39 Articles: The Historic Basis of Anglican Faith
by David Broughton Knox.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 The Present Status of the Articles
Chapter 2 The Teaching of the Articles: I. The Doctrine About God
Chapter 3 The Teaching of the Articles: II. The Authority of Holy Scripture
Chapter 4.1 The Teaching of the Articles: III. The Doctrine of Salvation
Chapter 5.1 The Teaching of the Articles: IV. The Sacraments of the Church
Chapter 5.3 The Doctrine of Ministry
Chapter 5.4 The Doctrine of the Church and the Denominations
Chapter 5.5 Churches in Association
Chapter 6 The Purpose and Character of the Articles
Chapter 7.1 Current Criticisms of the Articles: Article Thirteen
Chapter 7.2 Current Criticisms of the Articles: Article Seventeen
Chapter 8.1 The Biblical Basis of the Articles
Chapter 8.2 The Nature of Revelation: Part 1
Chapter 8.3 The Nature of Revelation: Part 2
Chapter 9.1 The Future of the Articles
Chapter 9.2 Are the Articles Necessary?
Chapter 9.3 Denominational Association
Chapter 9.4 The Articles Incomplete
9.4 is the conclusion of Thirty-Nine Articles. For a complete list of the Articles of Religion click on Thirty-Nine Articles.
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4 comments:
Chapter 9 will be coming up next. The 9th chapter is relatively short so it should be up this week sometime.
Charlie
I received an e-mail from a bishop of a continuing Anglican church in the UK. I will post the e-mail anonymously here:
Dear Mr Ray,
Thank you for reproducing Broughton Knox' on the Articles, and for your clear and helpful comments. There are additional ways of avoiding the Articles of Religion.
Ever since the earliest days of the Reformation the common way has been, and is, for a candidate for ordination or to an incumbency to swear conformity lightly, shifting ground after as circumstances suit, like 'the Vicar of Bray'.
The second is 'Mental Reservation'. This has increased since it was used by the earliest Anglo Catholics. It was to swear as a Protestant whilst mentally rejecting. This was Newman's advice and example. He held much of the position of Rome, whilst publicly swearing to being a Protestant, and advised his young men to do likewise.
When ordaining me the diocesan bishop asked me if I believed the Articles, quickly adding he did not expect me to. I replied I would not have sought ordination if I had not.
A third way was quickly adopted by the Anglo Catholic movement in order to get over the public outcry and indignation and charge of dishonesty caused by 'Mental Reservation'. A man entered a parish as a true Protestant and in some cases as soon as three weeks later, introduced Mass practices, abhorrent to the congregation, thus causing a huge rift and the emptying of the church, as the bishops refused the congregation redress. This marked the end of Church Disciplin. The problem was that the State Church finally enforced this by the secular courts. Bishop Ryle took several to court, but shortly the courts washed their hands of this and refused to allow further prosecutions to be brought
The Anglo Catholic method for justifying themselves was then to say the had believed the Articles all along, but interpreted them. This was other than according to their natural and intended sense. They therefore wrote the 'Tracts for the Times', reinterpreting the Articles in a Roman sense. One was the infamous 'Tract 90', which said that Article 31 calling the central teachings of the Masses of Rome 'blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits', was only meaning one bad Mass the writer had seen on some occasion, but did not mean the Mass in general. This method is as old as the Reformation, Gardiner interpreting 'alms and oblations' in the Communion Office.
The only way the Articles can be defended and discipline maintained is by the living work of the Holy Spirit, a deep and real work in the deceitful and deceiving human heart.
Yours sincerely,
****
Charlie: As a former member of a continuing "Anglican" Church in the USA, I am all too aware of the dishonesty held and expressed by the AC's.
It has been rightly said that the Articles are best held with a good Catechism, say, the Heidelberg.
Amen, Charles. Let me know when you receive the book on Toplady?
May the peace of God be with you!
Charlie
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