In my opinion you are in an Anglican Sect!
To you and your fellows!
Luckyfredsdad. Clerk in Holy Orders.
luckyfredsdad said:EBIA. FEB.2010.
On the whole, though, were not a church that draws the line in the sand about that sort of issue.
LUCKYFREDSDAD!
Without wishing to be rude or insensitive you are wrong! Anglicanism is simply catholicism with an English face, it is the distillation of catholicism deriving from two thousand years of belief in the Revelation of Christ ,Scripture and the Seven Ecumenical Councils. These latter, as I have been taught are a means of communication and input by the Holy Ghost within the structure of the Body of Christ here on earth.
If your Church doesn't believe in these things, then no matter what is on the Church Notice Board or whatever, it does not fill the criteria demanded by the Anglican Church for membership. It doesn't hold to the faith once revealed by Christ to the Saints, taught by Him to the apostles and passed on to the Ancient Catholic Fathers! In my opinion you are in an Anglican Sect!
To you and your fellows!
Luckyfredsdad. Clerk in Holy Orders.
I'We do not think we need priests to absolve us from Sins.
I doWhich I suppose indicates just how diverse Anglicanism is.
This.Protestant, although retaining those elements of pre-Reformation Catholic Christianity that were Biblical and Apostolic.
Anglicans most certainly accept sola scriptura. If for no other reason than because the Church Fathers espoused it. See post:We don't accept sola scriptura (the belief that Scripture alone is the only source of authority), which is kind of a cornerstone belief of Protestantism. We accept three sources of authority, which, strangely enough, are Scripture, Tradition, and Reason
This.
I would add that 'Protestant' is a misleading word, because in popular use it's a relative concept that definitionally must rest on something else to 'protest against', while 'Catholic' is unfortunately taken as a universal concept, that is self-sustaining. To be 'Protestant' depends on the existence of the 'other' entity, while it's possible to be 'Catholic' just by yourself, even on a desert island.
So Anglicans are definitely Protestant in terms of doctrine and belief; but their Protestantism is, at a deeper level, just Early Churchism; as much as the Church Fathers would've been 'Protestants' in 1600 (and they would be, considering what they say in their writings).
That is me with my catholic hat on. Now let me speak with my protestant hat on:
Anglicans most certainly accept sola scriptura. If for no other reason than because the Church Fathers espoused it. See post:
http://www.christianforums.com/t7594261/#post58615101
Now Scripture, Tradition and Reason is definitely an Anglican formulary, but not in the way you say it. There is a definite hierarchy, with the first being first, and the latter two secondary; or sometimes with three levels, we have scripture -> reason -> tradition. No Anglican divine says that the latter two are able to reverse the authoritative teaching of the Bible, certainly not in the way the Catholics view their Tradition as equally as valid as plain and clear Scriptural statements that go entirely contrary.
The 'tradition' and 'reason' bits were added by Richard Hooker (and subsequent divines) to contrast Anglicans to the Calvinists, for sources of knowledge. Calvinists argued (and still argue) that there is nothing else to read and study, especially not about God, outside the Bible; they object that evidentiary proofs for Christianity are ultimately incapable, even irrelevant. Anglicans clearly argue that evidentiary arguments for Christianity, the uses of reason and human tradition both in our life and in our understanding of God, are useful, and true. Only that they take second place to Scripture.
For example, if the Scripture says that Trinity is true, and reason says that it is not, a rationalist, and/or unitarian, accepts what reason says. The Anglican accepts what Scripture says, and views the trinity as a mystery that doesn't have to accord with his reason for him to embrace it as a truth.
I know that there are some people who mistakenly think that the word (Protestant) comes from being in protest against Catholicism, and they are often members of one of the out-of-the-mainstream religious movemenst of fairly recent years. However, for must people, the word means only a certain set of ideas that put all of us at odds with some of the dogmas and practices of Roman Catholicism. That's how I think the word is meant to be used in this thread.This.
I would add that 'Protestant' is a misleading word, because in popular use it's a relative concept that definitionally must rest on something else to 'protest against', while 'Catholic' is unfortunately taken as a universal concept, that is self-sustaining. To be 'Protestant' depends on the existence of the 'other' entity, while it's possible to be 'Catholic' just by yourself, even on a desert island.
I'm fine with that. Protestantism is, inherently, a movement to restore the faith of the Apostolic Church.So Anglicans are definitely Protestant in terms of doctrine and belief; but their Protestantism is, at a deeper level, just Early Churchism; as much as the Church Fathers would've been 'Protestants' in 1600 (and they would be, considering what they say in their writings).
Did I say it?Now Scripture, Tradition and Reason is definitely an Anglican formulary, but not in the way you say it.
There is a definite hierarchy, with the first being first, and the latter two secondary; or sometimes with three levels, we have scripture -> reason -> tradition. No Anglican divine says that the latter two are able to reverse the authoritative teaching of the Bible, certainly not in the way the Catholics view their Tradition as equally as valid as plain and clear Scriptural statements that go entirely contrary.
So this has played on my mind many times in the past. The Anglican church was born out of the English reformation, however some would argue that it has a different identity than other Church's that came from the reformation. It is by no doubt, by Catholic standards, that the Anglican Church is Protestant. However, to many and Anglicans and other Protestants, the Anglican Church is Catholic, just not Roman Catholic. What is your positioning on the 'Anglican spectrum' as it were. Protestant or Catholic?
Child of the Goddess,
I'm not sure that I agree that the Anglican Church was born out of the English Reformation. When Henry broke with Rome, England was basically Catholic without a Pope. Protestant influences entered later. The degree to which the CofE was Catholic or Protestant fluxed, depending upon the beliefs of the Monarch.
We can argue this several different ways, always being careful to choose just the right words. However, the fact remains that the Church in England ceased to accept the Papacy's jurisdiction. No, that doesn't mean that a new religion was created then, but it doesn't mean that they simply rearranged a few chairs in the nave, either.
Interesting thought, something to ponder. I've never really considered the Protestant/Catholic/Orthodox schism to be a good thing, just something Christians have to accept as reality and deal with. And I don't restrict my reading or thinking to any one of those traditions. I.e., I like Luther and Augustine and Gregory of Nyssa.Actually, I'd say you are pretty Anglo-Catholic, as that test assumes Anglicanism as Protestant to begin with.
In other words, it depends on how high up Roman Catholicism and/or Eastern Orthodoxy is would be a good suggestion to your theological emphasis.
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