Defending the Faith John Jewel and the Elizabethan Church Edited by Angela Ranson, André A. Gazal, and Sarah Bastow Pennsylvania State University Press. Pp. 342. $129.95 Review by Richard J. Mammana John Jewel (1522-71) was just 37 when he became Bishop of Salisbury. A colleague of Cranmer and Ridley, Jewel traveled widely in conversation with Reformation leaders … [Read more...] about Due Honor for John Jewel
Reformation
Painful Divisions
The Archbishop of Canterbury has written of the pain caused by the broken communion between Christians since the Protestant Reformation. As churches mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, Archbishop Justin Welby said that “we have learned once again to love one another — and to seek to bless and love the world in which we live.” Archbishop Justin made his comments … [Read more...] about Painful Divisions
100,000 for Kirchentag
More than 100,000 people are expected in Berlin May 24-28 for the 36th Protestant Kirchentag (Church Assembly) under the iconic Brandenburg Gate. Former President Barak Obama will join German Chancellor Merkel on Ascension Day, May 25. They will hold a public conversation on the theme “Democracy: Taking on Responsibility Locally and Globally.” That open-air event, sponsored … [Read more...] about 100,000 for Kirchentag
Enter Martin Luther
Statue of Martin Luther at St. Mary’s Church, Mitte, Berlin Adam Carr, Wikimedia Commons By John Martin October 31 marks the anniversary of an obscure German monk nailing a notice on the door of the Wittenberg parish church and inviting debate on practices in the medieval church. Martin Luther’s name would soon be known all over Europe. Luther could … [Read more...] about Enter Martin Luther
A Radical Call
By Cassandra Swick Søren Kierkegaard’s requirements for those who would reform the Church are extraordinarily high and are meant to apply to very few people — he expects no such worthy reformers in his own age, though he would gladly be “all bows and deference to him, the extraordinary” (all citations from For Self Examination/Judge for Yourself! trans. Howard V. Hong and … [Read more...] about A Radical Call
Bowdlerized Catholicism
By Anthony F.M. Clavier Perhaps only my fellow gray heads notice what an enormous change has occurred in the American Episcopal Church during the past half-century. In so many ways a Catholic approach to Anglicanism seems to have triumphed. Perhaps the most significant symbol of this triumph is the Book of Common Prayer (1979), one of the most high-church volumes to be … [Read more...] about Bowdlerized Catholicism