PROTESTANTSKO TEOLOŠKO UČILIŠTE “MIHAEL STARIN”

AUTHORISATION: BISHOP JASMIN MILIĆ SUBMITTED: 7 SEPTEMBER, 2017

AN OVERVIEW OF THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES OF RELIGION BOB HITCHING

1 Introduction

The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are one of the three foundational documents that make up

the bedrock or Constitution of Anglicanism. The other two being the Book of Common Prayer

and the Ordinal of the Anglican Church. Gerald Bray (2009) writes,

The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are one of the three historic ‘formularies’ (constitutional documents) of the Church of England. Along with the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal they gave the church its distinctive identity at the time of the Reformation, an identity which has had a formative influence on worldwide Anglicanism.1

At the time of the Reformation these three documents gave the Anglican Church in England its

distinctive in comparison to the other various confessions and liturgies that were evolving in

Continental Europe. In some senses, they were a hybrid of the other confessions and yet in this

paper I will seek to identify the marks of uniqueness, which I will suggest were placed with

intention into the text.

The articles themselves can be divided into four primary categories and this paper will

look at each of the categories to seek to gain an understanding of the Articles as a whole.

Articles 1–8, The Catholic Faith. Articles 9–18, Personal Religion. Articles 19–31, Corporate Religion. Articles 32–39, Miscellaneous.

Whilst stating that the Articles had definite and distinct characteristics, the idea of an eclectic

compiling of positions and compendiums on theological and civic topics from other sets of

documents had a long history within both the Church and Civic Roman law.2 The earliest and

most significant collecting of propositions to create theological systemics can be traced to

Peter Lombard. There is an aspect of this situation that is interesting as Peter Lombard who

1 Gerald Bray, The Faith We Confess: An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles (London: The Latimer Trust, 2009),1. 2 John Matthews, “The Making of the Text,” in The Theodosian Code: Studies in the Imperial Law of Late Antiquity, ed. Jill Harries and Ian Wood, Second Edition (London: Bristol Classical Press, 2010), 21.

2 preceded Thomas Aquinas by just over 100 years was in many senses the father of

Scholasticism but it is extremely important to note that Theological eclectic compilations were

600 years behind the same method in law. Bray remarks,

Peter Lombard’s work appeared in four volumes and was known as the Sentences, the word being used in its legal sense of ‘decision’ or ‘definition’ (as in ‘passing sentence’ on someone.) Like Gratian, the Lombard assembled as many ancient authorities as he could find and organised them in a logical pattern to produce the first truly systematic theology.3

In short, there is nothing out of the ordinary in Cranmer and his associates turning to other

documents to build a uniquely Anglican belief and practice constitution as it had been

employed from 12th Century onwards.

There is also a traceable and clear sense of development in Cranmer’s thinking as he

moved from his original embracing of Luther’s doctrine on the Eucharist to an almost Zwinglian

position which was not shared by all the Divines and certainly revised in the 19th Century by

John Kebles work especially Eucharistic Adoration written in 1859. Philip Schaff in The Creeds

of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes (1878), remarks,

[that] the peculiar views of Luther on the real presence and the ubiquity of Christ’s body found no congenial soil in England. Cranmer himself abandoned them as early as Dec. 14, 1548, when a public discussion was held in London on the eucharist; and he adopted, together with Ridley, the Calvinistic doctrine of a virtual presence and communication of Christ’s glorified humanity. He held that ‘Christ is figuratively in the bread and wine, and spiritually in them that worthily eat the bread and drink the wine; but, on the other hand, contended that our blessed Lord is really, carnally, and corporally in heaven alone, from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. approve (‘Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee,’ etc.).4

This paper will seek to highlight the theological aspects of the Articles and then focus on

the implications of that theology. As a preamble to that, the paper will give a short evaluation

3 Bray, The Faith We Confess, 4. 4 Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes: The History of Creeds, vol. 1 (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1878), 601.

