Title: Contemporary Anglican Systematic Theology: Three Examples in David Brown, Sarah Coakley, and David F. Ford
Abstract: Introduction In our own time, we are well aware of the imperialism of earlier claims of the Church of England to speak for the whole Gone are the days when a book written only by members of the Church of England and (at most) two representatives of the Scottish Episcopal Church would dare to use the subtide Members of the Anglican Communion. But the poor choice of subtitle does not invalidate the important contribution that Essays Catholic and Critical made to Anglican theology in 1926.1 The present writers do not claim that the three theologians whose works are reviewed in this essay, and who currently teach in England and Scotland, speak for Anglicanism worldwide. But we do claim that each has made an important contribution to Anglican theology. By keeping Scripture as well as ecclesial practices (and disagreements) in mind, they exhibit a characteristically Anglican approach to their academic work. Although all three were Oxbridge-educated, we are also not saying that an English education is required in order to be an Anglican theologian, nor that these are the only contemporary Anglican theologians we could have selected - fer from it. Rather, these three happen to be our teachers, and putting them together enables the conversation of which Timothy Sedgwick writes: Without this conversation, their distinctive claims are lost from view, . . . claims which provide insight into what is central to Anglican understandings of Christian faith and life and what within Anglicanism remains captive to its Englishness.2 The accounts of what is distinctive in the work of David F. Ford, David Brown, and Sarah Coakley at the same time show what these theologians have in common. That commonality we take to be central to Anglicanism, and we hope to show that there are reasons why a tradition with its roots in Great Britain still offers virtues to be practiced across the Communion, and provides answers to knotty epistemological problems inside and outside the academy. Put briefly, all three begin their theology with (more or less critical) readings of Scripture and with ecclesial practice. But each demonstrates that, from there, contemporary Anglican theology makes many border crossings: into the theology of other denominations and faith traditions, into analytic and Continental philosophy, into the arts and natural sciences, even into divine life. It should be noted that Donald MacKinnon (1913-1994), who taught all three theologians the importance of into other disciplines, himself crossed the border from Scotland to England and back; and geographical border-crossings are important to these three as well, as will be seen from their biographies. In fact, only one of the three is English - and she spent a large part of her teaching career in the United States. Moreover, Coakley and Ford both received American master's degrees and wrote doctorates on German theology, providing the Harvard/Troeltschian and Yale/Barthian tenor of their respective early work. Perhaps these trans-Atlantic crossings explain why Coakley and Ford have lower levels of engagement with earlier Anglican theologians than does Brown, who self-consciously upholds the empirical tradition of Bishop Butler and John Henry Newman. Coakley is more likely to engage with Judith Butler than Joseph Butler, but will put her into conversation with the early church fathers - typical Anglican dialogue partners. Ford might not be an obvious choice as an Anglican theologian - as opposed to a theologian who is a committed Anglican - because he interacts so little with historic Anglican theologians or the church fathers. Yet while Ford may not engage with earlier Anglicans nor with typical Anglican dialogue partners, the form of his theology is unmistakably Anglican, involved with border-crossing conversations, immersed in Scripture and worship, and alert to the possibility of the contingent character of things' bearing witness to God. …
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 5
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