This is the first of Newman's Anglican works to be presented in a fully annotated edition. Newman published the first two editions in 1836 and 1837 at the height of his career within the Oxford Movement. The third edition was published in 1877, when Newman had been a Roman Catholic for thiry-two years. It represents a dialogue between the Evangelical Anglican, Anglo-Catholic, and Roman Catholic Newman. As such it is a critical work in understanding Newman's development, as well as the impact of his thought on the larger Christian Church in his century and even in this one as it comes to a close. The text of this edition is based on the edition of 1889 (with obvious errors and misprints silently corrected), the edition to be seen through the press by Newman before his death in 1890; its pagination is preserved in the margin alongside the present text to facilitate reference to the uniform edition of the collected works. The text is supplemented by an introduction and textual appendix which lists all the variant readings between the editions of 1836, 1837, 1877 and the final edition.
