The Oxford Movement and Its Leaders: A Bibliography of Secondary and Lesser Primary Sources

The Oxford Movement exerted a great influence on the Church of England during the nineteenth century, and it has continued to influence the liturgy, spirituality, and church organization of Anglicanism throughout the world. Its origins, leading figures, theology, and the controversies associated with its history have caught the eye of scholars from the 1830s to the present. Lawrence N. Crumb, a retired Episcopal priest and associate professor emeritus at the University of Oregon, has devoted a quarter of a century to a project that culminated in this valuable bibliography of the Oxford Movement and its main personalities.

Crumb's first edition appeared in 1988 and included 5688 citations, and in 1993, he published a supplement with an additional 1831 entries. Although the vast majority of the citations begin in 1833, the date of John Keble's "National Apostasy" sermon and the traditional start of the Oxford Movement, there are several entries from the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. This second-edition bibliography, which extends through 2001 to include publications commemorating the bicentennial of Cardinal John Henry Newman's birth, contains 8225 citations. The author limits the bibliography to the leaders of the Oxford Movement—Newman, Keble, and Edward Pusey—and the subject matter, in addition to theology and ecclesiastical topics, includes literature, history, and the arts.

Crumb's methodology has not changed dramatically from his first 1983 edition. "The sequence of entries is chronological and thus provides a history of interest in the Movement. Within each year, entries are arranged as follows: first, books and other separately published items, arranged by author; next, chapters in books (including articles in encyclopedias), arranged by editor (or, in some cases, by title); finally, articles in periodicals, arranged by periodical title" (p. xix). This is followed by a list of "bibliographic ghosts"—namely, sources that could not be properly verified—and the major editions of Apologia Pro Vita Sua and commentaries. In addition to the new references, corrections to previous entries, and the inclusion of items not listed in the first edition and supplement, Crumb has added a new entry, "Books about the Oxford Movement," and a number of Internet sources. Especially important is Project Canterbury, an online archive that provides access to biographical sketches, articles, pamphlets, and Tracts for the Times.

The scope of this bibliography is comprehensive, and the outline is easy to follow. Its presentation of the sources is simple and straightforward, and the expanded author and subject indices in this edition provide important tools for researchers. Crumb's significant work is an important tool for the study of the Oxford Movement and a valuable resource for all libraries.