Our Church

Our Church PDF

Author: Roger Scruton

Publisher: Atlantic Books

Published: 2014-02-01

Total Pages: 179

ISBN-13: 1782395040

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For most people in England today, the church is simply the empty building at the end of the road, visited for the first time, if at all, when dead. It offers its sacraments to a population that lives without rites of passage, and which regards the National Health Service rather than the National Church as its true spiritual guardian. Here, Scruton argues that the Anglican Church is the forlorn trustee of an architectural and artistic inheritance that remains one of the treasures of European civilization. He contends that it is a still point in the centre of English culture and that its defining texts, the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer are the sources from which much of our national identity derives. At once an elegy to a vanishing world and a clarion call to recognize Anglicanism's continuing relevance, Our Church is a graceful and persuasive book.

A Short History of the Church of England

A Short History of the Church of England PDF

Author: Hervé Picton

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2015-01-12

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1443873004

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The book retraces the history of the Church of England from the Henrician schism (1533–34) to the present day, and focuses on the complex relations between the Church and the State which, in the case of an established Church, are of paramount importance. Theological questions, and in particular the conflicting influences of Catholicism and Protestantism, in its various forms, are also examined. The religious settlement engineered by Elizabeth I and her advisers in the 16th century saved England from the atrocities of religious war. However, the countless theological battles and party feuds which have punctuated the history of the Church suggest that the Elizabethan settlement was not entirely successful. The Church of England today is a “broad Church”, hosting within its fold a wide range of traditions and beliefs. The coexistence between liberals and conservatives and, to a lesser extent, between Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals, remains uneasy and the unity of the Church is fragile. The Church of England, whose increasingly vague doctrine and multifaceted liturgy can be baffling, is furthermore confronted with other pressing challenges, such as the rapidly growing secularization of British society and the issue of disestablishment, which are seriously undermining its role and influence as a national Church.

That Was The Church That Was

That Was The Church That Was PDF

Author: Andrew Brown

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2016-07-28

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1472921658

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The Church of England still seemed an essential part of Englishness, and even of the British state, when Mrs Thatcher was elected in 1979. The decades which followed saw a seismic shift in the foundations of the C of E, leading to the loss of more than half its members and much of its influence. In England today 'religion' has become a toxic brand, and Anglicanism something done by other people. How did this happen? Is there any way back? This 'relentlessly honest' and surprisingly entertaining book tells the dramatic and contentious story of the disappearance of the Church of England from the centre of public life. The authors – religious correspondent Andrew Brown and academic Linda Woodhead – watched this closely, one from the inside and one from the outside. That Was the Church, That Was shows what happened and explains why.

A History of the Church in England

A History of the Church in England PDF

Author: J. R. H. Moorman

Publisher: Church Publishing, Inc.

Published: 1980-06

Total Pages: 507

ISBN-13: 081921406X

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This authoritative account of the Church in England covers its history from earliest times to the late twentieth century. Includes chapters on the Roman, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Norman, and Medieval periods before a description of the Reformation and its effects, the Stuart period, and the Industrial Age, with a final chapter on the modern church through 1972.

Going to Church in Medieval England

Going to Church in Medieval England PDF

Author: Nicholas Orme

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2021-07-09

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 0300256507

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An engaging, richly illustrated account of parish churches and churchgoers in England, from the Anglo-Saxons to the mid-sixteenth century Parish churches were at the heart of English religious and social life in the Middle Ages and the sixteenth century. In this comprehensive study, Nicholas Orme shows how they came into existence, who staffed them, and how their buildings were used. He explains who went to church, who did not attend, how people behaved there, and how they--not merely the clergy--affected how worship was staged. The book provides an accessible account of what happened in the daily and weekly services, and how churches marked the seasons of Christmas, Lent, Easter, and summer. It describes how they celebrated the great events of life: birth, coming of age, and marriage, and gave comfort in sickness and death. A final chapter covers the English Reformation in the sixteenth century and shows how, alongside its changes, much that went on in parish churches remained as before.

A People's Church

A People's Church PDF

Author: Jeremy Morris

Publisher: Profile Books

Published: 2022-04-07

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 1782830537

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'A masterly, vivid and original sketch, not just of the history but of the culture (or cultures) of the Church of England across nearly five centuries.' Rowan Williams, poet and former Archbishop of Canterbury It is hard to comprehend the last 500 years of England's history without understanding the Church of England. From its roots in Catholicism through to the present day, this is the extraordinary history of a familiar but much-misunderstood institution. The Church has frequently been divided between high and low, Evangelical and Anglo-Catholic. For its first 150 years people sacrificed their lives to defend it; the Anglican Church is and has always been defined by its complicated relationship to the state and power. As Jeremy Morris shows, the story of the Church - central to British life - has never been straightforward. Weaving social, political and religious context together with the significance of its music and architecture, A People's Church skilfully illuminates a complex and pre-eminent institution.

The Church of England and Christian Antiquity

The Church of England and Christian Antiquity PDF

Author: Jean-Louis Quantin

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2009-02-12

Total Pages: 525

ISBN-13: 0191565342

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Today, the statement that Anglicans are fond of the Fathers and keen on patristic studies looks like a platitude. Like many platitudes, it is much less obvious than one might think. Indeed, it has a long and complex history. Jean-Louis Quantin shows how, between the Reformation and the last years of the Restoration, the rationale behind the Church of England's reliance on the Fathers as authorities on doctrinal controversies, changed significantly. Elizabethan divines, exactly like their Reformed counterparts on the Continent, used the Church Fathers to vindicate the Reformation from Roman Catholic charges of novelty, but firmly rejected the authority of tradition. They stressed that, on all questions controverted, there was simply no consensus of the Fathers. Beginning with the 'avant-garde conformists' of early Stuart England, the reference to antiquity became more and more prominent in the construction of a new confessional identity, in contradistinction both to Rome and to Continental Protestants, which, by 1680, may fairly be called 'Anglican'. English divines now gave to patristics the very highest of missions. In that late age of Christianity - so the idea ran - now that charisms had been withdrawn and miracles had ceased, the exploration of ancient texts was the only reliable route to truth. As the identity of the Church of England was thus redefined, its past was reinvented. This appeal to the Fathers boosted the self-confidence of the English clergy and helped them to surmount the crises of the 1650s and 1680s. But it also undermined the orthodoxy that it was supposed to support.