Martyn Percy, Anglicanism: Confidence, Commitment and Communion; Martyn Percy and Robert Boak Slocum (eds), A Point of Balance: The Weight and Measure of Anglicanism

What is it about?

A Point of Balance: Balance is at the heart of Anglican life and practice. It came with the Benedictine missionaries to England who brought a disciplined and practical life of prayer, labor, and study. They are our ancestors in Anglicanism, and we continue to live out of our Benedictine heritage. As Anglicans we tend to be more pragmatic and occasional than systematic or speculative. The Elizabethan Settlement allows flexibility and local adaptation instead of dogmatism, and this approach continues to inform Anglicanism today. Anglicanism can be likened to the English common law tradition in the sense that it favors a case-by-case application of a large body of understanding to daily life. Anglicanism does not attempt an elaborate and systematic code of propositions to resolve questions before the fact. Anglican theology upholds the truth that God works through people and in their daily lives. Jesus lived in the flesh, and it is through our own experience of living in the flesh, and living in the world, that we find and are found by God. Anglicanism makes no claim for infallibility at any time in theological pronouncements or biblical interpretations. Anglicanism can be messy. It has loose ends and unresolved questions. The past ten years brought many stresses and challenges to question the resilience of the Anglican Communion, and those stresses are plainly visible in the chapters of this volume and the various perspectives of our contributors. (based on the Introduction, "A Practical and Balanced Faith")

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