3 and explanation on how the Thirty-Nine Articles evolved through the maze of both political,

religious and to some extent spirituality environments in the turbulent times of the 16th and

early 17th centuries. One could say that the seminal moment in the process that came to be

known as the English Reformation is bookmarked as 1534 when Papal authority over the

English Church was rejected. Hall (1908), states that,

What our mediæval forefathers thought does not of itself settle the matter. Their view was both provincial and uncritical. Claims could not be discussed fruitfully when excommunication awaited dissentients, and physical penalties as well. It is significant, however, that the very first formal consideration of the alleged divine right of papal supremacy, in the Convocation of 1534, led to its rejection.5

I agree with Hall however this position would limit the discussion and be a more forensic view using the political circumstances surrounding the divorce of Henry VIII from Catherine of Aragon as the means of the rejection of papal authority. This of course would be true from a political historical perspective but only touches on the fringe of what was taking place in the religious, spiritual and broader sociological context in England in the early 16th Century. The movement of the Lollard’s Spiritual Renewal that had begun in the mid 14th Century with John Wycliffe as their leader was certainly a major impetus for the tectonic shifts that were soon to take place in the English Church. It is difficult to identify the day to day history of the Lollards because little is recorded. It is certain however that the hunger for the large shipments of Tyndale’s New

Testaments smuggled into England in the early to mid 16th Century, traces itself back to the

Lollards and Wycliffe. For the purposes of this paper the later date of 1534 will be used as a fixed point that we can effectively record from an historical standpoint. It also allows us to see

5 Francis J. Hall, Authority, Ecclesiastical and Biblical, Dogmatic Theology (London; New York; Bombay; Calcutta: Longmans, Green & Co., 1908), 158.

4 the synthesis that was going to take place by default as Henry VIII turned to the Continent for allies after his break with Rome. Bray again remarks,

When the Church of England broke with the papacy in 1534 and Henry VIII sought an alliance with the Germans, it was only natural for the latter to ask whether the English were prepared to accept the ‘protestant’ faith—in other words, were they willing to sign the Augustana?6

It was from this axis that we observe a series of formulas, constitutions and statements of faith

proffered from 1536 through 1571 with a short but turbulent reactive Roman Catholic

intermission in 1559. The articles of 1536, where ostensibly a Roma Catholic statement of

faith but the bedrock was emancipation from Rome and Papal authority and was clearly the

first step in broader reforms that would soon follow.

A contemporary question may be brought forward to ask whether or not the Articles

created within the context of Civil War, social unrest, and syncretistic political interpretations

have doctrinal and spiritual relevance to any other epoch than the one in which they were

created. This paper will seek to establish that whilst the realities of the above argument have

pragmatic value, the essence of the Articles have a Universal application in terms of both time

and space. This does raise questions as to why in the Church of England there has been a

steady dilution and devaluation of the Articles as having primary importance. This is

dramatically shown in the Resolution 43 of the 1968 Lambeth Conference,

Resolution 43, Lambeth Conference, 1968. The limitations of the historical and cultural and even polemical context in which the Thirty-Nine Articles were produced is recognized here and difficulties in subscribing to them everywhere and by all ordained ministers allowed for. Cf. no. 488. The Thirty-Nine Articles 43. The Conference accepts the main conclusion of the report of the Archbishop’s Commission in Christian Doctrine entitled Subscription and Assent to the Thirty-Nine Articles (1968) and in furtherance of its

6 Bray, The Faith We Confess, 5.

5 recommendation suggests that each Church of our communion consider whether the Articles need be bound up with its Prayer Book suggests to the Churches of the Anglican Communion that assent to the Thirty-Nine Articles be no longer required of ordinands; suggests that, when subscription is required to the Articles or other elements in the Anglican tradition, it should be required, and given, only in the context of a statement which gives the full range of our inheritance of faith and sets the Articles in their historical context7 [emphasis mine].

