Holy Orders
Review of Icons of Christ: Symbolism and Conclusions
PART 1: WHY IS WOMEN’S ORDINATION PLAUSIBLE? PART 2: WITT’S CONSTRUCTION OF HISTORY PART 3: ERRORS OF PHILOLOGY PART 4: SYMBOLISM AND CONCLUSIONS Part 4: Symbolism and Conclusions In the previous three installments, we have examined the plausibility structures of women’s ordination (WO), Witt’s view of history, and his handling of Greek philology. We now…
Review of Icons of Christ: Errors of Philology
PART 1: WHY IS WOMEN’S ORDINATION PLAUSIBLE? PART 2: WITT’S CONSTRUCTION OF HISTORY PART 3: ERRORS OF PHILOLOGY PART 4: SYMBOLISM AND CONCLUSIONS PART 3 – ERRORS OF PHILOLOGY Having discussed plausibility structures and history in the previous two parts of this review, we come now to what, for Protestants, will be the central question…
Review of Icons of Christ: Errors of Protology and Eschatology
PART 1: WHY IS WOMEN’S ORDINATION PLAUSIBLE? PART 2: WITT’S CONSTRUCTION OF HISTORY PART 3: ERRORS OF PHILOLOGY PART 4: SYMBOLISM AND CONCLUSIONS PART 2: WITT’S CONSTRUCTION OF HISTORY In the first part of this series, we examined the plausibility structures on which Witt’s book relies for its persuasiveness. We saw that Witt teaches a…
Review of Icons of Christ: Plausibility Structures
PART 1: WHY IS WOMEN’S ORDINATION PLAUSIBLE? PART 2: WITT’S CONSTRUCTION OF HISTORY PART 3: ERRORS OF PHILOLOGY PART 4: SYMBOLISM AND CONCLUSIONS PART 1: WHY IS WOMEN’S ORDINATION PLAUSIBLE? Icons of Christ : A Biblical and Systematic Theology for Women’s Ordination. Witt, William G. Waco: Baylor University Press 2020. 439 pp. $59.99 (cloth); $44.99 (paper). Professor…
Announcing “No Other Foundation: Essays on Women’s Ordination in the Anglican Church”
For some in the Anglican faith, the topic of the ordination of women to holy orders is a long-settled one. However, for those of us in the ACNA, like all of our editors, it is an ever-present conversation, dominating matters of ecclesiology and communion. All parties have agreed that “dual-integrities” means a house built upon…
Anglican Orders of Ministry Part II
In sixteenth-century England, unlike in much of Europe, circumstances allowed for reformation through the ecclesiastical hierarchy, rather than in (total) defiance of it. This has created a unique, sometimes confusing, but, as I hope to show, beneficial position for the Church of England. The Church of England both maintained her historic structure and embraced the…
Anglican Orders of Ministry Part I
During the Reformation the Church of England, along with a minority of other Protestant churches[1] maintained its pre-Reformation episcopalian polity, with its three orders of deacon, presbyter, and bishop. In this two-part essay, I explore the Anglican orders of ministry. In this first part, I begin by discussing episcopalian polity generally; in the subsequent piece…
The Protestant Problem with Priesthood
Many aspects of Anglicanism can perplex other Protestants—including at times the suggestion that Anglicans are Protestants (the English Martyrs, the 39 Articles, and all that notwithstanding).[1] Those things to which suspicion attaches are generally aspects of Anglican polity and liturgy that seem “Catholic”—that is, those things that share names or appearances with what one might…
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How Has Modernity Shifted the Women’s Ordination Debate?
Perhaps through a flattering overvaluation of the part that we play in them as clergy or scholars, we often suppose that ideas and practices prevail in the social arena chiefly through strength of arguments. Consequently, we can easily overlook the frequently decisive role played by such things as shifts in political and institutional power, by…
Holy Orders and Prophets: Another Response to Fr. McCaulley
INTRODUCTION Why does the Church not practice the baptism for the dead, as mentioned in 1 Cor 15:29? Mormons do, of course, but why don’t Christians? It is, after all, right there in the Bible, so perhaps this is something that has gotten lost in the course of history, and needs to be recovered? No,…