Skip to main content

"The Magi's creed"

If we were to choose one piece of the Anglican patrimony which embodies a rich, traditional Epiphany piety, a strong case could be made that it should be John Henry Hopkins Jr's 'We Three Kings'.  The hymn is a marvellous catechesis on the mystical meaning of the gifts offered by the Magi, rooting Anglican celebration of the Epiphany in a deeply traditional piety.

From Irenaeus onwards, of course, the gifts brought to the Christ Child by the Magi were interpreted as having mystic meaning:

myrrh because it was for him who should die and be buried for the mortal human race; gold because he was a king 'whose kingdom has no end'; and frankincense because he was God.

Ælfric's (10th century) sermon on the Epiphany similarly invokes this meaning:

These three astronomers worshipped Christ, and offered to him symbolic gifts. The gold betokened that he is true King; the incense that he is true God; the myrrh that he was then mortal, though now he continues immortal in eternity.

When John Henry Hopkins Jr. celebrated this mystic meaning in 'We Three Kings', however, he was not invoking an Epiphany piety foreign to the Anglican tradition.  In an Epiphany sermon, Mark Frank set forth the traditional understanding of the meaning of the gifts:

In offering "gold" (i.) they acknowledged him for a King, and so paid him tribute. In offering "frankincense," or incense, (ii.) they confessed him to be a God: it is to the gods only that even the heathen offer incense. Yet (iii.) in offering "myrrh," they yet profess he should die like men; myrrh hath little other use than in sepultures and embalmings. So the sum of the wise men's faith, or the Magi's creed, is thus professed, that this child they thus adored was the King, Messiah, God and man, who should die for them.

 Frank's use of the traditional reading of the Magi's gifts - alongside the accounts of the journey of the Magi offered by Andrewes, Donne, and Frank in their sermons - points to how a traditional Epiphany piety was sustained by the Prayer Book's provision for the feast.

Of particular note is Frank's phrase "the Magi's creed", as compelling  and evocative as Andrewes's "a cold coming they had of it", as John Henry Hopkins Jr's "King, and God, and Sacrifice".  It vividly captures the Christological richness of the traditional piety surrounding Epiphany and the significance of the Prayer Book's celebration of the feast.

(The illustration is a detail from a tapestry by Edward Burne-Jones, 'The Adoration of the Magi', 1894.)

Comments

  1. Ivan Possamai10 June 2021 at 19:35

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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 ...
25 comments
Read more

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...
19 comments
Read more

Pride, progressive sectarianism, and TEC on Facebook

Let me begin this post with an assumption that will be rejected by some readers of laudable Practice , but affirmed by other readers. Observing Pride is an understandable aspect of the public ministry of TEC.  On previous occasions , I have rather robustly called for TEC to be much more aware and respectful of the social conservatism of the Red states and regions in which it ministers. A failure to do so risks TEC declining yet further into the irrelevance of progressive sectarianism.  At the same time, TEC also obviously ministers in deep Blue states and metropolitan areas - and is the only Mainline Protestant tradition in which a majority of its members vote Democrat .* With Pride now an established civic commemoration, particularly in such contexts, there is a case for TEC affirming those aspects of Pride - the dignity of gay men and lesbian women, their contribution to civic life, and their place in the church's life - which cohere with a Christian moral vision. (I will n...
4 comments
Read more