Anglican theology
Anglican theology is the body of Christian teaching held, taught, and developed within the churches of the Anglican Communion, expressed principally through the historic formularies of the Church of England and the writings of its theologians. Unlike churches defined by a single confession or systematic creed, Anglicanism has often been described by its own apologists as a "via media", a middle way between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. That characterization is a claim made by Anglicans about their tradition, and it has been used and debated within the tradition, rather than a neutral description commanding universal assent. Anglican theology is reformed in its appeal to Scripture and its rejection of medieval abuses, and catholic in its retention of the creeds, the sacraments, and episcopal order — though both labels are contested, and scholars commonly present them as self-descriptions of the tradition rather than settled facts.
The formularies
The primary sources of Anglican theology are the historic formularies: the Book of Common Prayer, the Thirty-nine Articles, the Books of Homilies, and the Ordinal, the rites for the ordination of bishops, priests, and deacons. Together these documents carry the doctrinal decisions of the English Reformation into the Church's worship and ministry. The Articles, framed under Elizabeth I from drafts associated with Thomas Cranmer and Matthew Parker, state the teaching of the Church of England on Scripture, the creeds, justification, the sacraments, and church order; clerical subscription to them was historically required in the Church of England. Their doctrinal scope is best understood through the Articles themselves, and fuller commentary on each article is available through the exposition linked from the Thirty-nine Articles article. The Books of Homilies, two collections of sermons appointed to be read in churches, are commended by the Articles themselves as containing godly and wholesome doctrine.
Scripture, reason, and tradition
The most influential Anglican account of theological authority is that of Richard Hooker in his Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. Hooker argued that Scripture holds the first place in all matters concerning salvation, while human reason and the tradition of the Church guide judgment where Scripture does not speak plainly or directly. He developed this position against two opponents at once: the Puritans, who held that church government must be prescribed by Scripture alone, and the Roman Catholic position, as he saw it, of elevating tradition to an authority equal to Scripture. Later commentators have commonly summarized Hooker's authorities as Scripture, reason, and tradition, sometimes calling the triad a "threefold cord"; this label is a later summary of his thought rather than Hooker's own phrase.
Worship as the carrier of doctrine
It is widely noted by students of Anglicanism that the prayer book's rites embody doctrine: the Church's teaching is carried above all in its worship, so that the words of the liturgy — its prayers for the Daily Office, Baptism, Holy Communion, and burial — form the faith of those who pray them. This is sometimes expressed in the maxim lex orandi, lex credendi — the law of prayer is the law of belief: the content, form, and rubrics of the liturgy are treated as an important element of doctrinal understanding and development, alongside the work of theologians. On this account, to study Anglican theology is in large part to study Anglican worship, since doctrine that is not prayed is, in this tradition, doctrine that is not fully held.
Later landmarks
The Oxford Movement of the nineteenth century re-emphasized the catholic continuity of the Church of England, encouraging the study of the early Church Fathers and presenting the Church as part of the one catholic Church, continuous with the primitive Church and sharing in apostolic order. In the late nineteenth century the Communion named four elements as the basis for Christian unity in the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral: the Holy Scriptures, as containing all things necessary to salvation; the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed; the two dominical sacraments of Baptism and the Supper of the Lord; and the historic episcopate. First formulated by the American bishops at Chicago in 1886 and adopted by the Lambeth Conference in 1888, it remains the Communion's stated basis for ecumenical dialogue with other churches.
Modern diversity
Within this shared framework, Anglicans commonly describe their tradition in terms of several strands or parties: evangelical, catholic, and liberal or broad-church. These are descriptive categories used by Anglicans themselves and by scholars of the tradition, rather than official divisions, and they are combined in different ways by different writers and churchpeople. Evangelical Anglicans have typically stressed the authority of Scripture, the Articles, and the preaching of the gospel; catholic Anglicans have stressed continuity with the ancient Church, the sacraments, and episcopal order; liberal or broad-church Anglicans have stressed the role of reason, historical criticism, and engagement with modern thought. That Anglican theology accommodates such diversity is itself one of its most widely noted features, and also one of the most debated.
See also
References
- Paul Avis, Anglicanism and the Christian Church, T&T Clark, 1989.
- Stephen Sykes, The Integrity of Anglicanism, Mowbray, 1978.