Political theology is the order of the day, and my, does it make people emotional. Different tribes of Protestants denounce each other for being un-American, or theocratic, or giving away the gospel in search of power. The war is not even between denominations; even within Calvinist churches and their Baptist adjutants in the United States,…
As a son of Chinese immigrants in America, I read with interest an article by David Choi at Mere Orthodoxy, “Becoming an Asian-American Church.” Anglicanism is an international family of autocephalous national churches, and our post-Reformation experience of adaptation to local, non-English cultures goes as far back as the 17th century, with successes and failures….
Why Believe? A Reasoned Approach to Christianity. By Neil Shenvi. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2022. 272 pp. $19.99 (paper). “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31‒32 (ESV) We live in a world and an age where no…
The necessity of good works for Christians is clearly established in Article XII: good works “do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith,” we are told, “insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known, as a tree discerned by the fruit.” The necessity spoken of here is a logical…
Every time an Anglican converts to Catholicism or Orthodoxy, from lowly American deacons to English bishops, a story is told by way of explanation: Anglicanism, once a proud bastion of purely Protestant doctrines and practices, was hijacked by sacerdotal pretenders beginning in the Oxford Movement, and now, downstream from sham midcentury liturgical reforms, Anglicans have…
Glow, gentle canticle, in the endless ether— ring radiant across the radius of curse, flow faster than lashes, ride with rigid grasp. The hollows gape and holler as you flash in the shallows, a holy sheen holding steady— they didn’t know about you and the new brine we breathe.
As I have noted previously, Cranmer’s Eucharistic liturgy of 1552 had a distinctive shape – Law-Gospel-Repentance-Supper-Thanksgiving – which was retained for most Anglican rites down to the middle of the twentieth century. The main, and for almost two hundred years the only, exception was that of the Scottish Episcopal Church, which was a hybrid of…
Snyder: Scholastic Defense of Infant BaptismInfant Baptism: A Treatise in Defense of Infant Baptism, Written in the Scholastic Style – Part I Infant Baptism: A Treatise in Defense of Infant Baptism, Written in the Scholastic Style – Part II Infant Baptism: A Treatise in Defense of Infant Baptism, Written in the Scholastic Style – Part…
This week the virtual studio is FULL with all three Miserable Offenders present to discuss a recent article by Gillis Harp appearing at The Gospel Coalition. Dr. Harp urges Anglicans to stay true to their confessions, and while we all agreed with this premise we had plenty to discuss regarding Harp’s particular way of applying…
During the later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it became common among Anglican divines to refer to works as a “condition” of justification. Alister McGrath traces this development to the fact that “the idea of justification sola fide came under suspicion, perhaps reflecting a growing concern about its possible links with antinomianism.” Hence figures such as…