Theological Doubt and Institutional Certainty: An Anglican Paradox

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 250-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowan Williams
Keyword(s):  
Emotional State ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Legal Enforcement ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right ◽  
Character Of God ◽  
The Church ◽  
Spiritual State

Explicating John Donne's ‘doubt wisely’, this essay argues for the theological and psychological sophistication of Richard Hooker's distinction of wise from unwise doubt and shows why this led him to support compulsory adherence to the Church of England. Framed by consideration of how his ideas were adopted by Thomas Browne's Religio Medici (1643), it explores Hooker's thinking on what is certain in itself and where we can properly doubt. If true, the revealed character of God and the consequent acknowledgement of God as faithful to his elect, is true by necessity, or definition, and may be held with certainty of adherence: whatever my emotional state, adhering is proof that I have not denied my faith and am therefore sincere in my profession. It is wise to doubt the absolute importance of issues such as the right definition of Christ's presence in the sacrament, the God-given character of any specific Church order, and assumptions about the spiritual state of any other baptized person. We cannot, however, be doubtful about the Church to which allegiance is commanded by law. For Hooker, legal enforcement of conformity is a pastoral good: it enables the unsure to establish a practice likely to offer them some anchorage for fluctuating convictions and ‘affections’.

A Further Dilemma for British Divines

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay T. Collier
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
International Trends ◽  
Narrow Definition ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Church

Chapter 5 continues to investigate the Montagu affair by surveying adjacent doctrines related to the perseverance debate. For instance, Dort’s more narrow definition of perseverance caused difficulties for those holding a more traditionalist view of baptism and regeneration. After looking at Montagu’s baptismal argument against perseverance of the saints, the chapter evaluates published responses to Montagu’s advocacy of baptismal regeneration as well as more private debates where John Davenant and Samuel Ward tried to reconcile a form of baptismal regeneration with Dort’s determination on perseverance. This survey shows division on the efficacy of baptism even within the pro-Dortian party, with readings and receptions of Augustine factoring in. It also reveals further evidence of how a broad-church approach to being Reformed set the Church of England at odds with the international trends of the Reformed churches.

Clergy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Hill QC
Keyword(s):  
Employment Status ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Church ◽  
And Training

This chapter focuses on the clergy of the Church of England. It first explains the process of selection and training for deacons and priests, along with their ordination, functions, and duties. It then considers the status and responsibilities of incumbents, patronage, and presentation of a cleric to a benefice, and suspension of presentation. It also examines the institution, collation, and induction of a presentee as well as unbeneficed clergy such as assistant curates and priests-in-charge of parishes, the authority of priests to officiate under the Extra-Parochial Ministry Measure, the right of priests to hold office under Common Tenure, and the role of visitations in maintaining the discipline of the Church. The chapter concludes with a discussion of clergy retirement and removal, employment status of clergy, vacation of benefices, group and team ministries, and other church appointments including rural or area deans, archdeacons, diocesan bishops, suffragan bishops, and archbishops.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan Hepburn
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
Freedom Of Conscience ◽  
Oxford Movement ◽  
The Right To Privacy ◽  
The Right ◽  
Race And Religion ◽  
The Church

In the 1940s and 1950s, Britain was relatively uniform in terms of race and religion. The majority of Britons adhered to the Church of England, although Anglo-Catholic leanings—the last gasp of the Oxford Movement—prompted some people to convert to Roman Catholicism. Although the secularization thesis has had a tenacious grip on twentieth-century literary studies, it does not account for the flare-up of interest in religion in mid-century Britain. The ecumenical movement, which began in the 1930s in Europe, went into suspension during the war, and returned with vigour after 1945, advocated international collaboration among Christian denominations and consequently overlapped with the promotion of human rights, especially the defence of freedom of worship, the right to privacy, freedom of conscience, and freedom of expression.

Discrimination and the Church of England: To What Extent does the Equality Act 2010 Adequately Protect Church of England Clergy?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Grout*
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Eligibility Criteria ◽  
Sensitive Question ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Church

Abstract The extent to which members of the clergy are considered ‘employees’ for the purposes of secular employment and equality legislation has been the subject of much discussion, but essentially remains a fact sensitive question. The Equality Act 2010 (‘the 2010 Act’) seeks to prevent discrimination on the basis of nine ‘protected characteristics’. While recognizing that the application of the 2010 Act to the variety of clergy offices is ‘not straightforward’, the Church of England (‘the Church’) has opined that an equitable approach to clergy appointments is to proceed as if they were subject to the provisions of the 2010 Act. What follows is in`tended to be a thorough review of the eligibility criteria for clergy appointment in the Church to assess their compatibility with the requirements of the 2010 Act. In addition, particular consideration will be given to Schedule 9(2) to the 2010 Act which makes specific provision relating to religious requirements concerning the protected characteristics of sex, sexual orientation, and marriage and civil partnership. In short, where the employment is for the purposes of an organized religion, such as the Church, requirements which relate to these protected characteristics will not constitute discrimination where they engage the ‘compliance or non-conflict principle’. What these principles mean and how they might operate in practice is discussed below, taking into account the likely canonical and theological justifications for discriminating against certain individuals. Whether the law strikes the right balance between, on the one hand protecting clergy and, on the other, providing the Church with the autonomy to act in accordance with its established doctrine, will be explored in the final analysis.

