One could say that the argument over the Via Media is its own via media, cutting through two camps in the Anglican Communion. Although there have been various ways of interpreting the term, more recently its interpretation has divided two groups of Anglicans—those who insist on the Reformed character of Anglicanism and those who see…
The following was originally written for a course entitled “Prayer and Sanctity” as part of my M. Div. work at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. We were asked to examine the life and writings of a saint in our tradition and to consider the following: “ the official life (vita, synaxarion); legendary material; liturgical…
She was my strangest friend. She saw the dead on the day they died. They stopped by her house on the way to the Jordan. Sometimes she saw a globe of light emerge from her body—bright like a miniature globe lightning. God talked to her, joshing in a voice like her own. I always wondered…
In a recent Mere Orthodoxy piece titled “Why Is Anglicanism a Gateway to Catholicism?”, M.H. Turner raises some important questions about why Anglicans swim the Tiber. For my part, I found Turner’s proposed answers wanting. Paul Owen responded with a solid historical defense of Anglo-Catholicism, but he left Turner’s questions about the motive of modern…
The Anglican Church is a strange beast. Like any church she has a history she cannot shake, one that includes murky beginnings, fraught worldly loyalties, and spiritually dubious leadership. Yet, this history is one rooted equally in courageous witness, ingenious political compromise, and remarkable cultural and spiritual achievements. Among these is the space and nourishment…
You fear these shop boy’s tasks will leave you fruitless.So far, you’ve shoveled gravel mountains, tilledWide fields, scrubbed bathroom floors angelic white,And little else. At home you lie there, bootless.Like you, the hours drift on unfulfilled,And always fade too quickly into night.Yet solace finds you in the lumber yard.Your hands, still disapproved to work the…
The Need for Anglican Universities Martin Luther allegedly once said: “If I believed the world were to end tomorrow, I would still plant a tree today.” And so, in spite of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, I’m planting the idea of the Anglican university today. If the church is to create and sustain her own faithful…
For Anglicans and other liturgical Christians around the world, Lent is normally a time for penitence, spiritual discipline, and reflection. At the same time, in the face of an increasingly hostile culture, various Christian writers have advocated that an increased spiritual discipline is required today to inculcate and nourish a faith that can withstand the…
From youth this cool, grey stone enchanted me,Its beauty one with its simplicity:The Archer of Aphaia poised to strike,Or mighty Neptune with his triple spike,The pointed arches of the Notre-Dame,Ascending heavenward with perfect calm:Their colors were but subtlety and shade,Nor garish nor flamboyant, rather madeOf naught but stone, quite serious and pure.Their substance never fading…
I. INTRODUCTION “The greatest amongst the School-divines.”[1] These are the words by which Richard Hooker, a sixteenth-century Anglican priest and theologian, expressed his admiration for S. Thomas Aquinas. Regarding Hooker’s admiration for S. Thomas, the Rev. Dr. David Neelands writes that while “Thomas is explicitly cited by Hooker … probably only about eight times in…