Two years ago, I started doing a fair bit of reading in preparation for an elective course on church history I'd be teaching beginning with the 2017-18 school year. I knew success in the nascent class would demand it; what I didn't know was how much of an impression my reading of the English Reformers would make upon me.
Fast forward to today, and my desire to study the theological and pragmatic energy of the sixteenth century metamorphosis of the English church from Roman to Anglican (a.k.a., going from the waters of the Tiber to the Thames is another way of putting that) has not abated. Truth be told, I am reading about six different books at once by authors such as J.I. Packer, John Stott, Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, and others. Even our rector, Dr. Ben Wagner, has passed along articles by William Witt (seminary professor) and has formed a study group of different guys to look through--among other items--portions of the 39 Articles of Religion.
Taking on another project, it is the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican church that has arrested a good bit of my attention lately. With decent discipline, I'll be reviewing Alan Jacobs' book on the BCP in the weeks to come. But mainly due to my desire to get a birds' eye view of the BCP, I ordered Peter Adam's The 'Very Pure Word of God': The Book of Common Prayer as a Model of Biblical Liturgy. Both as a confirmation of the BCP's Biblical foundations and a helpful assessment of the BCP's usage for today, Adam's work scores highly.
Adam is partial to the 1662 edition of the BCP, in that we have much to learn from it even if he doesn't believe churches should use it universally (this is derivative of Anglican restraint as well as the willingness to adapt worship to particular contexts). The context of the BCP in a particular national and spiritual awakening, from the primary pen of Thomas Cranmer, is essential in understanding the use of the BCP today.
But Adam places the majority of his emphasis upon the Biblical warp and woof of the BCP. Cranmer wrote the BCP for the express purpose of (1) declaring and teaching Biblical truth, (2) spiritual formation of clergy and laypeople along Biblical lines, and (3) stiff-arming unbiblical teaching and correcting anti-Biblical arguments.
The BCP is presented rightly as a Scripture-focused and Scripture-driven work. Adam points out that the BCP displays the Bible should be read, preached, used as the chief instrument in ministry, and read and taught to laypeople. He quotes Hilary Mantel as saying, "God's pen is poised, and he is ready to write his words in the books of their hearts." And he also quotes the poet and Anglican cleric John Donne, who maintained that "The Scriptures are God's Voyce, the Church is his Eccho." (original wording retained) When the laity are drenched in the teaching of God's Word, and when Scriptural truth has free course among them, their passion for true preaching will increase, and thus the quality of clergy in the pulpit should rise. Indeed, Adam maintains that the preaching of Scripture is the indispensible portion of public worship (while fully recognizing the centrality of the sacraments, as well).
Adam concludes with an appeal that Anglicans (and all Christians, really) to be wholly dependent on God's self-revelation. The Biblical character of the BCP's liturgies is a prime way to assist congregations in this way. Adam also applies this to worship forms in general, and while his words will not find full agreement from all corners, there is no doubt that Christians should make their prime question about worship not "What did that do for me?" but rather "Was it Biblical and thus draw me to see and adore my Savior?"
A model of Biblical liturgy, the true "work of the people" in public worship...all of that is fully on display in the BCP. Adam lays these matters out with trademark clarity and skill. In an age that desperately needs Biblically crafted worship to disciple today's Christian believers, Adam's work is a true voice calling in the wilderness.
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