Good Faith

By Angela Tilby

I never expected to write a book about the Church of England. My theological interests until now have been in the patristic period. I taught Early Church History and Spirituality for the Cambridge Theological Federation for ten years, and my last book The Seven Deadly Sins, was an exploration of the teaching of Evagrius of Pontus, a Greek speaking hermit of the 4th century. Thinking and writing about sin triggered me to think about what might be meant by a ‘good life’ today, and gradually I found myself drawn to reflect on the role of the established church in the life of the English nation. Although my mother was Roman Catholic, whenever my family went to Church it was to the local C of E, so I grew up with the phrases and cadences of the Book of Common Prayer firmly fixed in my head. I was confirmed as a teenager and have never seriously considered being anything other than C of E.

When I began to consider writing a book commending the C of E I found myself confronted with a paradox. This version of the Christian faith, apparently so deeply rooted in the English landscape through its parish churches, the King James Bible and the Prayer Book has a curious history, much of which seems accidental to the point of absurdity. I found myself thinking what might, or might not have happened had Katherine of Aragon produced a strapping son who had inherited the English throne from Henry 8th and ruled over his Catholic subjects for fifty years? Would the Reformation have taken root here? And what kind of a Reformation would it have been?

And then there are the questions about how the Church of England might be characterised. Why did it retain a formal scripted liturgy when various factions were arguing for greater informality and immediacy? And why keep the three-fold order of ministry with robed clergy and choirs when other Reformed churches were changing their understanding of the ministerial role? Why did the Church of England not look to a single magisterial theologian to determine its theology and outlook? Instead by a strange combination of habit and innovation it held the nation together through centuries of challenge and change, suffering near abolition under the Commonwealth and finally emerging with its liturgy and customs more or less intact.

The Church of England’s place in the nation’s life is much challenged these days, not only by the gradual erosion of religious belief, but also by the force of Puritan agitation from within which accompanied its early years and has never been either completely accepted or completely quelled. At its best the Puritan tradition contributes to the Church’s lasting vitality and capacity to renew itself; at its worst it inhibits its reach and catholicity.

One of the heroes of my account is the 16th scholar and apologist, Richard Hooker. Hooker is, sadly, scarcely known about today, though some students of British constitutional history will be familiar with his Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. Yet it was Hooker who but helped determine the temper of what would become Anglicanism, with its roots in scripture, its scriptural liturgy, its aesthetic of dignity and beauty, its valuing of scholarship, reason and moderation. The tensions within the Church often come from the most zealous end, from those who have long argued that the English Reformation was never complete and that, even now, there is a case for further reform to align the Church to the priorities of the Gospel. The great disappointment for the English Puritans was the re-establishment of the Prayer Book and the Episcopate in 1662, when many who had flourished as minsters under the Commonwealth were ejected from their livings. This, I argue, has left a long legacy of rarely stated bitterness and an ambition to turn the tables once again. The Puritans of the 16th century evolved into the evangelicals who were at the forefront of the social reforms of the 19th century; campaigning against slavery in the colonies, bringing education to the poor and working to abolish the exploitation of children. This heritage remains, though in more recent years the Evangelical Movement has changed its focus.

This is largely because of the comings and goings between the Church of England and the United States from the 18th century until the present day. The Pilgrim Fathers and many others who crossed the Atlantic from the 17th century onwards saw themselves as pioneers of a new exodus, leaving behind the religious conflicts of Europe for what they were convinced a purer and more authentic Christian life. America had no ‘established’ Church but rather a commitment to religious freedom alongside a form of civil religion which was vaguely deistic. America enabled the flourishing of new forms of evangelicalism and for over three centuries American evangelicalism has made the return journey to England.

I argue in my book that the evangelical movement in today’s C of E is largely a result of what I call ‘the revenge of the Puritans’. Think of the Wesley brothers being inspired by the American Great Awakening, and then of the impact of American evangelists like Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey, R.A. Torrey, Billy Graham and John Wimber. Along with inspirational preaching they brought new music, new styles of worship and an individualised approach to the Christian faith which was rather different from that usually associated with the established church. The impact of American evangelicalism on the Church of England has been profound. It has certainly led to growth; the Billy Graham crusades of the 1960s produced a whole generation of evangelical clergy who in many cases helped to revive and renew the parish system. But there has been a downside. Many of the scandals of clerical abuse can be traced to the elevation of individual charismatic preachers who have adopted an approach to worship heavily influenced by contemporary media and music, and are prone to the same sexual temptations to overreach just like the celebrities they emulate.

If the Church is to recover its nerve it needs to break free of these distortions and rediscover its identity., A quiet revival has begun and the C of E needs to be at the heart of it.

Angela Tilby is a priest, author, tutor, former documentary producer for the BBC, and a broadcaster and columnist.

Good Faith: Why England needs its Church by Angela Tilby is published by Hodder & Stoughton.