Description
The Oxford Movement was the beginning of a re-formation of Anglican theology, ministries, congregational and religious life revivals, and ritualism, with its theological basis a retrieval of the patristic and medieval eras, reconstructed around a deep christological incarnationalism. Does it merit its description by Eamon Duffy as the single most significant force in the formation of modern Anglicanism? In Grace and Incarnation, Bruce D. Griffith and Jason R. Radcliff explore this theological richness with unparalleled clarity. They interrogate the potential link between Robert Isaac Wilberforce and Charles Gore and the Liberal Catholics, and examine the interrelation between Tractarian theology and the rise of what was to become ‘modernism’, with its new canons of authentication. In doing so, they not only offer a mirror to the past, but shed new light on what Anglicanism today.
About the Author
Bruce D. Griffith is Honorary Canon in Residence, Cathedral of the Incarnation, Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, and Rector Emeritus of Christ Church, Oyster Bay, New York. He has served as Senior Tutor and Professor of Systematic Theology at The George Mercer Jr. Memorial School of Theology.
Jason Robert Radcliff, author of Thomas F. Torrance and the Church Fathers (James Clarke, 2015) and Thomas F. Torrance and the Orthodox-Reformed Dialogue (2018), teaches at The Stony Brook School in New York. Jason serves as an assistant editor of Participatio: The Journal of the Thomas F. Torrance Theological Fellowship.
Contents
Prologue: The Oxford Movement’s Context in Church History, by Jason Radcliff
Introduction
1. Justification, Sanctification, and Regeneration: The Revival of Dispute
2. Edward Bouverie Pusey: The Reality of Sacramental Grace
3. John Henry Newman: The Imparting of Righteousness
4. Robert Isaac Wilberforce: The Incarnational Basis of Grace
5. Critics and Opponents
6. Penitential Ministry: The Tractarian Experiment
Epilogue: The Oxford Movement and the Twenty-First Century, by Bruce Griffith
Bibliography
Endorsements and Reviews
This careful and well-researched tracing of the struggle and conflict surrounding the Oxford Movement and the theological questions it raised makes Grace and Incarnation an invaluable resource not only for insight into the past, but for an informed appreciation of contemporary Anglican thought. The tension between ‘Catholic’ and ‘Reformed’ belongs not only to Anglicanism, but to the ecumenical world as well. This book belongs in that larger context.
Frank T. Griswold, Twenty-Fifth Presiding Bishop, The Episcopal Church
Publication of this important engagement with Tractarian theology is long overdue. The Tractarians’ views on grace are shown to be the basis for changes they instigated in the Church of England and worldwide Anglican Communion with respect to the theology and use of the sacraments, as well as in ceremonial matters that were, to the Tractarians themselves, less important. The authors show the error of many in retrojecting the incarnational optimism of later generations of Anglicans onto the Tractarians themselves.
Benjamin King, Professor of Christian History, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, The University of the South
The authors have a wide knowledge of the Church Revival and of the Oxford Movement. Their appreciation of Pusey is sound and inspiring. Their argument that the Tractarians were as good as any Christian thinkers in the modern Church on grace and the essential interdependence of grace, incarnation, and mediation is compelling … this is a good and worthwhile book in Anglican theology, and reveals a faithful approach to the living and true God.
Chip Prehn, in Covenant, the weblog of The Living Church Foundation
In general, Grace and Incarnation’s strength lies in its main chapters, which do draw upon interesting and neglected Tractarian sources. This reviewer learned much from them. Of course, while this book could have been more polished, there is much that is illuminating in this discussion of how the ideas of “grace and incarnation” developed in nineteenth-century Tractarianism and Anglo-Catholicism.Robert M. Andrews, Catholic Institute of Sydney, in Newman Studies Journal, Volume 21.1., Issue 1, Summer, 2024.
