Sermons for the Christian Year

"Sermons for the Christian Year" is a selection of sermons by John Keble, a friend and colleague of Newman and an influential figure in the Oxford Movement that rediscovered the Catholic roots of Anglicanism. The sermons, all preached after 1836, when Keble retired from the academic life of Oxford to pastoral work in the country parish of Hursley in Hampshire, span the liturgical year. Most importantly, they are marked by the acute pastoral sense that made Keble beloved and influential in his own day and by his passionate desire that the simplest members of his parish embrace in full the life of Christian holiness.

The introductory essay by Maria Poggi Johnson sets the sermons in the context of Keblebs career and the history of Victorian religion and outlines the main themes of Keblebs thought and suggests some ways in which the sermons are relevant to the contemporary Christian or student of religion.