Abstract: As a theologian and ethicist, and as a teacher, I greatly appreciate the collection of essays and review articles in these two issues of the Anglican Theological Review. Together they provide as comprehensive a picture of Anglican moral theology as could be hoped for, given limitations of space and time. And they sketch of a number of ways forward in further retrieving, elaborating, and expanding this inheritance in the years to come. The major essays - by Timothy F. Sedgwick and Jeffrey P. Greenman in the Spring 2012 issue and by David H. Smith, Wendy Dackson, and Libby Gibson in the present issue - and the review articles by Benjamin King, Robert MacSwain, and Jason Fout and by Charles Mathewes and Philip Lorish identify major characteristics - themes, sources, methods, and trajectories - in the rich and complex tradition of Anglican moral theology. I want to note just three characteristics at the outset. The centrality of Scripture understood in and through corporate worship of Word and sacraments. While the various strands and periods of Anglican moral theology interpret and use Scripture in a variety of ways, some of which at times seem incompatible, they all nevertheless see Scripture first and foremost as the Word of God written, spoken, received, and lived (Greenman). Because the Book of Common Prayer is comprised so extensively by Scripture, Anglicans encounter Scripture week after week in its canonical form, the foundation and expression of faith with which all other statements and practices must in some sense cohere. While the understandings of coherence are multiple and contested, they nevertheless share the fundamental view of Scripture encountered again and again as the Word of God. The sustained appropriation of commonly held Christian moral traditions. Anglican moral theology, as varied as it is in its judgments and methods, is continuously nurtured by deep theological and spiritual roots shared by all Christians. Certain magisterial theologians - Augustine, Aquinas, the early church and Eastern fathers - clearly provide baselines of both content and method. Ordered common prayer in forms that date to the apostolic era and that use most of Scripture in a regularized way frames theology and practice as matters of fidelity and holiness. A particular ecclesiology that sees the church and its members as in but not of a divinely ordered and guided world is central to the formation of individual and community. The focus on virtue and character. To put it another way, a major focus of Anglican moral theology is the formation of Christians who are faithful in belief and practice. Ethics pertains primarily not to what one does or judges in particular situations, but to what kind of person one is becoming within a community of faith that is deeply immersed in but not fully identified with the larger world. Habits and dispositions are formed within that community, informed by Scripture, prayer, and practice. Such formation also develops a conscience that can be heeded, even over against external authorities, precisely because of the contexts and processes in which it is formed. Habits, dispositions, and virtues are all sufficiently malleable to be genuine guides in varying and changing contexts and circumstances. And at the same time they are sufficiently rooted and grounded in the God whom the community worships, praises, and trusts as to continue to express this faith in word and deed in widely varying situations. It is important to note here what is not offered: sets of rule or principles, magisterial authority-bearing teachings, unified and unifying theories, or elaborate normative practices. In times (such as ours) of widespread and even vituperous disagreement, social and ecclesial polarization and turmoil, and rapid far-reaching change, Anglicans may long for more than the guidelines that a virtue- and practiceoriented ethics may provide. I would argue, though, that it is just such an ethics that provides the kind of grounded reflective engagement that can assist individuals and communities of faith to navigate unclear and even unknown territory (Smith). …
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
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