'The same purpose is that of Origen': Taylor, the Eucharist, and breathing with both lungs

In Section V of The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament (1654), we continue to see Taylor quote extensively from theologians of the Christian East and point to the liturgies of the Eastern Churches.

The opening paragraph of this Section quotes from Cyril of Alexandria and Theodoret, to demonstrate the reality of the bread and wine in the Eucharist:

St. Cyril of Alexandria; "called bread his flesh." Theodoret saith that "to the body he gave the name of the symbol, and to the symbol the name of his body.

The pairing is, of course, interesting, as Theodoret challenged Cyril's Christology. This in itself is suggestive of how Taylor generously viewed the Christian East as embracing both Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian theologians and churches.

Another extract from Theodoret - "In the exhibition of the mysteries he called bread his body, and the mixture in the chalice he called blood" - appears, as do words from the Byzantine John Maxentius ("The bread which the whole church receives in memory of the passion, is the body of Christ") and Cyril of Jerusalem ("Since our Lord hath declared and said to us of bread, 'This is my body,' who shall dare to doubt it?"). The point of these extracts, Taylor states, is to emphasise how the East made the same crucial affirmation that underpinned the rejection of the doctrine of transubstantiation:

For if, of bread, Christ made this affirmation, that it is his body, then it is both bread and Christ's body too, and that is it which we contend for.

Section V also demonstrates Taylor's interest in another significant - and controversial - figure from the Greek tradition: Origen. Three quotations from Origen are found in this section:

this is Christ's body, viz., as Origen's expression is, "typicum symbolicumque corpus" ... And to the same purpose is that of Origen; "The bread, which is called the eucharist, is to us the symbol of thanksgiving or eucharist to God" ... Origen is brought in proving the reality of Christ's flesh and blood in his incarnation, by this argument: If, as these men say, he be without flesh and blood, "of what body and of what blood did he command the images or figures, giving the bread and cup to his disciples, that by these a remembrance of him should be made?"

We might identify this with what Sarah Hutton has termed the 'Origenist moment in English theology', a moment particularly associated with one of Taylor's friends, George Rust. In 1661 Rust would publish his influential defence of Origen, Letter of Resolution Concerning Origen and the Chief of his Opinions. This was the same year in which he also received episcopal orders from Taylor. Rust's description of "that pious Father of the Church, the learned Origen" captures Taylor's view, as indicated both by the use of Origen in this Section and in Taylor's willingness in Section III to place Origen alongside Athanasius, as one of the great theologians of the Christian East.

Section V also ends with Taylor once again invoking "those churches who use the liturgies of St. James, St. Mark, and St. Chrysostom", indicating both his reverence for these churches and the theologies which formed them, and the extent to which he saw the eucharistic theology of the Church of England as reliant upon and in harmony with the Greek Fathers.

Why I support the ordination of women: a High Church reflection

A number of commenters on this blog have asked about my occasional expressions of support for the ordination of women to all three orders. With some hesitation, I have decided to post a summary of my own views on this matter. The hesitation is because I have sought on this blog to focus on issues and themes which can unify those who identify with or have respect (grudging or otherwise!) for what we might term 'classical' Anglicanism (the Anglicanism of the Formularies and - yes - of the Old High Church tradition). Some oppose the ordination of women (and I have friends and colleagues who do so, Anglo-Catholic, High Church, and Reformed Evangelical). Some of us support it (again, friends and colleagues covering a wide range of theological traditions). Below, I have organised my thinking around 5 points (needless to say, no reference to Dort is implied). 1. The Declaration for Subscription required of clergy in the Church of Ireland states: (6) I promise to submit ...

How the Old High tradition continued

Charles Gore's 1914 letter to the clergy of his diocese, ' The Basis of Anglican Fellowship ', can be regarded as a classical expression of the Prayer Book Catholic tradition. A key part of the letter - entitled 'Romanizing in the Church of England' - addressed the "Catholic movement", questioning beliefs and practices within it which tended to "a position which makes it very difficult for its extremer representatives to give an intelligible reason why they are not Roman Catholics". Gore provides the outlines of an alternative account and experience of catholicity within Anglicanism, defined by three characteristics. What is particularly interesting about these characteristics is their continuity with the older High Church tradition. Indeed, the central characteristic as set out by Gore was integral to High Church claims over centuries: To accept the Anglican position as valid, in any sense, is to appeal behind the Pope and the authority of t...

'Whether the Lutheran Churches have right Ordinations and perfect succession of Bishops': Jeremy Taylor, 'Episcopacy Asserted', and Lutheran orders

Amidst the bitter controversies over episcopacy in the Three Kingdoms during the early 1640s, controversies which had become war in Scotland in 1637 and then in England in 1642, Jeremy Taylor wrote his Laudian defence of episcopal order, The Sacred Order and Offices of Episcopacy Asserted and Maintained . He proposed in this work that the non-episcopal Reformed churches could have had episcopally-ordered clergy: Those good people might have had order from the bishops of England or the Lutheran churches, if at least they thought our churches catholic and Christian. Leaving aside the reality that, for example, French Protestants would have been placed in an invidious political position if they had done as Taylor proposed, it is the reference to "the Lutheran churches" which is significant. To begin with, a large portion of the Lutheran churches - those in the German lands - were governed by a system of superintendency. It is almost inconceivable that Taylor was not aware of th...

laudable Practice

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