Anglican doctrine
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Anglican doctrine (or Episcopalian doctrine) is a wide body of Christian religious teachings that are variously taught in Anglican churches, Sunday schools and theological colleges, and used to guide the religious and moral practices of Anglican believers.
This article presents Anglican doctrine from two angles. Firstly, Anglican churches have formally adopted doctrinal positions in their constitutional documents and canon law. The most prominent of these documents is the Thirty-Nine Articles, which has formal legal status in many parts of the Anglican family. Secondly, the doctrines of several Christian movements have gained wide acceptance among clergy and laity. Prominent among those in the latter part of the 20th century and the early 21st century are Liberal Christianity, Anglo-Catholicism, and Evangelicalism. These additional doctrines emphasise particular parts of the canon law heritage, supplement them, often conflict with each other, and can conflict with the formal doctrines. Some of these differences help to define parties or factions within Anglicanism. However, with certain notable exceptions that led to schisms, Anglicans have grown a tradition of tolerating internal differences. This tradition of tolerance is sometimes known as 'broad church'.
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[edit] Formal Anglican doctrine
[edit] Origins
Anglican doctrine emerged from the collision of two main strands of Christian doctrine during the English Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries. The first strand is the Roman Catholic doctrine taught by the established church in England in the early 1500s. The second strand is a range of Protestant Reformed teachings brought to England from neighbouring countries in the same period, notably Calvinism and Lutheranism.
[edit] Catholic heritage
Until the mid-16th century, the Church of England was the national branch of the Catholic Church. The formal doctrines had been documented in canon law over the centuries, and the Church of England still follows an unbroken tradition of canon law today. The English Reformation did not overthrow all Roman Catholic doctrines. The church not only retained the core Catholic beliefs common to Reformed doctrine in general, such as the Trinity, the Virgin Birth of Jesus, the nature of Jesus as fully human and fully God, the Resurrection of Jesus, Original Sin, and Excommunication (as affirmed by the Thirty-Nine Articles), but also retained some Catholic teachings which were rejected by more radical Protestants, such as Infant baptism and Episcopal succession.
[edit] The Thirty-Nine Articles
Reformed doctrine and theology were developed into a distinctive English form by bishops and theologians led by Thomas Cranmer, Richard Hooker and Matthew Parker. Their doctrine was summarised in the Thirty-Nine Articles which were adopted by the English Parliament and the Church of England in 1571.
Cranmer, Hooker, and Parker, like contemporary European reformers John Calvin, John Knox and Martin Luther, rejected many Roman Catholic teachings. The Thirty-Nine Articles list core Reformed doctrines such as the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for salvation, the execution of Jesus as "the perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world", Predestination and Election. Some of the articles are simple statements of opposition to Roman Catholic doctrine, such as Article XIV which denies "Works of Supererogation", XV which implicitly excludes the Immaculate Conception, and XXII which explicitly rejects the concept of Purgatory. Catholic worship and teaching was at the time conducted in Latin, while the Articles required church services to use language understood by the people.
Similarly, the Articles show their Calvinist influence by rejecting other strands of Protestant teaching, such as those of the doctrine of common property of "certain Anabaptists."
Unlike the Scottish Reformers they trod what now defines a distinctively Anglican path among Calvinism, Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism. For example, in contrast to Calvin, the Articles did not explicitly reject the Lutheran doctrine of consubstantiation. They also endorse an Episcopal polity (as opposed to Presbyterian polity), appointing the English monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England to replace the Bishop of Rome (the Pope).
[edit] The Book of Common Prayer
One or more editions of the Book of Common Prayer have legal status in many Anglican churches. This status, and its origins in the foundations of Anglicanism, lead to its being cited as an authority on doctrine for matters not covered elsewhere in the formal statements of Anglican churches. This approach is inspired by the ancient Christian principle of Lex orandi, lex credendi ("the rule of prayer is the rule of belief".)
[edit] History
Over the years, the Church of England has not amended the Thirty-Nine Articles, and has made few formal changes to doctrine. However, legislators made changes to canon law to accommodate those who feel unable to adhere strictly to the Thirty-Nine Articles. The legal form of the declaration of assent required of clergy on their appointment, which was at its most rigid in 1689, was amended in 1865 and again in 1975 to allow more latitude (see Canon C17).
