The Renewal of Anglicanism

Rating:
Summary: All things old...
Review: Alister McGrath, a rather prolific writer in the field of theology (particularly historical and systematic theology), ten years ago turned his attention to the idea of undercurrents in the renewal of Anglicanism. To a certain extent, this seems somewhat redundant - Anglicanism has from its beginnings been a tradition in process of both reform and preservation - it isn't so much a pendulum swinging left to right as it is a spiral that covers a lot of ground, often over and over, but always in new contexts and at new levels.

While it is true that Anglicanism has always been in transition, it is also true that the past few decades have presented more elements at play in this process than ever before. Reforms of the liturgies, increasing importance of voices from non-Western church bodies, evangelism (and the failure thereof), and the triumph of secularism in the West have all played major roles in the way Anglicanism has been shaped, and will continue to be shaped. McGrath sees the past generation of Anglicans as being a rather 'lost generation', one in which survival was more important that mission or growth, and in which many inside and outside the church became disillusioned and pessimistic about future prospects.

McGrath argues for a reconstruction of the Via Media - the Middle Way, an idea long in the minds of Anglicans that can mean (as can most things Anglican) different things to different people. For some it looks to middle ground between Catholics and Protestants; for others it is the course between high church and low church (which, contrary to intuitive thought does not strictly parallel Catholic/Protestant categories). For McGrath, it is largely a course between fundamentalism and liberalism, and this seems to be playing out even more dramatically today than ten years ago when this text was first produced. McGrath does not see either fundamentalism or liberalism in terms of set doctrines or ideologies as much as methods and intuitive understandings. This allows for more interaction and cooperation, or at least mutual recognition of possibilities for validity.

McGrath sees the recapturing of vision and education as a primary teaching office of the church to be key to the overall renewal of Anglicanism in the world. There is much history, much theology, much of worth, but it needs to be celebrated, promulgated and taught, not just preserved. Anglicanism is not the stuff of museums and historical theatre, at least not yet - it is meant to be a living, growing and vital strand in the life of Christendom, a unique voice that needs to be used as much as preserved.

An update to this volume in light of current controversies would be welcome; apart from that, this is still a valuable text that gives a good background for thinking about things Anglican.

Rating:
Summary: An honest attempt to rescue the Church from dire liberalism
Review: McGrath takes a look at the mess that is spreading into the Episcopal/Anglican Church and tries to take an unbiased but constructive view in how to deal with it. He rightly takes to task the extremist fundamentals and liberals, but at the same time cherishs aspects of liberalism without possibly being aware of it's dangers. But then one can say the same the other way I suppose. He also values the growth of pastoral charismatic culture with a regard for evangelism and also asserts the need for unity between the anglo catholics and evangelicals.

Rating:
Summary: An honest attempt to rescue the Church from dire liberalism
Review: McGrath takes a look at the mess that is spreading into the Episcopal/Anglican Church and tries to take an unbiased but constructive view in how to deal with it. He rightly takes to task the extremist fundamentals and liberals, but at the same time cherishs aspects of liberalism without possibly being aware of it's dangers. But then one can say the same the other way I suppose. He also values the growth of pastoral charismatic culture with a regard for evangelism and also asserts the need for unity between the anglo catholics and evangelicals.

Rating:
Summary: McGrath Should Know Better Than This
Review: McGrath's call to evangelize anew with the Gospel is surely right on, but his version of the "via media" is bogus (see below for his caricature of liberalism), and his call to Lindbeck's postliberalism is perilous. With McGrath (I hope), I believe liberalism carelessly tends to dismiss Chalcedonian dogma as if it were indefensible; in fact that dogma has enormous resilience and relevance to liberalism's interests. But Lindbeck's postliberalism is a trojan horse, smuggling in a kind of postmodern relativism about the incompatible claims of competing religious traditions--Lindbeck would have done better to stick with Scotus.

Although McGrath scores hits criticizing Spong's scholarship, Spong is a straw man, a popularist elevated by McGrath into a foundational theologian. McGrath seems completely ignorant of the questions at stake--he should have addressed liberalism's strong side (e.g. the liberation theology of Gutierrez, Segundo, Boff; Moltmann's early work; process theology). I suspect he knows better, but his omissions serve his project, putting Anglican liberalism on par with comparatively brain-dead fundamentalism.

His nadir--a knuckle-dragging argument ad Nazium: Anglican liberalism's "cultural accomodationism" "shows alarming parallels with the situation that developed in the German Church crisis of the mid-1930s," that is, where the poor German liberals "were unable to discern the dangers" of theology hostage to Nazi culture(pp. 122-3). Ugh. Note his convenient selectivity: McGrath is silent on important successes in liberalism's track record within the ECUSA: support for desegregation in the US in the 60s & the desegregation of the ECUSA, the ordination of women, prayer book reform, an ongoing activism for social and environmental justice. To have mentioned them would have made clear that Anglican liberalism does not accomodate, but criticizes and reforms the dominant culture. Anglican liberalism is not just Spong and diluted Bultmann; its actual theology and practice make formidible demands on its adherents, and it is no surprise if many seek comfort elsewhere. Here evangelism should do its work, calling those tempted to seek the wide and easy road elsewhere to the Gospel and to life in the Spirit, a life of justice, of loving engagement reconciling wayfarers to the ways of God.