This study by a Dominican priest working in Hong Kong aims to explore the relationship of Newman's ‘liberal spirit’ and his ‘anti-liberal polemics’. Relying on some of the newer Newman-scholarship, the author starts with a preliminary assessment of ‘liberalism as an ideology’ followed by a ‘biographical sketch’ of Newman. Ih-Ren then goes on to illustrate Newman's polemics against ‘liberalism’ (especially liberal theology) in his writings, beginning with the ‘Arians of the fourth century’ (and justly citing Rowan William's judgement of the latter; p. 63). On the whole, the author is unaware of the discussions raised by Frank M. Turner about the essentially anti-Evangelical character of what Newman later branded as his protest against ‘liberalism’. There follows a well-informed chapter on the more ‘liberal’, even ‘modernist’ sides of the Roman Catholic Newman (Grammar of assent; Consulting the faithful etc.). In conclusion, the author makes an attempt to situate Newman's (anti-) liberalism ‘in the context of contemporary pluralism’. Here, Newman is at first linked with Gavin D'Costa and Josef Ratzinger in their critique of pluralist theologies of religion. The author acknowledges that Newman, the ‘Victorian gentleman’, lacked intercultural sensibilities: ‘Newman was the product of the nineteenth century and we must place him in that context. Ignorant of Asian religious traditions and cultures, and lacking in historical consciousness, he spoke of China as a “huge, stationary, unattractive, morose civilization” ’ (p. 132; cf. The idea of a university). Nevertheless, Newman's more ‘liberal’ side in theology is presented as helpful in the Asian context. The entire study is best regarded as an example of the contemporary Asian reception of Newman's thought.