Anglican doctrine
Anglican doctrine is the body of Christian teachings used to guide the religious and moral practices of Anglicanism.
Thomas Cranmer, the guiding Reformer that led to the development of Anglicanism as a distinct tradition under the English Reformation, compiled the original Book of Common Prayer, which forms the basis of Anglican worship and practice. By 1571 it included the Thirty-nine Articles, the historic doctrinal statement of the Church of England. The Books of Homilies explicates the foundational teachings of Anglican Christianity, also compiled under the auspices of Archbishop Cranmer. Richard Hooker and the Caroline divines later developed Anglican doctrine of religious authority as being derived from scripture, tradition, and "redeemed" reason; Anglicans affirmed the primacy of scriptural revelation, informed by the Church Fathers, the historic Nicene, Apostles and Athanasian creeds, and a latitudinarian interpretation of scholasticism. Charles Simeon espoused and popularised evangelical Reformed positions in the 18th and 19th centuries, while the Oxford Movement re-introduced monasticism, religious orders and various other pre-Reformation practices and beliefs in the 19th century.
Anglicanism historically developed as via media between two branches of Protestantism—Lutheranism and Calvinism—though closer to the latter than the former. Its identity has affirmed to be Reformed and Catholic.
Over time, the tension between catholicity and Puritanism resulted in a latitudinarian or "broad church" mainstream, within a low church to high church spectrum of sanctioned approaches to ritual and tolerance of the associated beliefs. Evangelicals and Anglo Catholics represent the far ends of this spectrum, with most Anglicans falling somewhere in between. Theologically, the Anglican Communion includes Reformed Anglicanism, with a smaller number of Arminian Anglicans.
Approach to doctrine
There are two streams informing doctrinal development and understanding in Anglicanism. The first of these includes the historic formularies of Anglicanism. Historical formularies of Anglicanism include Books of Common Prayer, ordinals and the "standard divines". Most prominent of the historical formularies are the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, principally authored by Thomas Cranmer. These are divided into four sections, moving from the general to the particular. Other significant formularies include The Books of Homilies, listed in Article XXXV in the Articles of Religion; this explicates the theology of historic Anglicanism.Some Anglicans also take the principle of lex orandi, lex credendi seriously, regarding the content, form and rubrics of liturgy as an important element of doctrinal understanding, development and interpretation. Secondly, Anglicans cite the work of the standard divines, or foundational theologians, of Anglicanism as instructive. Such divines include Cranmer, Richard Hooker, Matthew Parker, John Ponet, Lancelot Andrewes and John Jewel.
Anglican doctrine affirms the three major creeds of the early ecumenical councils, the principles enshrined in the "Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral" and the dispersed authority of the four instruments of Communion of the Anglican Communion.
The second stream of doctrine is contained in the formally adopted doctrinal positions of the constitutions and canon law of various national churches and provinces of the Anglican Communion. These are usually formulated by general synods of national or regional churches and interpreted and enforced by a bishop-in-council structure, involving consultation between the bishops and delegated lay and clerical leadership, although the extent of the devolution of authority from the bishops varies from place to place. This stream is the only binding and enforceable expression of doctrine in Anglicanism, which can sometimes result in conflicting doctrinal understandings between and within national churches and provinces.
Interpretation of doctrine
The foundations and streams of doctrine are interpreted through the lenses of various Christian movements which have gained wide acceptance among clergy and laity. Prominent among those in the latter part of the 20th century and the early 21st century are Liberal Christianity, Anglo-Catholicism and Evangelicalism, which includes Reformed Anglicanism, along with a smaller number of Arminian Anglicans. These perspectives emphasise or supplement particular aspects of historical theological writings, canon law, formularies and prayer books. Because of this, these perspectives often conflict with each other and can conflict with the formal doctrines. Some of these differences help to define "parties" or "factions" within Anglicanism. However, with certain notable exceptions that led to schisms, Anglicans have grown a tradition of tolerating internal differences. This tradition of tolerance is sometimes known as "comprehensiveness".Origins
Anglican doctrine emerged from the interweaving of two main strands of Christian doctrine during the English Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries. The first strand comes from the Catholic doctrine taught by the established church in England in the early 16th century. The second strand represents a range of Reformed Protestant teachings brought to England from neighbouring countries in the same period, notably Calvinism and Lutheranism.Anglican doctrine is often said to be both Reformed and Catholic. At the time of the English Reformation, the Church of England formed the local expression of the institutional Roman Catholic Church in England. Canon law had documented the formal doctrines over the centuries and the Church of England still follows an unbroken tradition of canon law. The English Reformation did not dispense with all previous doctrines. The church not only retained the core Catholic beliefs common to Reformed doctrine in general, such as the Trinity, the virginal conception of Mary, the nature of Jesus as fully human and divine, the resurrection of Jesus, original sin and excommunication, but also retained some historic Catholic teachings which were not practiced by the Continental Reformed churches, such as the three orders of ministry and the apostolic succession of bishops, though these were retained by the Scandinavian Lutheran Churches. Peter Robinson, presiding bishop of the United Episcopal Church of North America, writes:
