School of the Prophets

Studies of John Henry Newman’s conception of the theologian’s ecclesiastical role have tended to focus exclusively on writings that appeared after his Roman Catholic conversion and comparatively late in life. This book corrects that imbalance by tracing the chronological development of this thinking from his earliest writings as an Anglican. This "thicker" contextualization reveals that Newman’s Tractarian school at the University of Oxford is a critical precursor for his much later conception of the schola theologorum and its "prophetical" role in the development of doctrine alongside the "apostolical" office of bishops and the laity.