Puritans, Latitudinarians, and Crypto-Catholics, Oh My
I begin my rant this morning with something Fred Barnes just wrote in The Weekly Standard about the Pope in which he calls +Frank and most of the rest of the American Anglican episcopate, "the great diluters of classical Christianity."
He also calls the Pope the greatest defender of orthodox, Biblically-based Christianity. Jack Chick, eat your lungs out!
I was angry with Fred for a few minutes, until I realized that goshdarnit, Barnes is right. Admittedly, I disagree with Barnes about what parts of the building are on fire, but he's right there's a fire. The Anglican Church is clearly coming apart at the seams. The stool of Richard Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity is splitting into a leg of Scripture, a leg of "Reason", and a leg of Tradition (though the first and third seemed to have fused together in some places, explaining the instability in the stool in the first place). The ancient parties now stand forth to do battle: Puritans, Latitudinarians, and Crypto-Catholics.
Why I'm Scared (Or What Happens If One Side Wins):
Puritans Win: Bad days, pilgrims. The Puritans honestly believe scary things. +John Howe apparently believes that some people are children of the Devil rather than the children of God. Take him too literally and Anglican Christianity degenerates into a mutual benefit society of the exurbs that sweeps Dominationists into civil power.
Latitudinarians Win: Everything we know is wrong. Nothing is sacred. Anglican Christianity will "sanctify" the interiority of the urban elites, and they still will make fun of it. Repeat after me: I want my bodily resurrection from the dead! I want to be sinful and be held accountable for it! I don't want to be told what to do, but I would appreciate some suggestions!
Crypto-Catholics Win: The amazing work of the Holy Spirit in the increasingly democratic English-speaking world over the last 450 years is interpreted as some kind of bad dream, and we all go back to Rome. Sounds great, except it will not do Rome any good. Oh, we're not any help to the Byzantines either, so forget making an end run around Rome to Constantinople.
Is there a Fourth Way?: Among the Consistent Life/Emergent Church/Folks Who Like Bono there might be hope. But if there is really apostolic succession in the Anglican Church, these folks must have existed before. I'm going looking. I'll tell if you I find anything.
ESA(20050407.1)
I begin my rant this morning with something Fred Barnes just wrote in The Weekly Standard about the Pope in which he calls +Frank and most of the rest of the American Anglican episcopate, "the great diluters of classical Christianity."
He also calls the Pope the greatest defender of orthodox, Biblically-based Christianity. Jack Chick, eat your lungs out!
I was angry with Fred for a few minutes, until I realized that goshdarnit, Barnes is right. Admittedly, I disagree with Barnes about what parts of the building are on fire, but he's right there's a fire. The Anglican Church is clearly coming apart at the seams. The stool of Richard Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity is splitting into a leg of Scripture, a leg of "Reason", and a leg of Tradition (though the first and third seemed to have fused together in some places, explaining the instability in the stool in the first place). The ancient parties now stand forth to do battle: Puritans, Latitudinarians, and Crypto-Catholics.
Why I'm Scared (Or What Happens If One Side Wins):
Puritans Win: Bad days, pilgrims. The Puritans honestly believe scary things. +John Howe apparently believes that some people are children of the Devil rather than the children of God. Take him too literally and Anglican Christianity degenerates into a mutual benefit society of the exurbs that sweeps Dominationists into civil power.
Latitudinarians Win: Everything we know is wrong. Nothing is sacred. Anglican Christianity will "sanctify" the interiority of the urban elites, and they still will make fun of it. Repeat after me: I want my bodily resurrection from the dead! I want to be sinful and be held accountable for it! I don't want to be told what to do, but I would appreciate some suggestions!
Crypto-Catholics Win: The amazing work of the Holy Spirit in the increasingly democratic English-speaking world over the last 450 years is interpreted as some kind of bad dream, and we all go back to Rome. Sounds great, except it will not do Rome any good. Oh, we're not any help to the Byzantines either, so forget making an end run around Rome to Constantinople.
Is there a Fourth Way?: Among the Consistent Life/Emergent Church/Folks Who Like Bono there might be hope. But if there is really apostolic succession in the Anglican Church, these folks must have existed before. I'm going looking. I'll tell if you I find anything.
ESA(20050407.1)
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