Discussions and Arguments draws together six articles written by Newman as both an Anglican and a Catholic. Two of the articles are Tracts for the Times, and another two are a series of letters to a newspaper discussing the nature of scientific knowledge as a quasi-substitute for belief and the balance between executive power and democratic constraint. The first article is written as a discussion between three friends of the nature of the Via Media.The book has been unavailable for many years and contains some of Newman's best and most amusing writing, scattered throughout with extensive historical and literary references, which have been extensively researched for the modern reader in this edition.

John Henry Newman, (1801-1890) was a Roman Catholic priest and cardinal, a convert from Anglicanism in October 1845. In his early life, he was a major figure in the Oxford Movement to bring the Church of England back to its Catholic roots. Eventually his studies in history persuaded him to become a Roman Catholic. Both before and after becoming a Roman Catholic, he wrote influential books, including Via Media, Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845), Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1865-66) and the Grammar of Assent (1870). He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.