This post is inspired by a series of recent posts by Scot McKnight on the nature of Anglicanism.
If we are to believe Michael P Jensen, the rector of St Mark’s Anglican Church in Sydney, Australia, and a member of the (very) reformed Gospel Coalition, but I hope we do not have to, Anglicanism is just a peculiar variation of Calvinism. No surprise there, for one of the promoters of the Sydney kind of fundamentalist/(ultra)conservative Anglicanism.
Here are the 9 points in Jensen’s article, as sumarised by Scot McKnight:
1. Since the arrival of Christianity in Britain in the 3rd century, British Christianity has had a distinct flavor and independence of spirit, and was frequently in tension with Roman Catholicism.
2. The break with Rome in the 16th century had political causes, but also saw the emergence of an evangelical theology.
3. Anglicanism is Reformed.
4. Scripture is the supreme authority in Anglicanism.
5. Justification by faith alone is at the heart of Anglican soteriology.
6. In Anglican thought, the sacraments are “effectual signs” received by faith.
7. The Anglican liturgy—best encapsulated in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer—is designed to soak the congregation in the Scriptures, and to remind them of the priority of grace in the Christian life.
8. Anglicanism is a missionary faith, and has sponsored global missions since the 18th century.
9. Global Anglicanism is more African and Asian than it is English and American.
Persona 