On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine was first published in July, 1859, as an article in the Rambler. It was the immediate cause of great controversy both in Rome and in England. Newman did not withdraw his views, but the article was not reprinted or published in England since that time, and appeared only once in an American journal, Cross Currents. Scholars without access to Rambler archives have had to resort to a German translation, and the ordinary reader has had to rely on brief quotation and heresy.

This edition of Newman's essay is the first in any language to contain a collated version of the text published in the Rambler for July, 1859, and the abbreviated and amended version of 1871. The book also contains an extract from The Arians of the Fourth Century, which bears on the same subject and amplifies Newman's views.