Protestantism & Anglican Origins
Wednesday, December 7, 2016 at 10:26PM
Embryo Parson in Anglican Catholic Church, Anglo-Calvinism, Anglo-Catholicism, Caroline Divines, Church of England, Continuing Anglicanism, English Reformation, Future of Protestantism, Historical Theology, Oxford Movement, Puritans, Roman Catholicism, The Problem of Anglican Identity, Traditional Anglicanism

It is, one would think, reasonably clear that the English Reformation was somewhat different in character to those in Europe and Scotland. There was a greater respect for Tradition both in basic doctrinal epistemology and in actual practice. And for those who view Elizabethan Church of England as radically different in character and self-understanding to the later period of the Caroline Divines one must ask: If they were so incompatible and discontinuous, how on earth did the “more Catholic” Caroline Divines come to be? From whence did they arise? They come straight after the Elizabethan period, and some were educated by the Church of England during this time. Does it not it make more sense to posit that there were genuine Catholic qualities and Ecclesial “substance” in the post-1559 Church of England (albeit often seemingly overwhelmed by the heat of early controversy and over-reaction against Rome) just waiting to be developed and made more explicit by the Jacobean and Caroline bishops and theologians?

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