From the Editor Scripture, Conversation and Anglican Identity (original) (raw)
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Scripture, Conversation and Anglican Identity
Journal of Anglican Studies, 2013
This editorial piece considers the implications of Scriptural Reasoning, a method of inter-religious exchange that is the subject of the present number of the journal, for contemporary Anglicanism. It suggests that the character of Scriptural Reasoning as a conversation held across and despite religious difference offers a challenge to contemporary Anglicans to maintain their own conversation about Scripture.
Editorial: Communication, Argument and Conversation for Anglicans
Journal of Anglican Studies, 2008
Fred Hoyle was one of the most distinguished astrophysicists of the twentieth century. In 1957 he published a science fiction book, The Black Cloud. This was the story of a black cloud of immense intelligence that settled itself between the sun and the earth, gradually freezing the earth. A special group of highly intelligent scientists was set up in a country house in Nortonstowe, England and with highly complex computers tried to communicate with the cloud. This did not work and one scientist connected the information stream directly to his brain and died. His brain was not up to handling the material. While the scientists reviewed this development the gardener, a simple person, wandered into the radio shack and put the earphones on and conducted a conversation with the cloud. He was able to converse and obtained an extensive story about how the cloud had been looking for the beginning of the universe, and had searched for some super nova which had occurred in the vicinity of the universe. Fred Hoyle, with tongue in cheek, was trying to say that the way in which the physicists had learned to think was inadequate. A different kind of thinking was required to communicate with this different and more powerful intelligence. Communication with others is often made difficult by what we bring unstated and often unknowingly to the conversation. The easy option is simply to disagree and walk away. The harder, and in the church the more appropriate, option is to argue. Argument is disagreement in embrace. It is the determination to find with our fellow Christians some way of loving each other through times of division and conflict. Anglicans around the world are experiencing just how difficult this can be. Yet the vocation to love is central to our witness and to our own integrity as Christians and Anglicans. It is one of the very great strengths of the recent IATDC report Communion, Conflict and Hope that it places this aspect of our Anglican faith centre stage and points to the eschatological hope in Christ that sustains such a vocation. In their central argument they strike a remarkable note of practical and theological realism in the history of the church. There
'Neither Catholic Fish nor Protestant Fowl': the question of Anglicanism
Any claim for the ecclesiological integrity of Anglicanism seems, at the moment, tenuous. The divisions within the Anglican Communion over the issues of human sexuality and gender do not seem easily healed, despite the efforts of the current archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and his predecessor, Rowan Williams. Despite the proud assertions of Anglican apologists down the ages that the Church was positioned, following the Elizabethan 'settlement' of 1588, with moderation and good sense as a via media between Rome and Geneva, this new five-volume history of Anglicanism reveals a church that has been in conflict from its very origins. In seeking to be a church for the whole of England, it was naturally constituted of competing theological and ecclesiological visions, influenced by continental reformations, that could never be entirely congruentdivisions which, at certain junctions since the break with Rome almost 500 years ago, have been the source of significant aggravation and tribalism. Those politico-theological tensions, the History underlines, were exported across Britain's expanding empire, spawning vibrant new networks and associations that only served further to disrupt the fragile unity of the Church of England after the confessional state was dismantled by the British parliament in 1828-1832. Despite the enormous vibrancy engendered by this conflict of traditions, now stretched across a global Communion and influenced as much by post-colonialism and globalisation as older theological traditions, the final two volumes pose challenging questions for any who would seek to speak meaningfully of a single entity called the 'Anglican Church'. This article suggests that the greatest threat to contemporary Anglicanism, however, lies in a postmodern retreat from the ecumenical task as truth becomes ever more contextualised, driven by a desire for peaceful cohabitation rather than institutional coherence. These volumes might suggest, rather, that Anglicanism's hope (and its gift to the wider Church) is to be found precisely in its conflicted quest for truth and unity in faithful response to Scripture, tradition and reason.
International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church, 2018
Any claim for the ecclesiological integrity of Anglicanism seems, at the moment, tenuous. The divisions within the Anglican Communion over the issues of human sexuality and gender do not seem easily healed, despite the efforts of the current archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and his predecessor, Rowan Williams. Despite the proud assertions of Anglican apologists down the ages that the Church was positioned, following the Elizabethan ‘settlement’ of 1558, with moderation and good sense as a via media between Rome and Geneva, this new five-volume history of Anglicanism reveals a church that has been in conflict from its very origins. In seeking to be a church for the whole of England, it was naturally constituted of competing theological and ecclesiological visions, influenced by continental reformations, that could never be entirely congruent – divisions which, at certain junctions since the break with Rome almost 500 years ago, have been the source of significant aggravation and tribalism. Those politico-theological tensions, the History underlines, were exported across Britain’s expanding empire, spawning vibrant new networks and associations that only served further to disrupt the fragile unity of the Church of England after the confessional state was dismantled by the British parliament in 1828–1832. Despite the enormous vibrancy engendered by this conflict of traditions, now stretched across a global Communion and influenced as much by post-colonialism and globalisation as older theological traditions, the final two volumes pose challenging questions for any who would seek to speak meaningfully of a single entity called the ‘Anglican Church’. This article suggests that the greatest threat to contemporary Anglicanism, however, lies in a postmodern retreat from the ecumenical task as truth becomes ever more contextualised, driven by a desire for peaceful cohabitation rather than institutional coherence. These volumes might suggest, rather, that Anglicanism’s hope (and its gift to the wider Church) is to be found precisely in its conflicted quest for truth and unity in faithful response to Scripture, tradition and reason.
The Church of Jesus Christ: An Anglican Response
Ecclesiology, 2005
Following an initial exploration of the teaching of The Church of Jesus Christ, this paper argues that a comparison of The Church of Jesus Christ with the Thirty Nine Articles and recent Anglican ecumenical statements and agreements shows a significant degree of agreement between The Church of Jesus Christ and Anglican theology and ecclesiology. This agreement reflects the fact that both the Anglican tradition and the traditions of the churches in the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe have been shaped by the Reformation. It also shows the influence of a growing ecumenical consensus on ecclesiological issues. However, alongside this agreement there also remain significant points of difference about the relation between divine and human activity in the Church, the importance of tradition, the holiness of the Church and the nature of the Church’s unity. These points of difference need to be explored and debated by Anglicans and members of the Churches of the Community of Prote...
Scriptural Reasoning and the Anglican–Muslim Encounter
Journal of Anglican Studies, 2013
The process of scriptural reasoning promises to facilitate dialogue and understanding across religious divides. In this paper, the author reflects on the experience of scriptural reasoning with Anglicans and Muslims; describing the phenomenon of 'fellowship, not consensus' with reference to key points of doctrinal difference between the two religious traditions.
Fresh Expressions: Anglican and Church?
“Fresh Expressions: Authentically Anglican and Church?” A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Theology for Christian Ministry and Mission at the University of Surrey, UK.