The Anglican stream of the Christian tradition has produced many good fruits. It has expressed itself in beautiful liturgies from the Prayer Book tradition. The Tyndale-King James tradition of Bible translation is a spiritual and literary treasure. English devotional practices and words have helped many Christians, both Anglicans and others. Anglican preachers and missionaries have spread the Gospel to many corners of the world, and Anglican-inspired charities and educational institutions have helped multitudes. Despite these great qualities, some observers, inside and outside the Anglican tradition, have questioned the doctrinal or theological standards of Anglicanism.
Since Anglicanism developed as a broad national Church, it has sometimes appeared vague in its theological foundations. There are both good and bad aspects of historic Anglican breadth in belief and practice. On the positive side, Anglican breadth has avoided too much narrow prescription. Unlike some other Christian groups, Anglicans have not legislated minute theological details or every liturgical and devotional style as much as some other traditions or denominations. This breath in theology and practice has allowed many different kinds of Christians to be faithful Anglicans.
On the negative side, some Anglicans have pushed the boundaries of Anglican breadth to extremes. Some individuals, ideologies, and movements have placed too much emphasis on human reason or on personal experience. In such circumstances, coherent Christian theology has become weak. In particular, theological weakness has become noticeable in recent decades. Broad Anglicanism has increasingly tended to become chaotic. Rationalistic, humanistic, liberal, or progressive tendencies have often lost their connections with both Scripture and Church Tradition. Human-centered theologies have become a serious threat to living faith.
With these contemporary dangers in mind, one must ask is there a central Anglican theological impulse that has characterized the best of Anglican thought and offers the best hope for the future of Anglicanism? After study and reflection over many years, I would maintain that the catholic impulse within the Anglican tradition offers that hope. By catholic Anglicans, I do not limit this impulse to one time period or church party. Over the last five centuries, diverse thinkers such as the English Reformers, the Caroline Divines, Non-Jurors, Old High-Churchmen, moderate Evangelicals, Tractarians, Anglo-Catholics, and Evangelical Catholics have pursued various aspects of Anglican catholicity. Such Anglicans have not embraced a narrow unanimity. There have been differing opinions regarding ceremonies, the role of the Prayer Book, medieval traditions, and the pros and cons of Roman influence on Anglican Christianity.
Nevertheless, despite various differences on some theological and practical details, a broadly catholic and traditional Anglicanism has maintained continuity with the ancient and medieval Church. Basic Anglican theological guidelines have been provided through the Creeds, the Prayer Book Catechism, and liturgies. And despite the fact that the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are deliberately vague on some issues and have been interpreted in divergent ways, they still highlight basic Christian doctrines.
Unfortunately, modernist philosophy and theology are adept at distorting words and definitions. So, after the extreme departures from Anglican tradition during the 1960s and 1970s (a process that continues), traditional Anglicans reasserted catholic and orthodox Anglican beliefs in the Affirmation of St. Louis in 1977. The Affirmation of St. Louis contains statements which indicate a desire to continue the catholic faith received through the Anglican tradition. It maintains that this faith is expressed in the Seven Ancient Ecumenical Councils of the Church from 325 to 787 AD. In other words, the Affirmation does not discard Anglican history; it interprets that history and its documents through the tradition of the Church Fathers. The Affirmation does not develop a complete or particular Anglican theology, but it does provide a truly catholic Anglicanism a contemporary point of reference. It allows for some variety while it continues traditional beliefs, moral teachings, and church order. Thus, it affirms and maintains the best of the Anglican theological heritage.
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