Anglicanism

Anglicanism. The word properly denotes the system of doctrine and practice of those Christians who are in communion with the see of Canterbury, but it is used especially of that system in so far as it claims to possess a religious and theological outlook distinguishable from that of other Christian communities. As a doctrinal system it took shape in the reign of Elizabeth I. Its formularies, including the Book of Common Prayer, the Ordinal, the Thirty-Nine Articles, and the Books of Homilies, became the basis of Anglican self-understanding, preaching, and doctrine. In the 17th cent. the C of E confirmed her rejection of the claims of Rome and refused to adopt the theological and ecclesiastical systems of the Continental Reformers. The historic episcopate was preserved, though many did not regard it as of Divine institution. The extent of legitimate change was held to be limited by appeal to Scripture as containing all things necessary to salvation. Truth was to be sought from the joint testimony of Scripture and ecclesiastical authority, which in its turn was to be based on the tradition of the first four centuries.

At the Restoration in 1660, the dominant party comprised High Churchmen, who stressed the continuity of the C of E with its Catholic roots. The Cambridge Platonists (1633–88) and their successors emphasized devotional religion as well as a conservative respect for the wisdom of the past. Their immediate heritage was a latitudinarianism which gained strength in the early 18th cent.; it emphasized practical Christian living, morality, and a distrust of enthusiasm. The emergence of Evangelicalism among Anglicans in Britain and the USA in the later 18th cent. may be seen in part as a reaction against this trend. The Oxford Movement (q.v.) sought to restore to Anglicanism a sense of its roots and sacramental life as part of the Catholic Church. By the mid-20th cent. many of the practices advocated by its leaders had been accepted.

Until 1948 Lambeth Conferences had regarded the BCP as a bond in the Anglican Communion; with minor revisions it was used throughout the world in some language or other. In the second half of the 20th cent. there has been liturgical experimentation and almost every Province has produced a different Prayer Book. The increasing proportion of Anglicans in non-English-speaking countries contributes to the challenge of maintaining a unity of ethos in contemporary Anglicanism. The ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate in some Provinces and not in others has strained the bounds of comprehensiveness of Anglicanism and highlighted questions of authority.