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Anglicanism and the Christian Church: Theological Resources in Historical Perspective

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This is the revised and updated 2002 version of the original 1989 one. Paul Avis is thorough in his presentation of Anglican thought and theology from the Reformation up to the present. Part One treats the sixteenth century and the formation of Anglican ecclesiology vis a vis Cranmer and Hooker. Part Two treats the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the likes of Lancelot Andrewes and William Laud and John Wesley and the Cambridge Platonists and the early Latitudinarians. Part Three treats the nineteenth and twentieth centuries vis a vis the High Church revival of the Oxford movement and the Low Church Evangelicals and the liberal Catholic tradition of F.D. Maurice and the shape of "modern" Anglican thought, theology and ecumenism. The book is packed with useful information about the main thinkers and thought of Anglicanism and is free of partisan bias so High, Low and Broad Church types will find it equally useful as a resource.

Paul Avis is a first-rate and careful scholar, who happens to specialize in the study of Anglicanism. I was privileged to have him be my external examiner for my Ph.D. thesis from Lancaster University. My thesis was on the identity and future of Anglicanism, so I've read Avis' works carefully and with relish over the years.

"Anglicanism and the Christian Church" is the first work by Avis that I read years ago, and in some ways it's his most important work. While the book is a historical survey of Anglican thought and theology, it's important to grasp Avis' larger mission: to "present the theological resources of Anglican ecclesiology in historical perspective" so that he can "bring out very clearly the fact of a coherent Anglican position, or consensus, on the nature of the church." Avis' presentation is therefore chronological as the reader proceeds from Chapter 1 through Chapter 16 and theological within each chapter.

I applaud the fact that Avis presents this survey of Anglican theology in its historical context because Anglican theology is not done in a vacuum or only by looking at certain texts (whether the Bible, the Church Fathers, or the 39 Articles) but also in the historical contexts of specific times and places.

More specifically, Avis contributes to a discussion of Anglican identity by asking and answering the question, "Is there a distinct Anglican version of Christianity?" To answer this question, Avis turns to theology in its historical context and surveys the development of Anglican theology from the English Reformation to the 20th century. Here is the outline for Anglicanism and the Christian Church:

Chapter 1 - The English Reformers and the Christian Church
Chapter 2 - Architects of Anglican Ecclesiology - Hooker and Field
Chapter 3 - An Anglican Consensus
Chapter 4 - The Early Anglican Liberal Protestants
Chapter 5 - The Early Anglican Liberal Catholics
Chapter 6 - Exemplars of the High Church Tradition
Chapter 7 - Methodism and Evangelicalism
Chapter 8 - The Church in Danger Again
Chapter 9 - The High Church Heritage
Chapter 10 - The Reformation Under Attack
Chapter 11 - Keble and Pusey: Retreat from the Reformation
Chapter 12 - The Anglican Newman
Chapter 13 - Defenders of the Reformation: The Nineteenth-Century Liberal Anglicans
Chapter 14 - F.D. Maurice
Chapter 15 - The Church and Salvation in Modern Anglican Theology
Chapter 16 - Anglican Ecclesiology in the Late Twentieth Century: A Bibliographical Commentary
Chapter 17 - Towards and Authentic Paradigm for Anglicanism

Along the way, Avis gives the reader an excellent overview of Anglican theology and identity. He doesn't attempt to be comprehensive, but by selecting major representatives of Anglican thought from different historical eras, he does provide an excellent overview. In this revised and enlarged edition, Avis has actually rewritten his text, and not merely edited it lightly. In essence, this is a different book than the first edition, and both are valuable resources. In particular, Avis has brought the book up to date to discuss developments in the 20th century.

Unfortunately, even this revised and enlarged edition doesn't begin to touch upon the different views of Anglican theology and of the church that have led to the current crisis in Anglican identity, including what has now become an open rift between relationship Anglican churches on a global basis. Also, I find Avis' proposal for understanding Anglicanism in terms of the "baptismal paradigm" to be insufficient. It does not guard sufficiently against the Anglican liberalism that is tearing Anglicanism apart, and it seems to allow for the kind of universalism and heterodoxy of belief that many in The Episcopal Church are pursuing, based on the fact that baptism makes us the beloved children of God regardless of what one believes about God or if one obeys His Word. This is not to say that his presentation is without value, however: it is thought-provoking in its relation to either the Erastian or apostolic paradigms he also presents.

While Avis has added much good, new material to this revised edition, it's unfortunate that he jettisoned what, to me, was the best and most important chapter in the original edition: Chapter 1, in which he discusses issues concerning Anglican identity. The issue of Anglican identity is at the heart of the Anglican crisis of the 21st century, and so I appreciated that Avis started his original edition with the issue of identity. In that chapter, Avis correctly diagnosed some of the reasons for the Anglican identity crisis, such as the weakening of continuity with tradition (including the Prayer Book) and that the church has become relativized by the emergence of rival churches, secular belief systems, and profane ways of life. Now, unless you have the original edition, that excellent material is lost.

In spite of these deficiencies, Avis' work is a wonderful resource for the student of Anglicanism.