One of the hottest debated questions among Anglicans is the doctrine of the Eucharist, or, as the Articles of Religion refer to it, the Lord’s Supper. When I began investigating the Anglican tradition, what I discovered sent me down a path of reformation and renewal. Rather than looking to the Lutherans, Eastern Orthodox, or Roman…
Four hundred sixty-nine years ago, Bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were bound to a wooden pyre. Their bodies were restrained and immovable. The pyre was lit and the men burned up and burned away into martyrdom and into history with Bishop Latimer immortally encouraging his companion, “Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man, for…
In his review of Bishop A. P. Forbes’s An Explanation of the Thirty-Nine Articles—a new edition of which was recently published by Nashotah House Press—Gerald McDermott compares Forbes’s work to that of Edward Harold Browne and finds the former “deeper and richer,” with Browne being “decidedly Protestant in his approach, while Forbes is reformed catholic.”…
An Explanation of the Thirty-Nine Articles. By Alexander Penrose Forbes, with a new Foreword by C. P. Collister. Nashotah, WI: Nashotah House Press, 2024. 874 pp. $32.11 (paper). When Anglican seminarians ask me how to study theology, I tell them to pick one of the great theologians and burrow into his corpus. But make sure…
Introduction When I say “Romania” what comes to your mind? Chances are your immediate reaction would be a vision of Count Dracula terrorizing unsuspecting peasants, or a cheap vacation on the Black Sea. What should come immediately to mind, in my own opinion, is Romania’s deep and ancient Christian roots as an Orthodox country. I…
As seen previously, Browne readily grants that “four out of the five [minor sacraments] the Church of England admits, at least in a modified form.” However, it is important to note the qualification that they are admitted in a “modified form,” particularly with regard to private confession. Browne writes that “the Council of Trent anathematizes…
Alia claritas solis, alia claritas lunae, et alia claritas stellarum. stella enim a stella differt in claritate. It’s not a dropdripped deep in each,nor yet a gemset ¡there! with care.It’s in the air,everywheretinted on skins,splashed and slathered,it’s visible to every eye. It shines out light,sparkless, at dark.Goes forth sourceless,but it angelsevery angle,ubiquitous,too thick to flicker,expressed…
Introduction In the history of the sacramental practice of the Church, the order of receiving the Eucharist and Confirmation has been a subject of theological reflection and liturgical variation. Traditionally, the sacrament of Confirmation has been administered before one’s first reception of the Eucharist, serving as a completion of Baptismal grace and a preparation for…
Mad about Belief: Religion in the Life and Thought of Bertrand Russell. By Larry D. Harwood. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2024. 362 pp. $66 (hardback), $46 (paper). Bertrand Russell is often analyzed in terms of his philosophical ideas, logic, and critiques of religion. In fact, he is often taken to be a despiser of religion…
The other day, I read a lovely book by Stephen Meawad, who teaches theology at Caldwell University. Titled Beyond Virtue Ethics (2023), this book argues that all too often, we treat ethics in isolation, as if it were either just a bunch of rules imposed on us, or else a matter of developing patterns of…
