412 Book Reviews / Ecclesiology 8 (2012) 389–420

Stephen Spencer, (SCM Study Guide Series, London: SCM, 2010). ix + 229 pp. £16.99. ISBN 978-0-334-04337-9 (pbk).

When I was an English Anglican ordinand (late 1980s), I received four and a half hours explicit teaching on Anglicanism in three years full time train- ing. When I returned to teach at a theological college five years later, I was (I think) the first person appointed to an English Anglican theological col- lege with an explicit brief to teach Anglicanism. Since then there has been a modest explosion in the teaching of Anglicanism and in teaching resources. This latest resource, in the SCM study guide series, is a sign that teaching Anglicanism is now a mainstream commitment. There was once a deep reluctance to teach ‘Anglicanism’, partly because of significant scepticism that such a thing really existed – a scepticism which is still very much alive in England even if most of the rest of the Communion regards this scepticism as nonsensical – and perhaps also because we were anxious that actually trying to teach Anglicanism would expose its divisions and contradictions. However, certainly in England, we can no longer assume that students of Anglicanism are cradle Anglicans; we cannot assume that people will carry ‘proper’ Anglicanism in their DNA. If they are to live and minister fruitfully within the Anglican context, they must have an opportunity to study Anglicanism rigorously. Some of the ten- sions in the and the are simply a result of unreflective assumptions about the content and methods of Anglicanism. (The letters page of the Church Times is the clearest evidence for the necessity of teaching Anglicanism!) There is a constant risk of caricaturing or unchurching other Anglicans. More deeply, as the nature of Anglicanism is still very much subject to debate, we need to enable Anglicans to explore and test different visions of Anglicanism. We should note that in common with most books written in England on Anglicanism, this one focuses very largely on the English Anglican situation. (The Anglo- centric nature of much English Anglican writing on Anglicanism is a peren- nial weakness.) In brief, as a teacher of Anglicanism, would I use this book as the core set text ? (For readers unfamiliar with the study guide format, they are introductory text books, accessible in and format, un-footnoted but with reading suggestions and discussion questions at the end of chapter.) I write as the author of a recent text book on Anglican which features in Spencer’s bibliography but nowhere in his text. I assume my approach did not commend itself to him; this review is not motivated by

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2012 DOI 10.1163/17455316-00803016 Book Reviews / Ecclesiology 8 (2012) 389–420 413 sour grapes ! But I am sorry to note that the bibliography does not include Richard Giles’ How to be an Anglican, the funniest introduction to Angli­ canism and therapeutically valuable in a period of bitter debate. The book begins with an explicit and contemporary account of the diversity/divisions of modern English Anglicanism. It takes this modern diversity as a given of Anglicanism and then seeks to explore whether such a diverse set of communities can be held together. This begs the question as to whether there is a deeper to Anglican identity, a core set of beliefs and practices, from which the modern tribes are deviations or limited expressions – I will return to this fundamental issue later. The book imagi- natively and appropriately uses the theme of discipleship to explore these different expressions. Early on I found myself arguing with the book. The characterisation of the four different movements in Anglicanism – Protestant, Catholic, Liberal and Charismatic – as all having different primary authorities – Scripture, Tradition, Reason, Experience – and all originating in different periods is I think too simplistic. Part of the distinctiveness of Anglicanism, acknowl- edging the anachronistic nature of the word, dates back to the English Reformation and the self-conscious decision by Cranmer, and Elizabeth, to hold the new Protestant together with a determined and real con- tinuity to the essence of Catholic order and . Further, the theology and ethos of the via media (a term significantly missing from the index) dates back to Cranmer’s essays for the 1549 Book; and the emphasis on the role of reason dates back at least to Hooker in the 1580s, as Spencer notes in chapter 8. Was there a core Anglican identity from which later Anglicans developed (degenerated?) and are there criteria by which we might evaluate the Anglican-ness of these developments? Spencer does not really address these questions. Spencer’s account of the four traditions has much to commend it. Unusually for an Anglican he gives serious attention to Luther and the doc- trine of justification by faith which underpins so much of sixteenth century Anglicanism. The book has its origins in an undergraduate level module on Anglicanism and so we meet the key players and texts in succinct snippets. Spencer is mostly sure-footed in his accounts: for example excellent on the dominance of the Word in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; delightfully inclusive of the Wesleys and alert to the significance of the Keele Evangelical Conference of 1967. Conversely it is a shame that he is not familiar with the most recent monograph on Cranmer by Ashley Null, which stresses Cranmer’s personal commitment to a theology of grace.