The obvious clause that needs to be looked at is “the full range of our inheritance of faith”. The

statement needs also to be carefully examined as it is exactly this type of language that has

allowed the Church of England to lead the Communion as a whole into the current crisis in

terms of what is defined as the “full range of our inheritance.” One such example being the

Bishop of Woolwich in the 1960’s with the publishing of his seminal work, Honest to God

(1963). More important than this work is an explanation for its writing in Exploration into God

(1967) where he clearly places Paul Tillich and Rudolph Bultman as being contained within the

“Inheritance of our faith”8 There is little room left for the Thirty-Nine Articles of having any

relevance whatsoever in that “frame of inheritance.” Therefore, the following assumptions in

this paper will seek to look at the Articles in context, but also to see their abiding and ongoing

value and need.

Articles 1–8, "The Catholic Faith” The First five articles, speak of, deal with, and outline the beliefs and teaching concerning God

Himself. In one sense these five articles could be thought of or described as the Theology of

God. Like all constitutions, which is both their strength and weakness, they are composites

designed to bring together otherwise similar minded people but who would deviate from each

7 Resolution 43, The Ministry –The Thirty-Nine Articles, in Lambeth Conference. (The Anglican Communion Office, 2005), 15. [Available Online PDF at anglicancommunion.org] http://www.anglicancommunion.org/media/127743/1968.pdf. [Accessed September 7, 2017. G. R. Evans and J. Robert Wright, The Anglican Tradition: A Handbook of Sources (London: SPCK, 1991), 462–463. 8 John A. T. Robinson. The Exploration of God, (Stanford, California, Stanford University Press, 1967), 16.

6 other on certain specifics. The language has on the surface a defined dogma but under the

surface compromises a form which contains additions and subtractions that are able to be

embraced by a much wider reader than just the framers themselves.

Though, not ostensibly vague, they avoid unduly narrow or tight definitions. Much variety of interpretation has been put upon many of them without improperly straining the text, and this via media license was deliberately intended by their framers. They seek especially to define the Anglican position with regard to medieval- corruptions of Roman Catholic and extremes in both Calvinism and Anabaptist teachings. 9

In Article One, the description of the Triune God is often described as being a direct facsimile

of the Augsburg confession. Certainly, they are both based on the Nicene Creed and yet the

nuance differences between them are significant. To illustrate this, we can look at one word

that appears in the Articles that does not appear in the Augsburg Confession; That word being

a reference to God as being absent of “passions”. In Augsburg, the line reads “which is called

and which is God: eternal, without body, without parts,” In Article One of the Thirty- Nine

Articles it reads “There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or

passions;” In short, Augsburg uses the term eternal as a descriptor in the same way as

“without body, without parts”. The Articles use Everlasting in the same way as it uses “Living

and True” out from which come the terms body, parts and passions. Gerald Bray points out

this was merely a matter of style and that it played no significant role in itself when he writes,

It is probably due to nothing more than a rhetorical sense of the desirability of expressing things in threes, which the Augsburg Confession achieved by appending ‘body’ and ‘parts’ to ‘everlasting’. 10

This is at best naive to describe one of the keystone terms to define the Trinity as being in a

“rhetorical sense”. There are several reasons why “passions” was used in particular. From one

9 F. L. Cross and Elizabeth A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford: New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 1622. 10 Bray, The Faith We Confess,19.

7 end coming from Thomas Aquinas defining anger as a passion, God is often angry and yet does

not have anger as a passion. Then from the Chalcedonian frame of Christ being eternally

without passion even in his Hyperstatic union as perfect God and perfect man. Whatever the

process I would suggest that a “rhetorical sense” was not a key. Rather, Melanchthon in

Augsburg follows the line through Augustine, Anselm and Aquinas whereas, those working

with Cranmer followed the Greek Fathers.