From Diversity to Sectarianism: the Definition of Anglican Identity in Nineteenth-Century England

1996 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 377-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Knight
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Church

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the subject of Anglican identity in the period from about 1800 to about 1870. This is a complex topic, and it will be possible here only to highlight a few themes. It will be suggested that the understanding of who was and who was not a ‘real’ Anglican underwent several important shifts during the period, until by the 1870s the definition had become increasingly narrow and exclusive. The result was not unity, but an atmosphere of increasingly narrow sectarianism, which had the effect of repelling those who were on the fringes of Anglican allegiance, and thus narrowing the base of lay support for the Church of England in the country at large.

scholarly journals The Doctrine of Apostolic Succession in the Church of England

1894 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 171-192
Author(s):  
Henry C. Vedder
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Christian Literature ◽  
Apostolic Succession ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Church ◽  
Adequate Evidence

A definition of terms is essential at the outset of this investigation, but I am not aware of a definition of Apostolic Succession that would be accepted as authoritative by those who profess the doctrine, In this paper the term will be held to mean the doctrine that the order of bishops exists in the Church jure divino; that the first bishops were ordained by the Apostles as their successors, and that these orders have been transmitted by an unbroken succession to the present time; and furthermore, that without bishops there can be no valid orders, no valid sacraments, in short, no Church. It is not proposed in this paper to question the truth of this theory—to inquire whether there is adequate evidence in its favor either in the Scriptures of the New Testament, in the early Christian literature, or in the institutions of the Church of the first two centuries. Assuming that the doctrine rests on the sure foundations of Scripture teaching and institutional Christianity—or, at least, allowing that this may be the case—our task is to trace the effects of this doctrine upon the external history and internal life of the Church of England.

The Origins of the Fuging Tune

1981 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Temperley
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Folk Music ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
English Music ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Church

The fuging psalm or hymn tune is a form whose existence one would hardly suspect from any history of English music. Yet is was a product of the Church of England, and there are more than six hundred and fifty specimens in English eighteenth-century printed sources alone. Its neglect is readily explained by the fact that it lies on the borderline of art music: the musicians who developed it were obscure country singers without professional training; but at the same time it does not fall within the definition of ‘folk music’ that we have inherited from the Cecil Sharp era, for it is written music designed for rehearsed performance. We may or may not wish to hear or sing these tunes today. But our understanding of eighteenth-century English musical life must be incomplete if it does not take into account a form that was so distinctive and so widely appreciated at the time.

parish division and church building failed to keep pace with sharp rises in population. Lady Glenorchy had in 1775 explicitly rebuked the Edinburgh Presbytery over the failure of the establishment to cater for the religious needs of the city’s poor. Her chapel was intended to address those needs and was, despite her arguments, a rival to the existing parish churches. And, although herself neither preacher nor priest in her chapel, she could be regarded as equivalent to a bishop, or overseer, at least in the exercise of some of the supervisory and authoritative functions of that office. It was by buying the land on which to build a chapel that Ladies Glenorchy and Maxwell were able to claim the right to religious authority over the build-ing, because this accorded with the authority over private chapels which had always been legitimately exercised by female aristocrats. The Countess of Huntingdon used the same argument to justify the building of many chapels in which she retained the right to appoint clergy of her own choosing, arguing that she was merely appointing private chaplains. That Lady Huntingdon’s argument finally collapsed, obliging her to remove her connexion from the Church of England and license her chapels as Dissenting places of worship, was due to the greater scale of her religious activity in comparison to other female patrons. But it is significant that she avoided this outcome for so long. Her first chapel was built in 1761, but only in 1783, when she possessed over 60 places of worship, was she finally forced into separatism.

2003 ◽  
pp. 102-103
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Religious Activity ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
Church Building ◽  
Parish Churches ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Church

Richard Lionheart and English Episcopal Elections

1997 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph V. Turner
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Church

While Henry II and John's bitter quarrels with the Church have inspired much comment from both contemporaries and modern scholars, Richard Lionheart's relations with the English Church have attracted little notice. The lack of theatrical clashes with the pope or the archbishop of Canterbury has led modern scholars to assume that Richard I enjoyed fortunate relations with his clergy. Richard's most recent biographer has viewed him as “a conventionally pious man,” and contemporary chroniclers depicted him as fitting the Church's definition of the perfect knight whose financial exactions and other faults could be overlooked because of his crusader status.Almost continuously absent from England, the Lionheart is assumed to have had little opportunity to assert his will in ecclesiastical matters. Yet, Richard I was as determined as his father and brother to defend English monarchs' traditional rights over the Church, because their mastery over such a powerful institution conferred many advantages. Their bishops were also barons who advised the king at great councils, who often held posts in the royal administration, and who owed feudal obligations, even quotas of knights. The royal right of regalia gave Richard custody of church lands during an episcopal vacancy and the right to authorize new elections and to approve bishops-elect.Sir Christopher Cheney, a leading authority on the twelfth-century Church, observed that Richard I was “forever busy with the English Church.” An examination of the Lionheart's ecclesiastical policy proves him correct, revealing a monarch who had little respect for the Church's freedom and worked to preserve his royal predecessors's authority over it. Richard took care to oversee closely English episcopal elections.

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