It's not as simple as it seems.
Yes, the Apologia of Newman conquers by its style, yet its style is far from being the main cause of its profound effect, its present (and increasing) position in European letters and in the story of our civilization. Its style alone, nay, its matter {viii} alone, would not have achieved these things. What has achieved them?The place of the Apologia is due to the fact that it puts conclusively, convincingly, and down to the very roots of the matter, the method by which a high intelligence, not only Anglican but of Oxford, and from the heart of Oxford, accepted the Faith.
It is one of the myriad converging proofs of Catholic Truth that its appeal is multiform. From its beginnings men appreciated that. It is all bound up in the story of Whitsuntide (in the octave of which this is written). One man and woman thus, another man, another woman in a wholly different way, from attitudes most adverse, from positions each, in the eyes of an opponent, impossibly hostile, repeats the famous words, "My Lord and my God."
- from the forward by Hillaire Belloc
Yikes! Of course that’s “foreward” - that’s what typing in a hurry and putting in a link will do for your facility in spelling . . . .
Let me see here, Jesus says it is, you say it isn't. Ponder,. ponder, ponder, who to believe? He who created the universes in six consecutive 24 hour days and went up on a cross for me? Or you.
Sorry AnAmericanMother, but, I'm going with Jesus. You do the reading, I'll do the praising.