In the Second Article, we run into the problem of Latin and Greek in as much as the English

Article the term “substance” is used whereas in Augsburg, Melanchthon, (albeit he did correct

Luther’s Greek) uses the word “essence”. Whereas it does not have the appearance of being

significant the elevation of Latin as a primary source from which to translate, causes enormous

difficulties when we look at “essence” and later “energy” in so many other theological

contexts. Bulgakov (2004) takes up the point in The Comforter when he writes,

Taxis should not be interpreted from the point of view of origination, either in its Catholic, Filioque-related sense, or in the sense of various forms of subordinationism, Arianizing, Stoic, or Neoplatonic. Taxis does not abolish the equi-divinity of the hypostases; nor does it diminish their equi-divinity either with respect to the fullness of their consubstantiality or with respect to their hypostatic being. But the former, the nature, is diminished by the Catholic doctrine of the Filioque, which distinguishes the Son and the Holy Spirit with reference to the fullness of their nature; and it is also diminished by Stoic subordinationism, which distinguishes quantitatively, as it were, the degree of the fullness of Divinity in the different hypostases.11

The second Article is also where we are introduced to the concept of the Fall of Adam and

“Original Guilt” and then adds a supplement of “Actual Sins”. In some ways, this is quite remarkable because it does not ascribe to Adam original sin but “Original Guilt” and then uses a collective term by saying “Actual Sins”. To the modern eye this appears to be purposely abstract so that the Augustinian Calvinists at one end and the Semi-Pelagian Ana Baptists at the other

11 Sergius Bulgakov, The Comforter, trans. Boris Jakim (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004), 68.

8 could clearly claim and refute their respective arguments. We then see instead of Article 2 A and

Article 2 B, individual articles subscribed for the Descent into Hell after Christ’s death and then the Resurrection. I would suggest there must have been some intra- Confessional wrangling going on to break up the Doctrine of Christ in this way. The issue though is that it is still vague in that it can encompass the view that Christ suffered in Hell or likewise that he went to preach to the “spirits in bondage”. This however rolls over into what became the basis of the Great Schism between the East and West, by the Articles affording their position as being in line with the non-

Nicene addition with the introduction and use of the Filioque.12 What is interesting is there is no mention of the Procession of the Holy Spirit in Augsburg. The reasoning behind the decision to insert the Filioque into the Thirty-Nine Articles is difficult to know. It does though place the

Church in England clearly as being a Reformed Roman Catholic Church whereas a Pre-Augustine of Canterbury Church could have been appealed to as the true roots of the Re-discovered

English Church. This happened in fact when the Non-Jurists sought a new cohesion between the

English Church and The East. It was also the basis of some of those in the Tractarian movement in the 1830’s calling for a comprehension of the Patristics into the English language. Once again

Bulgakov enters the discussion,

Procession itself, in contrast to generation, is viewed by the Fathers as an ineffable and unfathomable mystery, only indicated but not explained by this word. Therefore, the fact that Catholic theology lumps generation and procession together, as duae processiones, is, of course, an arbitrary abstraction and abuse: the two are so individual and distinct that they cannot be counted as duae, even if processiones. Therefore, the Fathers do not examine procession separately, but only in the light of ideas more accessible to us.13

12 K.J. Bryer, “Nicholas I,” ed. J.D. Douglas and Philip W. Comfort, Who’s Who in Christian History (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1992), 507. 13 Bulgakov, The Comforter, 76.

9 Looking from our anachronistic viewpoint one wonders why both Augsburg and The Articles did not take a Patristic homoousion perspective and remove the Filioque. There was nothing to be gained or lost with Rome as the bridges had been burnt between them and yet the

Confessions had everything to gain by removing the Filioque in terms of creating some kind of

Union with the Eastern, if not the Oriental, Orthodox.

Articles 6 - 8 deal with the sources of Authority for the English Church which in the 16th

Century was clearly taking a radical line. In some senses as a Sacramental and Liturgical Church through the Articles the framers were making a much closer affiliation with the Continental

Reformation and defining a distinction between it and the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox Churches. Conceptually, the universal Catholic Church from an Eastern standpoint would have proffered “The mind of the Church” understanding of authority. In the

West without question Papal authority would have been the priority. As a result, the idea that

English Church was a Reformed Protestant Church of England has been defended. In short, these articles place the Church in a Sola Scriptura position with the Creeds being the summation of the doctrines of Scripture. Whilst saying that there is much within the “subtext” of the Articles that would deposit the English Church as the via media not of East and West but of Rome and the Protestants.

