Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua: Gender, Self, and Conscience

Abstract

Offers an explanation for Newman’s conversion experience, which in his Apologia Newman compares to Hamlet’s dilemma, by relying on psychological interpretations of family relationships. In moving from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, Newman is able to deal effectively with strong father figures (the Pope, Protestant theologians, early Church fathers) and was also able to accept with love a mother figure, the Roman Catholic Church, which promoted acceptance of and homage to Mary as Christ’s mother.