Foundational elements
Scripture, creeds and ecumenical councils
Central to Anglican doctrine are the foundational documents of Christianity – all the books of the Old and New Testaments are accepted, but the books of the Apocrypha, while recommended as instructive by Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles, are declared not "to establish any doctrine".Article VIII of the Thirty-Nine Articles declared the three Catholic creeds – the Apostles', the Nicene and the Athanasian – to "be proved by most certain warrants of holy Scripture" and were included in the first and subsequent editions of The Book of Common Prayer. All Anglican prayer books continue to include the Apostles' and Nicene Creed. Some — such as the Church of England's Common Worship or A New Zealand Prayer Book — omit the Athanasian Creed, but include alternative "affirmations". This liturgical diversity suggests that the principles enunciated by the Apostles' and Nicene creeds remain doctrinally unimpeachable. Nonetheless, metaphorical or spiritualised interpretations of some of the creedal declarations – for instance, the virgin birth of Jesus and his resurrection – have been commonplace in Anglicanism since the integration of biblical critical theory into theological discourse in the 19th century.
The first four ecumenical councils of Nicea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon "have a special place in Anglican theology, secondary to the Scriptures themselves."
This authority is usually considered to pertain to questions of the nature of Christ and the relationships between the Persons of the Holy Trinity, summarised chiefly in the creeds which emerged from those councils. Nonetheless, Article XXI of The Thirty-Nine Articles limit the authority of these and other ecumenical councils, noting that "they may err, and sometimes have erred." In other words, their authority being strictly derivative from and accountable to scripture.
Thirty-Nine Articles
File:Thomas Cranmer by Gerlach Flicke.jpg|thumbnail|right|upright|Thomas Cranmer, a Reformer, was the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury and principal compiler of the Book of Common Prayer, Thirty-nine Articles, and Books of HomiliesReformed doctrine and theology were developed into a distinctive English form by bishops and theologians led by Thomas Cranmer and Matthew Parker. Their doctrine was summarised in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion which were adopted by the Parliament of England and the Church of England in 1571.
The early English Reformers, like contemporaries on the European continent such as John Calvin, John Knox and Martin Luther, rejected many Roman Catholic teachings. The Thirty-Nine Articles list core Reformed doctrines such as the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for salvation, the execution of Jesus as "the perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world", Predestination and Election. Some of the articles are simple statements of opposition to Roman Catholic doctrine, such as Article XIV which denies "Works of Supererogation", Article XV which implicitly excludes the Immaculate Conception, and XXII which explicitly rejects the concept of Purgatory. Catholic worship and teaching was at the time conducted in Latin, while the Articles required church services to use the vernacular. The Articles reveal Calvinist influence, but moderately, and reject other strands of Protestant teachings such as the corporeal Real Presence of Lutheranism, Zwinglianism, such as those of the doctrine of common property of "certain Anabaptists". Transubstantiation is rejected: i.e. the bread and wine remain in their natural properties. However, the real and essential presence of Christ in the eucharist is affirmed but "only after an heavenly and spiritual manner", consistent with a Reformed view of the Lord's Supper.
In contrast to Calvin, the Articles did not explicitly reject the Lutheran doctrine of Sacramental Union, a doctrine which is often confused with the medieval Lollard doctrine of Consubstantiation. The Articles also endorse an Episcopal polity, and the English monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England to replace the Bishop of Rome. The Articles can also be read as permitting the acceptance of the five so-called "non-dominical" sacraments of private confession, marriage, ordination, anointing of the sick, and confirmation as legitimately sacramental, in addition to Baptism and the Eucharist. The Sacrifice of Masses is rejected. The doctrine of the eucharistic as the Church's sacrifice or oblation to God, dating from the second century A.D., is rejected but the Holy Communion is referred to as the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving in an optional Prayer of Oblation after the reception of Communion.
The Church of England has not amended the Thirty-Nine Articles. However, synodical legislators made changes to canon law to accommodate those who feel unable to adhere strictly to the Thirty-Nine Articles. The legal form of the declaration of assent required of clergy on their appointment, which was at its most rigid in 1689, was amended in 1865 and again in 1975 to allow more latitude. Outside of the Church of England, the Articles have an even less secure status and are generally treated as an edifying historical document not binding on doctrine or practice.