Fathers and Anglicans: the Limits of Orthodoxy / Arthur Middleton

Historically the Anglican study of the Fathers was primarily in relation to controversies that Anglicanism had to face in the aftermath of the Reformation and the struggle for Anglican identity, rather than for their own sake. But whether it was the Reformers themselves, the Anglican divines of the seventeenth century of the Tractarians, those attempting to recover the mind of the Fathers for their contemporary Christian life found themselves and their theology transformed by their endeavour.

Tracing the development of the use of the Fathers in Anglicanism, Arthur Middleton shows the particular character of the Anglican settlement – with its interplay between Scripture, tradition and reason, together with its constant, if sometimes clumsy, will to profess only the faith of the undivided Church – has fostered a proximity with Orthodoxy that cannot be ignored. He sees in this a unique spiritual gift for Anglicanism, bringing the inspiration of Orthodox Christianity into the Western tradition.

While the appeal to the ‘patristic mind’ and a preference for the theological approach of the Fathers is characteristic of the English Reformation, the questions that confronted the sixteenth century are not the ones that are most urgent for us. Our questions are very different. How do interpret the spiritual vitality of other faiths? How do we cope with the prevalent despair about the possibility of establishing any public truth in the sphere of faith and morals? As we seek the light of the gospel on these challenges the experience of the theologians of the undivided Church struggleing to communicate the gospel in a pagan culture is fresh and relevant.

“Fathers and Anglicans helps us to re-appropriate a vital part of the Anglican approach to the living reality of Christ. This book deals with the very great significance attached by classical Anglican divines to developing a ‘patristic mind’ which is neither afraid to reason nor ashamed to adore... it gives us vignettes of attractive Christian lives like that of Lancelot Andrews of whom the church historian Thomas Fuller wrote, ‘the fathers are not more faithfully cited in his books than lively copied out in his countenance and carriage’. The large numbers of our contemporaries who are serious in their spiritual search but sceptical of there being resources to assist them in the Christian tradition can be converted by such lives”. Rt Rev’d Richard Chartres, Bishop of London

Arthur Middleton is an experienced parish priest, lecturer, retreat conductor and spiritual director, and has been Rector of Boldon, Diocese of Durham, since 1979. He is an honorary Canon of Durham Cathedral and Tutor at St Chad’s College.