Cardinal Newman's life was not without controversy, whether it was in his dispute with novelist Charles Kingsley, or the Liberal Prime Minister W.E. Gladstone. Here, Edward Short explores these incidents to show how the opposing viewpoints he encountered helped him to articulate and defend the positions he took on religion, education, and philosophy.

Newman and His Critics takes a close look at how Newman came to many of his religious and intellectual positions in the shadow of the Enlightenment. Thoroughly familiar with the works of such brilliant critics as Hume and Voltaire, Newman recognized that, to make the case for Christianity, he would have to confront a redoubtable and ever-evolving tradition of scepticism and rationalism. In the critical attention he received from Victorian, Newman would tackle the opposing viewpoints of rationalism, Whig historiography, liberal Catholicism, liberal Anglicanism and scholarly Dissent. Short shows how Newman welcomed viewpoints opposed to his own in order to persuade his contemporaries of the enduring appeal of Catholicism.