An Outline of an Anglican Life (Tarsitano, 1994)

An Outline of an Anglican Life: Lessons in the Faith and Practice of the Anglican Church is a book by the Rev. Dr. Louis R. Tarsitano, published by Classical Anglican Press in 1994. It is a survey course on the general faith and practice of the Anglican Church, written in question-and-answer form. Tarsitano originally prepared the material as a series of questions and answers for use in preparing and conducting Confirmation and Inquirers' Classes in Anglican churches, and he continued to use the lessons, in various versions, over a number of years.

About this work

The course is designed to be covered in ten or twelve weekly sessions, with no fewer than ten weeks given to the study. Each student is expected to have a Bible and a copy of the Book of Common Prayer; Tarsitano works from the American Prayer Book of 1928, and the course is meant to supplement the Church's requirement that candidates for Confirmation know the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, and be instructed in the contents of the Offices of Instruction or the Church Catechism.

Tarsitano's stated method is that the Anglican Church is a living example of the Scriptural Church: the Anglican faith is not a compromise among religious traditions, but the effort of this branch of Christ's Church to walk the path mapped out in the Holy Scriptures. This is, in his words, the original and only true meaning of the Anglican via media — not "the middle of the road," but "the one sure highway our King has provided for our salvation." Throughout the lessons he supplies biblical warrants and backgrounds for Anglican teaching and practice.

Contents

The book consists of an introduction, ten lessons, five appendices, and a set of notes giving the sources and bibliography for the lessons. Three of the appendices are adapted papers: Appendix II, on the via media, from a paper presented to the Anglican Society at the University of South Carolina in 1989; Appendix III, on the "Textus Receptus" and Bible translation, adapted from a presentation to the Clericus of the Diocese of the Eastern United States of the Anglican Church in America in June 1993; and Appendix IV, on canon law, adapted from a presentation to the same Clericus in 1992. Appendix V is a sample final examination, which Tarsitano distributed to his classes on the first day.

• Introduction
• Lesson One: The Church
• Lesson Two: The Doctrine of God
• Lesson Three: Sin, Salvation & Grace
• Lesson Four: The Dominical Sacraments
• Lesson Five: The Minor Sacraments
• Lesson Six: The Holy Scriptures
• Lesson Seven: The Book of Common Prayer
• Lesson Eight: The Polity of the Church
• Lesson Nine: Moral Theology
• Lesson Ten: A Church Miscellany
• Appendix I: Participation in an Anglican Service
• Appendix II: The Via Media
• Appendix III: The "Textus Receptus"
• Appendix IV: Canon Law
• Appendix V: A Final Examination
• Notes

The author

Louis R. Tarsitano was an Anglican priest. Besides An Outline of an Anglican Life, he co-authored three books with the English evangelical theologian Peter Toon. He described this book modestly as "simply one Anglican priest's understanding of the outline of our Anglican heritage."

Publication and copyright

An Outline of an Anglican Life was first published by Classical Anglican Press in 1994. Unlike the older historical texts reproduced on AnglicanWiki, it remains in copyright; the text is reproduced here by permission of Classical Anglican Press.

Source: Louis R. Tarsitano, An Outline of an Anglican Life (Classical Anglican Press, 1994). Reproduced on AnglicanWiki by permission of Classical Anglican Press.