This essay examines some of the principles that animated the leaders of the Oxford Movement and considers their relevance for contemporary opportunities and concerns.
In the world that Augustine and Aquinas inhabited, created things and human institutions were interconnected with heavenly realities, knit together in Christ in whom “all things hold together” (Col. 1:17). We seem not to inhabit this world.
For the Oxford Movement, the interpretation of the Bible is inextricably bound up with the doctrine of the Incarnation and the sacraments, so that to neglect a sacramental or allegorical interpretation is in some way to fail to appreciate, or even to deny, these doctrines.
Spiritual exegesis is part and parcel of the Oxford Movement's efforts to help the English church recover her capacity to see and to enjoy the kind of vision of God, which is compellingly attractive, which is the beginning and end of Christian life.
The Rev’d Dr. George Westhaver is the Principal of Pusey House, Oxford, and a fellow of St. Cross College.
Before coming to Pusey House in 2013, George...
