AUTHORS of the 14 essays in this interesting collection were asked by the editors to reflect on: how they became theologians; what themes were central to their work; and what their vision was for the Episcopal Church in the United States today (now in serious numerical decline). It consciously mixes autobiography with theological analysis.
Professor Kathryn Tanner, at Yale, reflects thoughtfully at the outset on “The Anglican Way in My Work”. She sets the tone for the highly eclectic approaches to American Anglican theology that follow. Like most other contributors, she draws extensively and ecumenically from wide-ranging theological sources. Given that both Michael Ramsey and Stephen Sykes (and early Newman before them) failed to find an Anglican theology that was ubiquitous, distinctive, and unique, this eclecticism is hardly surprising.
A final essay by Sameer Yadav, at Baylor, explores “The Future of the Via Media in the Episcopal Church”. While acknowledging his background as a Hindu and then a conservative Evangelical Christian, he currently deploys a very tentative concept of liminal Anglicanism. In this he views an Anglican via media as a way of negotiating a path that responds to widespread theological and social fragmentation, albeit with a eucharistic focus. It is ironic, though, that he now worships in a Baptist church. Very confusing and, perhaps, typically Anglican!
Actually, judging by other contributors, it isn’t. Most of them — largely brought up in other denominations (as were both editors) — record their discovery of inclusive Anglican eucharistic worship as their entrée into the Episcopal Church. They do, though, note a widespread neglect of theology in Episcopalian congregations, although, ironically, it is the dogmatics of Karl Barth (and, less often, Anglican Tudor divines) that predominate. Unsurprisingly, the works of Rowan Williams are cited by many, but it is Barth who is used at much greater length. In contrast, 20th-century Roman Catholic theologians are often ignored: Karl Rahner is mentioned in passing twice, but Edward Schillebeeckx and Raimon Panikkar not at all. Even the highly creative RC theologians at Boston College are overlooked.
Despite this serious omission, it is good to see academic theology valued. Contributors view it as a rigorous way of exploring Christian faith, as it was for me when I wrote my youthful Ph.D. on modern Christology (thankfully unpublished, following Maurice Wiles’s shrewd advice). Scott MacDougall, formerly at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, articulates this well:
“Theology is an intellectual and spiritual discipline that puts the scriptural witness, human knowledge and experience, and the deep history of God’s relationship with God’s people into conversation in order to produce a coherent, compelling, and faithful account of Christian truth that both shapes and is shaped by Christian practice in a specific time and place.”
Rahner and his Catholic successors might well have agreed with this definition of theology, as Joy Ann McDougall, at Emory University, implicitly demonstrates. She refers approvingly both to Rahner and to the Episcopal Church’s “reasoned approach to faith that accepts challenges from other sectors of society . . . [and also] the sacramentality of the world through artistic expression”.
Manifestly, Scott MacDougall’s definition does not fit just Anglican theology. Instead, he argues that Anglicanism “does not prescribe what people must believe but instead pushes the boundaries of Christian theological imagination out as far as possible”. Perhaps that explains the theological pluralism so evident in this fascinating collection and why even Ramsey and others finally failed to pin down Anglican theology.
Canon Robin Gill is Emeritus Professor of Applied Theology at the University of Kent.
Wisdom, Knowledge, and Faith: New essays on the future of theology and the Episcopal Church
Robert MacSwain and Kelli Joyce, editors
Church Publishing Inc. £21.99
(978-1-64065-825-7)
Church Times Bookshop £19.79