Anglican Identities
Logos Idealism, Imperial Whiteness, Commonweal Ecumenism
By Gary Dorrien
Baylor University Press, 656 pages, $74.99
Arguably the major historian of American liberal theology, Gary Dorrien shifts his gaze in Anglican Identities. The focus becomes theology and the shaping of Anglican identity. The choice of subject matter is personal as Dorrien addresses his confessional home. His autobiographical content is brief in this volume; Over from Union Road, also appearing from Baylor, details his “Christian-Left-Intellectual life.” Dorrien grew religiously toward the Episcopal Church and ordination. Talk of “Anglican Identities” holds unusual personal import.
This account traces theology in England from early sources through the Reformation into a detailed account of the shaping of belief amid the rise of modernity. For Dorrien this is no voyage of discovery. He writes with the assurance that his “Christian-Left” convictions have become definitive of Anglican identity. The narrative is impressively personal. In the figures he highlights, Dorrien uncovers struggles that lent integrity to what would become theological conviction. Classic liberal values such as freedom of inquiry, rationality, and inclusion have personal antecedents.
Thus, Samuel Taylor Coleridge faced addiction. Fredrick Denison Maurice broke from Quakerism and struggled to ground his vision of Christ’s Kingdom in the Church of England. Stewart Headlam ministered to persons on the social margins. Norman Pittenger could only allude to his homosexuality. Desmond Tutu grew into the church amid apartheid in South Africa.
Various shortcomings marred the theological visions Dorrien considers. John Henry Newman, of course, lost his assurance of Anglicanism’s apostolic character. Christian Socialism was outflanked by the nascent Labour Party. Hastings Rashdall was a white supremacist. William Temple’s vision of a national church proved untenable amid war and social upheaval.
Dorrien’s assemblage of a theological tradition is buttressed by his magisterial use of intellectual sources. The influence of Kant in one era is traced clearly, just as that of R.H. Tawney is highlighted later in the narrative. The relation of emergent liberalism to political life receives insightful attention, such as the link between English political reform and the anti-slavery movement. Whitehead and especially Hartshorne informed Pittenger, just as they shaped an influential theological strand at the University of Chicago, my alma mater. Dorrien possesses rare breadth and command of intellectual sources and their connections.
But exactly what tradition does he trace? The book’s expansive title suggests a sweeping analysis of Anglicanism. Yet much that would inform such purpose is missing. Anglicanism does not emerge as a liturgical tradition, nor as a spiritual one. Occasional hints at these themes do not do them justice. A historic pastoral tradition, advanced by such figures as Gilbert Burnet, goes undeveloped. Further, English political liberalism is not treated clearly and broad references to colonialism receive no grounding in an analysis of mission. There is fleeting reference to Africa, mostly to Desmond Tutu, but no analysis of South Asia. English liberalism was prominent in the shaping of empire. That history goes unmentioned.
What Dorrien considers is a liberal theological tradition of fragmentary definition. But whose tradition? Variously he speaks of Anglican, proto-Anglican, English, and English Anglican life and belief. Other, competing theological strands receive tendential treatment save for the Anglo-Catholicism that informed Christian Socialism. Evangelicalism is only partially engaged. William Wilberforce helped to energize the anti-slavery movement. Later, C.S. Lewis became a notable writer, but Dorrien hardly intends to praise him. Dorrien’s choice of Anglican notables is selective.
In a volume considering liberal theology, Dorrien might have secured his theological flanks by granting the centrality of contestation in Anglican life. For the dynamic, unfinished theological tradition he depicts, historic tensions among church parties point to the sort of Anglican identity he elevates. He neared this position in his treatment of Arthur Michael Ramsey, who sought a unity that could not have overridden church parties. An emphasis on freedom and inclusion could inform debate without presuming fracture.
What Dorrien traces and celebrates is the rise of theological liberalism in the Church of England. To qualify as Anglican, the narrative would have devoted appreciative attention to the church’s growth globally. Examples of contextual religious life featuring indigenous spirituality and ministry, including social activism, would be featured. Dorrien suggests that Anglican identity emerged largely from English experience. The tutelage of Tutu by Community of the Resurrection brothers implies no less. Absent attention to indigenous church life, references to Anglicanism prove to be misnomers. Dorrien hints at a subsequent volume of global scope, but this work lacks such breadth.
Dorrien’s recurring attention to the theme of Logos in English theology could have opened a useful door to cross-cultural Anglicanism. In its fullest sense, the Anglican tradition has held an incarnational emphasis that has influenced mission and contextual church life. The idea of God’s incarnate presence across lines of difference has helped to make the church a meeting ground for ministries of reconciliation. A conviction of God’s presence among all peoples and their cultures has been prominent for various Anglicans, including Tutu and John Mbiti, whom Dorrien cites. More than English liberalism shaped them and the faith they embodied.
Ultimately Dorrien has unequaled command of theological liberalism. But theology prompts activity that is shaped by circumstances. The promise of Anglicanism has been its capacity for faithful, contextual forms of adaptation. English theological intentions have elicited indigenous outcomes, and thus have shaped Anglican identity.
The Rev. William L. Sachs is associate rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, and the author of several books on Anglican history.