Articles 9–18, "Personal Religion" It is hard to view this category as Personal Religion in as much as it gives little insight or guidance concerning the quest for God and for God’s people to become Partakers of the Divine nature. Rather it is a forensic theology that in many senses seems to hold the English Church in agreement with the Continental Reformation and yet at the same time makes almost ambiguous reference to Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, and

Irresistible Grace. If one could create a theological tincture based upon Luther’s attack on The

10 Roman Catholic Church it would almost certainly be the use of “Justus Ficare" in the Vulgate as the term used for justification as opposed to the translation needing to emphasize the Greek renderings “dikaio, dikaios, dikaiosune” and yet when it came to putting the Thirty-Ninen

Articles in place in the Latin version they chose to write “sola fide nos iustificari” for ‘Justified by Faith’ alone. What is interesting is that this follows Augsburg’s pattern of continuing to use the variants of Justus Ficare. Why both groups did not seek to create a specific term such as

“cum regeneratur" is hard to know. To make this a little more confusing to the open-hearted enquirer, albeit academic, is that both Augsburg and the Thirty-Nine Articles use the Latin

“essentiæ" freely and yet the Thirty-Nine Articles translates this word as substance whereas

Augsburg translates it as essence.

In Article Nine instead of following the more standard Calvinist line on original sin that we are dead in our trespasses and sins and thus are unable, in ourselves to respond in any way to

God without prior regeneration we read, “and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit.” The term “nature inclined” places original sin as being somewhere between the Eastern view of “Ancestral Sin” and a classic Continental Reformed position of “Original Sin”.

In Article Ten on “Free Will” it takes a similar middle line which has an inbuilt ambiguity in that it is clear that “works” in themselves cannot be generated by man’s own will but must require God’s

“Grace”. Even though the language “feels” Continental it takes a shape that is either purposefully seeking to take a middle way as an expression of Ecclesiastical political posturing or is seeking to establish an independent theology. One would have to say that it has more the feel of posture than conviction.

Articles Eleven to Sixteen have a warmth and strength to them that is clearly based upon conviction rather than posture to please or appease. There is an enormous sense of comfort in the

11 writing and the style which gives the reader a Theology of Hope that had been absent within the common life of the Church for so long.

Whereas the ‘personal religion articles (9-18) cannot be thought of as a “Spirituality” in a classical sense, they do evoke worship from the heart through the process of gratitude. They also have a clear didactic value and could in themselves be thought of as a Gospel Constitution.

We then move from a short doxological set of articles to the most complex, and to some extent, bewildering of all the articles – that of Article Seventeen on the subject of Predestination.

Firstly, it is the longest of all the articles. This is somewhat bemusing because the doctrine which this Article teaches is based upon the Greek proorizō which only appears a brief five times in the

New Testament: Acts 4:28, Romans 8:30, 1 Corinthians 2:7, Ephesians 1:5, 11, and Romans

8:29.

The article also makes a non-compromise statement concerning who is predestined. Whereas many have emphasized the elect as a body, the Church are predestined to love and Holiness, this article frames it with a clear personal application. The terms used, “As the godly consideration of Predestination, and our Election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ”. In short, the statement clearly defines individuals being predestined not a corporate body. The words “Feel in themselves” brings it to the individual level and of course creates the fatal flaw to other Reformed doctrines such as belief as a process, Notitia, Assensus and

Fiducia in producing Saving Faith. When reading the Didache, the Baptism of an adult is preceded with this Notitia, Assensus and Fiducia schemer in which two days of fasting as the precursor to the decision to follow Christ and the Martyrs by being baptised there is little room for “such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ”.

12 The following three Partistic references are important. The first from the Didache, the second

from Tertullian and the third from Justin Martyr. It is very clear before these three witnesses

that there is little room for a “feel within themselves” doctrine. As mentioned in these

citations there is clearly Notitia, Assensus and Fiducia at work but within the community,

under authority and with an enormous emphasis upon repentance.