[edit] Formal doctrine in other Anglican churches
Anglican churches in other countries generally inherited the official doctrines of the Church of England, and most commonly the Thirty-Nine Articles. From the earliest times, they have adapted them to suit their local needs. A couple of examples follow.
[edit] Ireland
The established church in Ireland underwent a period of more radical Calvinist doctrine. James Ussher (later Archbishop of Armagh) authored the Irish Articles, adopted in 1615. In 1634 the Irish Convocation adopted the English Thirty-Nine Articles alongside the Irish Articles. After the Restoration of 1660, it seems that the Thirty-Nine Articles took precedence, and remain the official doctrine of the Church of Ireland even after disestablishment.<ref>http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds1.ix.vi.x.html</ref>
[edit] USA
The Episcopal Church in the USA now hold to a form of the Thirty-Nine Articles that they amended in the 1800s.
[edit] Unofficial doctrine
A range of Presbyterian, Congregational, Baptist and other Puritan views gained currency in the Church in England, Ireland, and Wales through the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Although the Pilgrim Fathers felt compelled to leave for New England, other Puritans gained increasing ecclesiastical and political authority, while Royalists advocated Arminianism and the Divine Right of Kings. This conflict was one of the ultimate causes of the English Civil War. The Church of England, with the assistance of Presbyterian Church of Scotland theologians and clergy, set down their newly developed Calvinist doctrines in the Westminster Confession of 1648, which was never formally adopted into church law. After the Restoration of 1660 and the 1662 Act of Uniformity reinforced Cranmer's Anglicanism, those wishing to hold to the stricter views set out at Westminster either emigrated or covertly founded non-conformist Presbyterian, Congregational, or Baptist churches at home.
The 1700s saw the Great Awakening, the Methodist schism, and the identification of the Evangelical party among the many conservatives who remained in the Anglican churches. The same period also saw the emergence of the High Church movement, which began to identify with the Roman Catholic heritage of Anglicanism, and to emphasise the importance of the Eucharist and church tradition, while mostly rejecting the authority of the Pope. The High Churchmen gave birth to the Oxford Movement and Anglo-Catholicism in the 1800s, which also saw the emergence of Liberal Christianity across the Protestant world.
[edit] Controversies
[edit] Historical controversies
The schism with the Methodists in the 18th century had a theological asepct, particularly concerning the Methodist emphasis on personal salvation by faith alone, although John Wesley continued to regard himself as a member of the Church of England.
The mid 19th century saw doctrinal debate between adherents of the Oxford Movement and their Low Church or Evangelical opponents, though the most public conflict tended to involve more superficial matters such as the use of church ornaments, vestments, candles, and ceremonial (which were taken to indicate a sympathy with Roman Catholic doctrine), and the extent to which such matters ought to be restricted by the church authorities.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Anglicans fiercely debated the use of artificial contraception by Christian couples, which was prohibited by church teaching. In 1930 the Lambeth Conference took a lone stand among major Christian denominations at the time and permitted its use in some circumstances.<ref>O'Grady, Kathleen, 1999 "Contraception and religion, A short history" from The Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion (Serinity Young et al. eds). Macmillan, 1999, reprinted on http://www.mum.org/contrace.htm, retrieved August 15, 2006</ref> See also Christian views on contraception.
The 20th century also saw an intense doctrinal debate among Anglicans over the ordination of women, which led to schism, as well as to the conversion of some Anglican clergy to Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy.
[edit] Current controversies
As of 2006, some prominent doctrinal issues are being actively debated in Anglican synods and convocations across the world, including:- Consecration of women as bishops (see Ordination of women)
- Homosexuality (see Anglican views of homosexuality)
Mainly arising from disagreement over these issues, there is now also some debate about the Anglican doctrines of the church (ecclesiology) regarding the authority and independence of diocesan bishops and archbishops. Some liberal dioceses and provinces have moved further than others can easily accept, and some conservative parishes within them have sought pastoral oversight from bishops of other dioceses or provinces.
[edit] See also
- Anglican Eucharistic theology
- History of Calvinist-Arminian debate
- Anglican sacraments
- Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral
- Ritualist movement
- Bangorian Controversy
- Nonjuring schism
- Christian theological controversy
[edit] Some contemporary advocates of Anglican doctrine
- Kenneth Leech
- Eric Lionel Mascall (E. L. Mascall)
- Rowan Williams
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- The history of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion.
- LIBERAL - CONSERVATIVE DIVISIONS WITHIN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, B.A. Robinson, 2000 updated 2003
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