This article left me stirred and encouraged! It's time we got bolder and more assertive in our individual and collective witness. "Preach always..sometimes use words" is a way of life. Your comment on people taking Christ's name in vain was something I was discussing recently with a non-Christian friend who thought I would take offence at hearing blasphemy. My response is that you can't not mention His Name, even if it's a curse, which really does say something quite profound! We have a gospel to proclaim- good news to all. Thank you.
Good point. Late comer (73) to Christianity, born of devout post WWI Atheists, currently seeking which church - default Anglican, school reinforcing that, and (literary bloke and Oxford grad) lover of the King James Bible and Book of Common Prayer (and Miles Coverdale's translation of the Psalms, I am afraid that Welby and what seems to be a collapse of true belief in the C of E means it's either RC or Orthodoxy.
Have been on retreat four times in the past year, thrice to Buckfast in Devon and once to Worth, and this has been hugely enriching - now must take myself to some Orthodox service (nearest an hour away in Bath) as well. The first sense of religious awe I had was when at 16, I went on a 6 week school trip through the Soviet Union, in 1968. In Leningrad, as it then was, I went into an Orthodox Cathedral when a service was in progress.
Priests behind closed doors before they appeared, swinging censers; Antiphon choirs hidden from view one floor up - wonderful singing, and a sense of real belief and purpose. I spent Holy Week at Buckfast this year and that was wonderful. The Abbey packed for the Masses, and overflowing for the Saturday Night. I've already booked for Holy Week next year, and meanwhile keeping reading the Bible - which I read for the first time, cover to cover, during Lockdown, with some excellent commentaries (more on literary aspects rather then theological, though of course much of that as well) at the same time.
Reaching the end, I realised - I have to read that again! As I now am,.
Commentaries, FYI. All excellent, especially for me, the first one
"The Book of God" - Gabriel Josipovici
"God - A Biography" - Jack Miles
"The Great Code" - C. Northrop Frye (well known Canadian literary critic,
"Words of Power" - ditto
"The Literary Guide to the Bible" - Frank Kermode (Famous English literary critic) & Robert Alter (American professor emeritus of Hebrew and comparative literature )
"Reading The Old Testament" - more history than literary - Lawrence Boadt.
Good to hook up and thank you for an excellent, rightly forthright, essay!
Yes. I seem to be headed for the Wee Frees for the same reasons. Might end up circulating between Latin mass and WF, just to keep things balanced. Would be nice to settle with the Anglicans but it seems impossible.
Agreed. And for me it is essential to explore Orthodoxy as well; what little reading I have done pulls me. I fear Protestantism in any form is not for me, so it looks like either RC or Orthodoxy.
J. Tullius - https://theoldtree.substack.com/ - writes engagingly on his conversion to Orthodoxy. And writes well (important for me as a literary man!)
So good to talk on these matters with other believers of whatever colour; one meets so few (well, I do, anyway) in the ordinary course of daily life
For what it's worth, it's best not to think of Protestantism as a "tradition" the way EO and RC are. Though it certainly has particular traditions, which are not without value, at the theological roots, to be "protestant" (or in my preferred terminology, "reformational") is better seen as a necessary posture in keeping *with* historic Christianity. The most Christianly faithful Catholics and Orthodox will, on some level, be "reformational" with respect to their desire to maintain an adherence to divine authority, even if they reject the term itself; indeed even if they see Protestant-ism as the means by which divine authority is being eroded. https://thatgoodfight.substack.com/p/what-does-it-mean-to-be-reformational
Yes - despite my devout Atheist parents, born a year after the War To End All Wars, Anglicanism always attracted me, as one who has always believed in God, all the more so as it is a peculiarly English approach to Christianity - and its demise in the UK pains me. But an explorer I always have been, so here I am again - exploring!
I would love to see a reformation of Anglicanism but it looks impossible without something radical, the kind to which Anglicanism is itself rather immune. God may well remove their lampstand in judgement. But we can keep praying there will be more faithful trojans working away from this inside.
Thankyou. Wonderful to hear about your change of mind in recent years. Praise God; and may God bless your ongoing pursuit of truth abundantly.
I recommend you try out a Presbyterian Church within the IPC. There are slightly more of them around in England nowadays. In a sense, they are the likeliest inheritors of rehabilitating the good that was in old Anglicanism.
I can see the appeal of Orthodoxy. I doubt it will ever truly take root in Britain because it is so culturally bound to the East. The aesthetic drama is often compelling by contrast, but there are also narratives afoot which cast off all Protestants and Catholics as anathema, making people dependent upon (and paralysed from critiquing) the ecclesiastical authority. There are certainly many good Christians within EO, of course, as well as some who are more ecumenically minded; but ultimately they believe there is really only one right "way" of doing church, even though it looks entirely different from that of the early church of the New Testament.
I'm still a convinced Protestant precisely for the reason that, Biblically, there needs to be a mechanism for critiquing the Church (from beyond the ecclesiastical authority itself) when it errs from God's Word. There are all sorts of critiques one could bring to lower Protestant churches too, of course. See this podcast we did from last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tw37fmb8Ww
This article left me stirred and encouraged! It's time we got bolder and more assertive in our individual and collective witness. "Preach always..sometimes use words" is a way of life. Your comment on people taking Christ's name in vain was something I was discussing recently with a non-Christian friend who thought I would take offence at hearing blasphemy. My response is that you can't not mention His Name, even if it's a curse, which really does say something quite profound! We have a gospel to proclaim- good news to all. Thank you.
