Tracts for the Times
Quick Summary
The Tracts for the Times were a series of 90 publications from 1833 to 1841, central to the 19th-century Oxford movement in the Church of England. This movement, based at the University of Oxford, aimed to revive Catholic theology and practices within Anglicanism, asserting the church's independence from the state and its continuity with the early Christian church. Key figures included John Henry Newman, John Keble, and Edward Pusey. The Tracts, with Newman as editor, argued for the absolute doctrinal authority of the church. Some followers, including Newman, eventually converted to Roman Catholicism. The movement influenced church worship, ritual, and pastoral care.1
Ask Britannica AI about this topic
Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.
John Keble…of the Oxford Movement’s 90 Tracts for the Times, which were intended to rouse the Anglican clergy against the theory of a state-controlled church and which caused the movement’s advocates to be known as Tractarians. The Tractarians encouraged study of the early Church Fathers, edited their works, and arranged for…
Read More…of the Oxford Movement’s 90 Tracts for the Times, which were intended to rouse the Anglican clergy against the theory of a state-controlled church and which caused the movement’s advocates to be known as Tractarians. The Tractarians encouraged study of the early Church Fathers, edited their works, and arranged for…
Read More
St. John Henry NewmanAssociation with the Oxford movementNewman’s editing of the Tracts for the Times and his contributing of 24 tracts among them were less significant for the influence of the movement than his books, especially the Lectures on the Prophetical Office of the Church (1837), the classic statement of the Tractarian doctrine of authority; the…
Read MoreNewman’s editing of the Tracts for the Times and his contributing of 24 tracts among them were less significant for the influence of the movement than his books, especially the Lectures on the Prophetical Office of the Church (1837), the classic statement of the Tractarian doctrine of authority; the…
Read More
English literatureEarly Victorian nonfiction prose…of the tracts, published as Tracts for the Times (1833–41), that promoted the Oxford movement, which sought to reassert the Roman Catholic identity of the Church of England. His subsequent religious development is memorably described in his Apologia pro Vita Sua (1864), one of the many great autobiographies of this…
Read More…of the tracts, published as Tracts for the Times (1833–41), that promoted the Oxford movement, which sought to reassert the Roman Catholic identity of the Church of England. His subsequent religious development is memorably described in his Apologia pro Vita Sua (1864), one of the many great autobiographies of this…
Read More