And before the baptism let the baptizer and the baptized fast, and any others that are able; but thou shalt order the baptized to fast one or two days beforehand.14

They who are about to enter upon Baptism ought to pray with frequent prayers, fastings, and bowings of the knee, and long watchings, and with confession of all their past sins, that they may shew forth even the baptism of John.15

All, then, who are persuaded and believe that the things who are taught and affirmed by us are true; and who promise to be able to live accordingly, are taught to pray, and beg God with fasting to grant them forgiveness of their former sins; and we pray and fast with them. Then we bring them where there is water, and after the same manner of regeneration in which we also were regenerated ourselves, they are regenerated: for, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of all things, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Ghost, they then receive the washing of water.16

One would have to say that by the time this Article was finalized the Theological war between

Melanchthon and Flacius had reached its conclusion with two very clear camps being extant.

Never the less Cranmer and with much advice from Bucer places enough, but just enough to

keep in step with the Continental Reformation but not enough to distance itself from the early

Church Fathers. Article Seventeen whilst being more loaded in the direction of the Continental

14 G. C. Allen, trans., The Didache or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles Translated with Notes (London: The Astolat Press, 1903), 5. 15 Tertullian, Tertullian: Apologetic and Practical Treatises, trans. C. Dodgson, vol. I, A Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church (Oxford; London: John Henry Parker; J. G. F. and J. Rivington, 1842), 278–279. 16 George A. Jackson, The Apostolic Fathers and the Apologists of the Second Century, ed. George P. Fisher, Early Christian Literature Primers (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1879), 173.

13 view, has none of the double Predestinarian language that is found in stronger versions of

what is often referred to as hyper Calvinism.

The final article dealing with the way of Salvation is a clear, albeit a 16th Century

statement, about the unique of Christ as the way of Salvation.

Articles 19–31, "Corporate Religion”

The next series of articles can only be described as a corrective and to some extent

polemic against the Roma Catholic Church. It is important not to view the invective that is used

anachronistically and seek to apply today’s polity to that period. Compared to Luther’s words

both spoken and written Articles 19 - 31 are clearly mild in comparison. When looking at John

Keble’s work Eucharistic Adoration at one level and then Tract 90 by Henry Newman in which

he states with some force that the Thirty-Nine Articles are not in conflict with the Council of

Trent we have to look very carefully at what is said about the Church in Articles 19-31 to create

a view that would have been in the minds of the framers. Article 19 is built on two primary

statements:

The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same. As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, have erred; so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies, but also in matters of Faith.

The Visible Church is distinguished from the Invisible or Catholic Church. It is an entity in itself and is defined as having a set of conditionals: Firstly, It is an individual local congregation that secondly has as its members faithful men and thirdly where The Pure Word of God is preached and lastly where The Sacraments (according to Christ’s ordinance) are duly ministered.

14 This view of Church creates an interesting dilemma, in as much as it is held in juxtaposition to

Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch and Rome and if this Article had been written before 1453 with the Fall of Constantinople, the Pentarchy of the East would be the target of its polemic. The fact that Rome is separated from the previous examples puts Rome in a different category and yet still in error as it relates to the subject of the Visible Church. The one thing that the

Pentarchy and Rome had in common was that they had jurisdiction over “visible” Churches in lands that were not their own. The issue in this case being that these “alien” jurisdictions gave direction, “in their living and manner of Ceremonies, but also in matters of Faith”.

It is when we view Articles Twenty and Twenty One together that the statements balance out and understanding the political context of the time gives further clarity.

Article Twenty starts by saying The Church rather than a local congregation has the power to direct in what previously was denied it but with the caveat being “in their living and manner of

Ceremonies, but also in matters of Faith” must be in harmony with the scriptures. This then places the burden upon a subjective interpretation of Scripture. Article Twenty One responds by asserting that it is the “Prince” who must call councils together but speaks clearly that those councils can make error. In short, we can say that Articles 19 to 21 establish that the local

Church whilst being part of a larger jurisdiction can function only under the direction, when it comes to belief and practice by a national council, that is brought to order by the God ordained Monarch or Prince. With these three Articles affirming an English Church that is controlled or defended by a monarch, it creates justification for Elizabethan England and the

Germany of the Princes to function as an alternative to the errors of the before mentioned groups.