Thankyou Chris, and amen! We have been far too timid for far too long about the power of the Name of Christ.
Amen! Jesus was not ashamed to be openly identified with us. Let us not be ashamed of openly identifying with Him!
Amen. Unashamed Christianity is the hope of the nation.
And did this feet, in ancient times?…
Augustine of Canterbury's certainly did...
Good point. Late comer (73) to Christianity, born of devout post WWI Atheists, currently seeking which church - default Anglican, school reinforcing that, and (literary bloke and Oxford grad) lover of the King James Bible and Book of Common Prayer (and Miles Coverdale's translation of the Psalms, I am afraid that Welby and what seems to be a collapse of true belief in the C of E means it's either RC or Orthodoxy.
Have been on retreat four times in the past year, thrice to Buckfast in Devon and once to Worth, and this has been hugely enriching - now must take myself to some Orthodox service (nearest an hour away in Bath) as well. The first sense of religious awe I had was when at 16, I went on a 6 week school trip through the Soviet Union, in 1968. In Leningrad, as it then was, I went into an Orthodox Cathedral when a service was in progress.
Priests behind closed doors before they appeared, swinging censers; Antiphon choirs hidden from view one floor up - wonderful singing, and a sense of real belief and purpose. I spent Holy Week at Buckfast this year and that was wonderful. The Abbey packed for the Masses, and overflowing for the Saturday Night. I've already booked for Holy Week next year, and meanwhile keeping reading the Bible - which I read for the first time, cover to cover, during Lockdown, with some excellent commentaries (more on literary aspects rather then theological, though of course much of that as well) at the same time.
Reaching the end, I realised - I have to read that again! As I now am,.
Commentaries, FYI. All excellent, especially for me, the first one
"The Book of God" - Gabriel Josipovici
"God - A Biography" - Jack Miles
"The Great Code" - C. Northrop Frye (well known Canadian literary critic,
"Words of Power" - ditto
"The Literary Guide to the Bible" - Frank Kermode (Famous English literary critic) & Robert Alter (American professor emeritus of Hebrew and comparative literature )
"Reading The Old Testament" - more history than literary - Lawrence Boadt.
Good to hook up and thank you for an excellent, rightly forthright, essay!
Plus "The Oxford Bible Commentary"
Yes. I seem to be headed for the Wee Frees for the same reasons. Might end up circulating between Latin mass and WF, just to keep things balanced. Would be nice to settle with the Anglicans but it seems impossible.
Agreed. And for me it is essential to explore Orthodoxy as well; what little reading I have done pulls me. I fear Protestantism in any form is not for me, so it looks like either RC or Orthodoxy.
J. Tullius - https://theoldtree.substack.com/ - writes engagingly on his conversion to Orthodoxy. And writes well (important for me as a literary man!)
So good to talk on these matters with other believers of whatever colour; one meets so few (well, I do, anyway) in the ordinary course of daily life
Amen, may there be many more believers.
For what it's worth, it's best not to think of Protestantism as a "tradition" the way EO and RC are. Though it certainly has particular traditions, which are not without value, at the theological roots, to be "protestant" (or in my preferred terminology, "reformational") is better seen as a necessary posture in keeping *with* historic Christianity. The most Christianly faithful Catholics and Orthodox will, on some level, be "reformational" with respect to their desire to maintain an adherence to divine authority, even if they reject the term itself; indeed even if they see Protestant-ism as the means by which divine authority is being eroded. https://thatgoodfight.substack.com/p/what-does-it-mean-to-be-reformational
Yes - despite my devout Atheist parents, born a year after the War To End All Wars, Anglicanism always attracted me, as one who has always believed in God, all the more so as it is a peculiarly English approach to Christianity - and its demise in the UK pains me. But an explorer I always have been, so here I am again - exploring!
I would love to see a reformation of Anglicanism but it looks impossible without something radical, the kind to which Anglicanism is itself rather immune. God may well remove their lampstand in judgement. But we can keep praying there will be more faithful trojans working away from this inside.
Thankyou. Wonderful to hear about your change of mind in recent years. Praise God; and may God bless your ongoing pursuit of truth abundantly.
I recommend you try out a Presbyterian Church within the IPC. There are slightly more of them around in England nowadays. In a sense, they are the likeliest inheritors of rehabilitating the good that was in old Anglicanism.
I can see the appeal of Orthodoxy. I doubt it will ever truly take root in Britain because it is so culturally bound to the East. The aesthetic drama is often compelling by contrast, but there are also narratives afoot which cast off all Protestants and Catholics as anathema, making people dependent upon (and paralysed from critiquing) the ecclesiastical authority. There are certainly many good Christians within EO, of course, as well as some who are more ecumenically minded; but ultimately they believe there is really only one right "way" of doing church, even though it looks entirely different from that of the early church of the New Testament.
I'm still a convinced Protestant precisely for the reason that, Biblically, there needs to be a mechanism for critiquing the Church (from beyond the ecclesiastical authority itself) when it errs from God's Word. There are all sorts of critiques one could bring to lower Protestant churches too, of course. See this podcast we did from last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tw37fmb8Ww
See also my piece on the psalms. https://thatgoodfight.substack.com/p/when-the-psalms-stop-marching-in
Much to think about - thanks.