Why 'laudable Practice'?

I have blogged at catholicity and covenant for nearly eight years.  The original tag-line for the blog was 'catholic Anglican - Ressourcement - Radical Orthodoxy'.  It was, in other words, explicitly, unashamedly, intentionally, an Anglo-catholic blog.

Eight years on, I find myself in a different place in theological and ecclesial terms.  A number of changes of theological perspective have occurred.  I have moved from a Hauerwas-inspired critique and rejection of Christendom to understanding Christendom to be the outworking of the Church's mission and confession.  Ressourcement theology, while still an important influence in my formation, has ceased to be as dominant in my theological landscape.  My praying of the Office has now been for some years according to The Book of Common Prayer - Mattins and Evensong, not the Liturgy of the Hours.  Perhaps most unexpectedly, 1833 and the Movement which commenced in that year no longer captivates my imagination.

A range of factors have contributed to this.  Re-reading Nockles' superb study certainly led me to a renewed appreciation for and deepened understanding of the pre-1833 High Church tradition.  Alongside Nockles I would also point to G.W.O. Addleshaw's The High Church Tradition and F.R. Bolton's The Caroline Tradition of the Church of Ireland as sources for enabling and encouraging a re-engagement with the Old High Church tradition.

What, however, can be the contemporary significance of this tradition?  Is this not ecclesial antiquarianism, harking back - in my middle age - to an expression of Anglicanism that seemed dated and sidelined by political, social, and cultural change in 1833, never mind 2018?

Actually, I have come to see this tradition as radically relevant, suggesting a meaningful and resonant alternative the disordering of contemporary Anglicanism.  According to John Milbank, "it should be noted that the Anglican legacy is perhaps more crucial and coherent than is sometimes realised".  Although only hinted at by Milbank, the pre-1833 High Church tradition embodied this "hidden coherence":

radically biblical yet hyper-Catholic; sturdily incarnated in land, parish and work, yet sublimely aspiring in its verbal, musical and visual performances.

In other words, in an age characterised by Anglican fragmentation and incoherence, the pre-1833 High Church tradition offers a model of a coherent response to the Anglican vocation - Catholic and Reformed, deeply patristic yet rooted in the culture, Protestant yet episcopal, liturgical, and sacramental.

I term this tradition 'Laudian' (although 'neo-Laudian' might perhaps be more accurate). A subsequent post will address the reasons for such nomenclature.

A key part of the attraction of this tradition was its Eucharistic theology - Virtualism, a 'high' Reformed expression of Sacramental theology (and see here and here for Hobart - who embodied the pre-1833 High Church tradition in PECUSA - as an exemplar of this understanding).  This attraction was, again, something of a surprise for an Anglo-catholic.  Its robustly Augustinian understanding and dynamic account of the encounter that is the Eucharist has proved compelling for me.  Perhaps this is best summarised by Hooker in his articulation of Reformed Eucharistic doctrine.  His famous dictum - "the real presence of Christ's most blessed body and blood is not therefore to be sought for in the sacrament, but in the worthy receiver of the sacrament" (LEP V.67.6) - sets the scene for the less quoted yet startling description of the Eucharist:

to us they [the elements] are thereby made such instruments as mystically yet truly, invisibly yet really work our communion or fellowship with the person of Jesus Christ as well in that he is man as God, our participation also in the fruit, grace, and efficacy of his body and blood, whereupon there ensueth a kind of transubstantiation in us (V.67.11).

What, then, of Radical Orthodoxy? Over the past decade, the Ressourcement theology which shaped my earlier formation has given way to Radical Orthodoxy.  I have seen in RO a vision of what John Hughes described: "Anglicanism as Integral Humanism".  Now, it may seem ironic to recognise RO in this way, when it is very much (though not entirely) an Anglo-catholic movement - and when both Pickstock and Milbank have affirmed transubstantiation.  What RO has done, however, is expound what we might call a renewed Christendom vision, integral to the Anglican experience, and close to the heart of the Laudian understanding.  In the words of John Milbank:

We have to reclaim public space and time, not disguise failure by false piety about the evils of triumphalism. Mission is impossible without a strong cultural mediation and presence.

Finally, there is the name of the blog - laudable Practice.  It is taken from the Preface to the 1662 revision of The Book of Common Prayer:

And therefore of the sundry Alterations proposed unto us, we have rejected all such as were either of dangerous consequence (as secretly striking at some established Doctrine, or laudable Practice of the Church of England, or indeed of the whole Catholick Church of Christ) or else of no consequence at all, but utterly frivolous and vain.

Retrieving, renewing, rediscovering - with joy and hope - many of the laudable practices of the Anglican experience will be a recurrent theme of this blog.  (And, yes, there is something of a pun - laudable.)

For those who followed me on catholicity and covenant, thank you - for taking time to read that blog, for encouragement, comments, suggestions over the years.  I have no doubt that for some readers of catholicity and covenant, this blog may not hold the same attraction. I understand this and it does not in any way lessen my gratitude for all that has been.

To those who followed my previous blog and now find themselves here, and to those who may stumble across this blog entirely seperately, welcome to laudable Practice. 

Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings with thy most gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help; that in all our works, begun, continued, and ended in thee, we may glorify thy holy Name, and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.