We move very quickly into a series polemics, albeit moderate for that age, where

Purgatory is denounced but one has to say the language is not tight and could be read that

15 using of relics, images and the invocation of the Saints to bring pardon in purgatory is incorrect. At the same time it leaves some of the issues open as worship and adoration in the

Patristics was clearly defined as separate from Veneration which by default disconnects the concept of purgatory being linked to pardon coming through images and saints and it also the releases images and Saints free to be venerated but not worshipped.

Article 23 has to be listed as the most benign of all the articles as it relates simply to the calling of those that minister in the Church. The only potential polemical objective would be towards the smaller Ana Baptist groups.

Article 24 seems to follow the same benign line yet it is in my mind, outside the Trinity and the Incarnation in the early Articles, the most loaded statement of all. The use of the common vernacular for worship has several outcomes. It gives Authority to the vernacular as a means for God to speak to man. It means that the there is no Gnosis or esoteric function within the

Priesthood additionally the didactic value of an English language Book of Common Prayer is self-evident both in terms of self-use and of being a teaching aid and finally it places the authority of the Book of Common Prayer, in the vernacular, as being a National work that is defended and protected by the Monarch. All of these issues have enormous value both politically and spiritually in the lives of those who participated in this time of great transition.

There is a whole theology of the day of Pentecost and the value of the vernacular to receive the Word of God that could be appealed to but simply listing the value, as I have done above suffices to show the impact of this small yet potent article.

The next six articles culminating in Article 31 deal directly with the Sacraments and the order attached to those Sacraments being administered. In many senses, even though this is once more a strong and yet restrained polemic against the Roman Catholic Church it gives more of an outline rather than substance to the teaching. We become dependent on the

16 writings of the Caroline Divines to see how the doctrines were looked upon and how they

were interpreted. When we read Lancelot Andrewes and John Cosin we can see how they and

many others like them held to a true Anglican “via media” as it related to the Sacraments.

Articles 32–39, “Miscellaneous."

Another of the articles that stands out as seminal statement in the common life of the Church

is Article 34 which reads in the first section as:

“It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one, or utterly like; for at all times they have been divers, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men’s manners, so that nothing be ordained against God’s Word.”

I cannot think of any statement that allows Anglican Via Media to express itself in a more

contextualized environment. Roman Catholicism historically tends to syncretize rather than

contextualize and Eastern Orthodoxy produces an almost mechanical reproduction of the

expected set norms. From a Missionary standpoint, this contextualization and not Syncretism

is a vital component in the success of Anglican Missions over the last 150 years.

In Article 35 we discover a deep pool of resources that give substance by way of

illustration. They do not carry the same weight as the Sermons and writings of the Divines such

as the earlier mentioned Cosin and Andrewes, but they are an excellent recourse for giving

clarification and teaching.

Conclusion

In some sense, this conclusion could equally be utilized as the introduction but I have chosen

to place it as a conclusion so that the various points throughout this paper can be seen in light

of the abiding ethos of post Reformation Anglicanism.

17 The term, which I agree is an excellent term, for the culture and ethos of the Anglican Church is “Via Media” or the Middle Way. There is no question in my own mind that the capacity of the framers of the Thirty-Nine Articles were men who were capable of great detail in their formulations of ideas and how they expressed them. There must therefore be a specific reason why there is almost a forensic linguistic display in the first section on the Catholic Faith and yet in other sections there is what can only be described as ‘Strategic Ambiguity’. I would suggest that therein lays the genius of the Thirty-Nine Articles.

