, one of the greatest spiritual autobiographies ever written in the English language, laying out the development of John Henry Newman's religious opinions up to the year 1845 when he finally converted to Roman Catholicism.
It was Charles Kingsley's withering and defamatory attack which prompted its writing, giving Newman 'ten weeks of anxious work', as he pieced together the evolution of his beliefs. Newman's beautiful prose has rightly been described as 'regal', the scholarly arguments are crystal clear and the structure reassuringly chronological; his utter demolition of Kingsley's accusations (especially that of untruthfulness) at the end of the Apologia is meticulous, inexorable and truly awe-inspiring. It is read by Greg Wagland.
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What listeners say about Apologia Pro Vita Sua [A Defense of One's Life]
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- N. Hammond
- 25-06-13
Apologia and more besides
What made the experience of listening to Apologia Pro Vita Sua [A Defense of One's Life] the most enjoyable?
The lucid and self-revealing Apologia is read as it should be, unaffected, sympathetic, and clear.
What other book might you compare Apologia Pro Vita Sua [A Defense of One's Life] to, and why?
I'd compare it to The Dark Night Of The Soul (John of God) or The Interior Castle (Teresa of Avila), and on a less mystical level The Story Of A Soul (Therese Lisieux) or All For Jesus (Fr F W Faber).
What about Greg Wagland’s performance did you like?
The incomparable Greg Wagland allows the author room to speak, gives sound readings of odd English place names, moreover he avoids making himself the point of the reading.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes - and so much more besides.
Any additional comments?
Many more of these wonderful devotional works of Catholic - and indeed any Christian - faith, please. They are not for Catholics alone, nor even for believers in God, but alone with Chesterton, Belloc and Knox etc they speak of, from and to the human heart. There is now what seems to be a lost world revealed in these writers of English spiritual life, and their unapologetic relationship with their communion throughout the nations, over millennia, and even today with us ..
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- MMM
- 11-02-21
It had a special something
It's not difficult to see why many - most perhaps - would find this incredibly tedious. But personally, since I'm interested in this sort of thing, I found it very good and flew through all 14 hours or so in just a couple of weeks. The reader is excellent and the English language is at its best here.
I chose to read it because I wanted to hear a very powerful argument in favour of the Catholic Church. This I did not find. Yet still, it was worth it.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Costumer
- 05-04-21
Safe yourself
Could have been read faster.
Really not interesting at all.
Safe yourself and buy something else.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Meg22
- 17-04-21
Dated
I didn't get very far with this.
I love Cardinal Newman
However, the cowardly, personal and disingenuous attacks of Charles Kingsley he so rightly and indignantly refutes are of the type that are now the norm in all public and media discourse in Britain.
So far have we fallen!
Many of us know how wrong it is.
But we have all had to learn to just blot it out of our consciousness and "turn the other cheek", as trying to argue and refute it is like attempting to turn back the tide!
Fifteen hours of intensely facing up to this painful reality is not for me!
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