James Clark is the Book Review Editor at The North American Anglican. His writing has appeared in Front Porch Republic, American Reformer, and Journal of Classical Theology, as well as other publications.
Before getting to our present focus, a preliminary word: one of the marks of the visible church, according to Article XIX, is that “the Sacraments be duly ministered,” and as Browne adds, part of what it means for the sacraments to be duly ministered is that those ministering them be “rightly ordained.” He goes on…
Some commentators today assert that we must be prepared to do whatever is “necessary” to combat evil in the world.[1] Lest this be misconstrued as an uncontroversial exhortation to be courageous and resolute in resisting evil, it is further alleged that in this process we will often be forced to choose the lesser of two…
When moral and political injustices abound unchallenged, the wronged contemplate violence as a recourse. For Christians who live in such a time, two questions arise: does violence better conform the world to Christ, and is violence committed for righteousness’ sake justified? French sociologist Jacques Ellul considered these questions at length in a book on the…
The Authentic Reactionary: Selected Scholia of Nicolás Gómez Dávila. Edited by Michael J. Moynihan and Joshua Buckley. Translated with commentary by Ramon Elani. North Augusta, SC: Arcana Europa, 2023. xxxiii + 206 pp. $22 (paper). In an age where conventional modern pieties are failing, attempts to recover traditional and reactionary thought are to be expected….
Browne’s treatment of Article XVIII—focused as it is on showing that baptism is necessary for salvation—is unusual compared to many other commentaries on the Articles. It is, however, in keeping with his prior advocacy of ecclesiastical election: if we are saved by “only the name of Jesus Christ,” as the Article says, and if those…
In keeping with his earlier treatment of Article X and Article XVI, Browne holds that Article XVII is neither Calvinist nor Arminian, although, as mentioned previously, he suggests the Article allows for both positions: “It seems worthy of consideration, whether the Article was not designedly drawn up in guarded and general terms, on purpose to…
The self-evident focus of Article XVI is the possibility of repenting from post-baptismal sin and, to an extent, the nature of “sin against the Holy Ghost.” Yet it is in the context of this Article, rather than Article XVII (“Of Predestination and Election”), that Browne chooses to discuss extensively the doctrine of final perseverance: The…
The pernicious doctrine opposed by Article XVI—that deadly sins committed after baptism cannot be forgiven—is rarely encountered in our dissolute age. If anything, we are more likely to fall into the opposite error of diminishing the seriousness of sin and the damage it inflicts. Yet tender consciences, suffocating beneath the burden of grievous sins, are…
The Anglican Office Book, 2nd Edition. Edited by Charles Lance Davis. Lake Almanor, CA: Whithorn Press, 2023. 2,247 pp. $125 (leatherette). The first edition of The Anglican Office Book was published in 2021, with the purpose of presenting “the entire Divine Office, through the prism of the classical Prayer Book tradition, in a format designed…
Browne’s Exposition originally appeared in two volumes, the first volume—which ended with his discussion of Article XV—being published in 1850, a few years before the Romish doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was declared a dogma by Pope Pius IX in 1854: We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed…