Newman on Tap Presents

Father Robert Whitney joins the host Ron Snyder to discuss St. John Henry Newman's first Oxford University sermon, "The Philosophical Temper, First Enjoined by the Gospel", sharing how Newman kept reappearing throughout his own journey as a student of the classics, a seminarian, and now a teacher. They explore Newman's counter to the Enlightenment claim that religion is hostile to science, citing great scientists of faith — Lemaître, Mendel, Pasteur — and Pasteur's dictum that "a little scien...

In this episode, Dr. Keith Kuwata joins host Ron Snyder to discuss Newman's sermon "Tolerance of Religious Error," preached on the Feast of St. Barnabas in 1834. Keith, who was raised in a non-sacramental evangelical tradition before becoming an Anglo-Catholic Episcopalian and eventually entering the Catholic Church in 2003, draws on his own journey to illuminate Newman's critique of the Christianity of his age. He describes how his evangelical upbringing reduced faith to a single conversion ...

Host Ron Snyder welcomes Olivia Firsching to discuss Newman's 1836 sermon "Doing Glory to God in Pursuits of the World," which challenges the idea that holiness requires withdrawing from ordinary life. Newman argues Christians are called to glorify God within daily work, relationships, and duty rather than escaping them — avoiding both worldliness and passive withdrawal. Olivia shares her own journey with Newman's writing and how the sermon's call to serve heartily resonated with her two year...

This episode of Newman on Tap Presents, hosted by Ron Snyder, features guest Sheila Berube, a retired Catholic Studies graduate student who discovered St. John Henry Newman through her coursework. Together they explore Newman's sermon The Danger of Accomplishments (1831), which warns that knowledge, talent, and accomplishment are only good insofar as they lead to virtuous action rather than empty feeling. They discuss how education and "refinement" can create a false sense of piety if it neve...

Host, Ron Snyder interviews poet Rita A. Simmonds reflecting on Newman's sermon "The Invisible World" through her own poetry. They explore Newman's idea that an unseen spiritual world exists alongside the visible one, pairing his sermon passages with Rita's poems on faith, loss, and grace. Rita shares deeply personal work inspired by her husband's death, alongside poems on Christ's presence, the good thief's redemption, and nature as a window into the eternal. The conversation moves through t...