The Vocation of Anglicanism

Paul Avis charts a pathway of theological integrity through the serious challenges facing the Anglican Communion in the first quarter of the 21st century. He asks whether there is a special calling for Anglicanism as an expression of the Christian Church and expounds the Anglican theological tradition to shed light on current controversies. He argues in conclusion that Anglicanism is called, like all the churches, to reflect the nature of the Church that we confess in the Creed to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic. The book provides a clear view of the way that the Anglican tradition holds together aspects of the church that in other traditions are sometimes allowed to drift apart, as the Anglican understanding of the Church reveals itself to be catholic and reformed, episcopal and synodical, universal and local, biblical and reasonable, traditional and open to fresh insight. Avis combines accessible scholarly analysis with constructive arguments that will bring fresh hope and vision to Anglicans around the world.

Table of Contents:
Preface Analytical Contents Part I: The Vocation of Anglicanism 1. The Vocation of Anglicanism 2. An Ecclesial Vocation 3. A Missional Vocation 4. A Covenantal Vocation 5. A Peaceable Vocation Part II: Three-Dimensional Anglicanism 6. The Claims of Catholicity 7. The Legacy of the Reformation 8. The Critical Imperative 9. Catholic and Reformed - and Something More? Conclusion 10. The Vocation of Anglicanism Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Paul Avis is a Chaplain to HM Queen Elizabeth II, and has served as General Secretary of the Church of England's Council for Christian Unity (1998-2011). He is Visiting Professor of Theology at the University of Exeter, UK, and Editor-in-Chief of Ecclesiology.

Review :
This is a hopeful and generous book, looking for “the Church” and its notes of unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity wherever they may be found. … The essays collected here are excellent testimony to [Avis's] attentiveness to other voices, historical and contemporary. [Avis] has managed to combine ecumenical sensitivity with a readiness to defend Anglicanism. ... [H]e sets out his stall with admirable clarity and cogency. He also develops and interprets [his] basic understanding of Anglicanism in ways that are often stimulating. Paul Avis is an erudite and perceptive writer on Anglicanism; he is also a scholar devoted to the case of Christian unity. His latest book makes all this plain, offering a generous, open-hearted view of what Anglicanism, at its best, might become (and sometimes already is). Another excellent book from Paul Avis ... He is erudite, irenic and reasonable, and he writes with an obvious love for the Church and the Anglican form of Christianity. Introduces a range of important ecclesiological themes clearly and succinctly ... A pastoral gift to the Anglican Communion from one of its senior theologians. This book is best read not as analysis but as a prophetic challenge. In this book, the celebrated ecclesiologist Paul Avis identifies, with profound erudition and theological insight, the distinctive vocation of Anglicanism as a gift to the catholic Church. That vocation concerns fidelity to the apostolic Church, its scriptures, episcopal order, creeds and ecumenical councils, along with continual discernment of the Spirit's teaching in the blending of faith and reason. Avis shows that Anglicanism has a dynamic and faithful view of Christian orthodoxy that faces the challenges of every age with joy and hope in the eternal faithfulness of the one who calls. A sustainedly generous vision of the Anglican tradition and the vocation of the Anglican Communion of churches as a school of unity in truth writ large. Channeling the main stream of Augustinian reflection, Paul Avis wants to encourage the bounds and bonds of Christ-centred love, set within God's gracious life, which will yield joyful obedience. I'd like to belong to Avis's evangelical, catholic, covenantal church and I join him in praying for its fruition. May large-hearted liberality call forth renewed energy in service among all Anglicans, so that the world may believe. In this collection of essays we find revelation, excavation and exploration - Scripture, Tradition and Reason. Here are profound theological insights, drawn from deep Anglican wells, set in an ecumenical hinterland, by a doyen of Anglican ecclesiology from the global North. A calm, erudite, balanced and generous book - exactly like the kind of Anglicanism it commends. A must read for bishops, clergy and every lay member desiring to seek ordination in the Anglican Communion. The vocation of Anglicanism is a subject that does not seem to be well understood in most parts of the Anglican Communion, unfortunately, very few if any of our Seminaries and Theological Colleges, especially in the Global South offer this as a core subject. For any theological institution or an individual seriously considering a vocation within the Communion, this book is a must read. I strongly recommend the book with gratitude to Paul for once again producing another informative book for Anglicans. After finishing this book, I find it is harder to have patience with some of the facile definitions of Anglicanism. I do not mean it is difficult to have patience with criticisms … [b]ut it is difficult to put up with shallow critiques when Avis's pages linger in one's memory.