Anglicanism for dummies (and for everyone else)

Don’t let the dusty-sounding title of Ashley Null’s paper, 16th Century Anglican Ecclesiology, put you off. It’s a devotional, deep, rich, concise yet scholarly account of the roots of the Church of England by one of the most well-respected experts in the field. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to understand this very important chapter in English-speaking Christianity. Null highlights the gospel-centred and mission-shaped character of much sixteeth century thought. His paper also helps to shine the light of historical experience on many of our own modern controversies and questions: for example, the significance of Bible-reading vis-a-vis the sermon in our church gatherings (to name but one issue).

The paper was presented to the leaders conference for the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in April this year.

In another paper, Null also provides an excellent historical overview of the various phases of Anglicanism from the 16th century to the present:

  1. The Sixteenth-Century Reformed Church
  2. The Seventeenth-Century Caroline Divines
  3. Latitudarianism
  4. The Three Streams of the Nineteenth-Century Church
    • Low Church Evangelicals
    • High Church Oxford Movement
    • Broad Church movement
  5. The Birth of a Communion: The Lambeth Conferences
  6. The Current Situation

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