When Cardinal Newman wrote his famous Apologia describing the main stages of the spiritual journey that had led him to Catholicism, he was obliged to state as bare assertions certain affirmations that he felt needed further elaboration. Through bitter experience, he knew how difficult it was to acquire the firm, stable and indestructible assent to the truth of Christianity, the simple faith in the Catholic creed and system that those born in the Faith do not consider the slightest burden. He was only too well aware of the dilemma facing an intellect confronted with a divine truth whose extreme probability is a practical certitude but which finds difficulty in giving it an unconditional assent.
A Grammar of Assent attempts to facilitate for others their first initiation to the grammar of the spiritual language that Newman himself had to learn before his own intellect gave a real assent to what he already knew to be true.
Perhaps the most technically elaborate of all Newman's writings, A Grammar of Assent is among his most important. With the passage of the years, its significance is even more striking in our times. As Dr. Gilson points out in his discerning Introduction, "More than eighty years after its first publication. A Grammar of Assent has.preserved intact its power of suggestion, its actuality and its fecundity as a method of investigation." A Grammar of Assent is an intellectually stimulating experience, well worth the effort expended in reading and understanding it.