Reformation Anglicanism: Essays on Edwardian Evangelicalism. Edited by Mark Earngey and Stephen Tong. London, UK: The Latimer Trust, 2023. 260 pp. $11.50 (paper). In some ways, and for some people, the Edwardian period of the English Reformation is fertile ground for speculations about what could have been. 1,144 more words
Book Review: “Reformation Anglicanism: Essays on Edwardian Evangelicalism” — The North American Anglican
While reading this review, something hit me: maybe God didn’t want the Church of England to be a truly Reformed church. Maybe that’s why poor Edward VI (of blessed memory) left us so soon.
So why is this? As I noted in this post:
From J. Herbert Kane’s A Concise History of the Christian World Mission:
One would naturally expect that the spiritual forces released by the Reformation would have prompted the Protestant churches of Europe to take the gospel to the ends of the earth during the period of world exploration and colonisation which began about 1500. But such was not the case. The Roman Catholic Church between 1500 and 1700 won more converts in the pagan world than it lost to Protestantism in Europe. Why did the Protestant churches take so long to inaugurate their missionary program? What were some of the contributing factors?
The first, and perhaps the most potent, factor was the theology of the reformers. They taught that the Great Commission pertained only to the original apostles; that the apostles fulfilled the Great Commission by taking the gospel to the ends of the then known world; that if later generations were without the gospel, it was their own fault–a judgement of God on their unbelief; that the apostolate, with its immediate call, peculiar functions and miraculous powers, having ceased, the church in later ages had neither the authority nor the responsibility to send missionaries to the ends of the earth…
Moreover there were the Predestinarians, whose preoccupation with the sovereignty of God all but precluded the responsibility of man. If God wills the conversion of the heathen, they will be saved without human instrumentality. If God does not will the salvation of the heathen, it is both foolish and futile for man to intervene. Calvin wrote: “We are taught that the kingdom of Christ is neither to be advanced nor maintained by the industry of men, but this is the work of God alone”.
Added to this was the apocalypticism which anticipated, with some dismay, the rapidly approaching end of the age. Luther particularly took a dim view of the future. In his Table Talks he wrote: “Another hundred years and all will be over. God’s World will disappear for want of any to preach it”.
It unlikely that the Church of England would have even this to its credit if, as noted above by Calvin, “We are taught that the kingdom of Christ is neither to be advanced nor maintained by the industry of men, but this is the work of God alone”.
But you’ll pull the pin on the grenade if you suggest such as thing…
Positive Infinity 