There is a clear and unambiguous claim to the authority of Scripture that does not need to slip into the trap of contemporary Biblical criticisms but holds firmly to the primacy of scripture to be the standard upon which Reason leans. Obviously, in the early 17th century the value of reason took such a sharp turn under Descartes. A clear divide between fact and belief emerged to create the basis of modern epistemology, whereby reason could stand alone. With the

Anglican Via Media Reason was subservient to scripture. This is far more important than it appears. One has to say emphatically that no religious systemic other than Anglicanism has an intentional balance between Revelation e.g. The Scriptures, Reason being held accountable by the Revelation as equal and then the addition of Tradition to root the belief and practice of the

Anglican Church into the historic records of the early Church Fathers. It is impossible to over- estimate the irreducible nature of this three-part foundation to Anglicanism’s ethos and primary culture. For want of moderation the only religious system, if only they had known it, that would have been able to withstand modernity would have been Anglicanism. The fact that Descartes was embraced within the English Church in the early to mid 19th Century is a tragedy of unspeakable consequences. Now that Modernity and its assumptions have all but been displaced by a short post-modern condition, the de-secularisation of Europe and North

America will give Anglicanism as a via media a whole new level of opportunity to reach the

18 new sociological paradigm that is emerging. Certainly, the Thirty-Nine Articles despite their

16th Century style, lexicon, and form can be seen as a work of God with either the “Hidden

Hand” of via media sown in like Hebrew Sōd in Pardesh hermeneutics or it was the brilliance of

the framers to think forward. These Articles embodied within a Eucharistic Community of Faith

expressed through the Book of Common Prayer have the ability to create social and spiritual

transformation in these times.

19 Bibliography

Allen, G. C., trans., The Didache or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles Translated with Notes London: The Astolat Press, 1903.

Bray, Gerald, The Faith We Confess: An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles. London: The Latimer Trust, 2009. Bulgakov, Sergius, The Comforter, trans. Boris Jakim. Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004. Bryer K.J., “Nicholas I,” ed. J.D. Douglas and Philip W. Comfort, Who’s Who in Christian History Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1992. Cross F. L., and Livingstone Elizabeth A., eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Evans, G. R. and Wright, Robert J., The Anglican Tradition: A Handbook of Sources. London: SPCK, 1991.

Hall, Francis J. Authority, Ecclesiastical and Biblical, Dogmatic Theology. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1908) Jackson, George A., The Apostolic Fathers and the Apologists of the Second Century, ed. George P. Fisher, Early Christian Literature Primers. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1879.

The Lexham Analytical Lexicon to the Greek New Testament (Logos Bible Software, 2011).

Anglican Consultative Council. Resolution 43, The Ministry –The Thirty-Nine Articles, in Lambeth Conference. (The Anglican Communion Office, 2005), 15. [Available Online PDF at anglicancommunion.org] http://www.anglicancommunion.org/media/127743/1968.pdf. [Accessed September 7, 2017].

Matthews, John, “The Making of the Text,” in The Theodosian Code: Studies in the Imperial Law of Late Antiquity, ed. Jill Harries and Ian Wood, Second Edition. London: Bristol Classical Press, 2010.

Robinson, John A. T. Exploration into God. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1967. [Available Online at sup.org.cpm], [Accessed August 21, 2017] http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=3025

Schaff Philip, The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes: The History of Creeds, vol. 1. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1878.

Tertullian, “Tertullian: Apologetic and Practical Treatises,” trans. C. Dodgson, vol. I, A Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church. Oxford; London: John Henry Parker; J. G. F. and J. Rivington, 1842.

20 Wright, N. T. The Crown and the Fire: Meditations on the Cross and the Life of the Spirit. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1992.

- Evil and the Justice of God. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2006.

- For All the Saints? Remembering the Christian Departed. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2003.

- Jesus and the Victory of God. Christian Origins and the Question of God. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1996.

- Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2009.

- The Lord and His Prayer. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1996.

- The New Testament and the People of God. Christian Origins and the Question of God. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1992.

- Revelation for Everyone. For Everyone Bible Study Guides. London; Louisville, KY: SPCK; Westminster John Knox, 2011.

Surprised by Hope. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2007.

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