James Clark is the author of The Witness of Beauty and Other Essays, and the Book Review Editor at The North American Anglican. His writing has appeared in Cranmer Theological Journal, Journal of Classical Theology, and American Reformer, as well as other publications.
The First Lords of the Earth: An Anthropological Study. By Alice C. Linsley. Self-published, 2023. 336 pp. $35 (cloth), $30 (paper). The narrative of the Bible, focused as it largely is on the ancient Hebrews, tells us a great deal about them, how they lived and functioned as a group. Yet much about the nature…
It is not by happenstance that the first mark of the visible church is said to be that “the pure word of God is preached.” To be sure, the sacraments must be “duly ministered,” but in the absence of sound doctrine, even Baptism and the Eucharist will avail only so much. Making doctrinal purity a…
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…