The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Church of England Articles allowed Universalism in 1563

Hello everyone -

Apologies for being tardy with bringing this thread to a close – a bit of a cliff hanger eh? Well I’ve had a lot on recently of a taxing personal nature and I thought I needed a rest from writing too much about religious persecution (getting a bit bogged down I reckon). So I’ll just leave this one in the air for a little longer (although I think you can guess where it’s heading – and its almost cooked).

Note that I’m actually doing something very relevant to this discussion on another thread at the moment - namely the new thread on the Quakers which is in the ‘Church’ section. I’ve mostly held my peace about the Quakers until now, although I have seen a couple of threads in which questions about them were asked. However, I feel my knowledge - for what it’s worth - is needed to clear up a few of the myths and misperceptions that I’ve seen written about the Quakers on this site, all good errors made in good faith and without partisan malice I might add. I think we have much to learn from historic Quakerism – and so when invited I had to pile in.

Also the thread is helping me clear my mind of other issues that I was going to put on a supplementary thread here -which would have meant that they would probably would not have been looked at by many - namely the dialectic between Christian Radical Universalism and Establishment universalism in the History of the English and America Churches (and yes that is a bit of a pompous mouthful that I’ve just given voice to; sorry Friends!). This topic has already come up here regarding ‘The Family of Love’. It would come up again on the Athanasian Creed thread – but I think it’s best for me to deal with it separately given the current interest (and this will make the Athanasian thread a lot simpler and more focussed. The topics I hope to look at on the Quaker thread of relevance to the Ecclesiology thread will emerge -

When I look at of the history of the later radical English Universalist sects - the Levellers, the Diggers, and the Quakers, and of the slightly barmy Philadelphians,

When I look at the lone passionate voice of the heterodox - but still well worth listening to - English visionary William Blake who is part of the radical Universalist tradition.

When I look at the influence of the Wesleyan Holiness movement on later English Universalism. This is rooted in Wesley’s theology of ‘sanctification in which he drew upon the Universalist Greek fathers – Clement Origen and Gregory Nyssa – for inspiration. In America the Wesleyan Holiness movement gave birth to Pentecostalism and a revisit of Wesley’s Holiness theology may be of interest to Charismatic’s who are also universalists (I’m thinking of Sherman here if he reads this – and I’ve already written the post if you want a sneak preview) IN Britain when allied with some of the English Evangelical Quakers who still revered some of the older Quaker traditions (and they were only a minority at the time) the Wesleyan Holiness movement inspired the pre-Keswick Broadlands Universalist conferences which included George MacDonald, Andrew Jukes and Hannah Whitall Smith as participants.

When I look at the High Tory Anglican Universalist William Law – a High Tory Non-Juror not normally associated with Universalism - whose influence was immense across boundaries; his Universalist writings were treasured by the eighteenth century Quakers, by William Bake, and by the Broadlands Conference. The Tentmakers site makes much of his influence on the Wesley brothers and on Henry Venn of the Clapham sect. However this is only a partial truth (which wrongly implies that Universalism inspired all three). William Law wrote a book early in his career entitled ‘A Serious Call to the Devout Life’ – that certainly did inspire the fathers of the Evangelical Revival. However, this is not a Universalist text and was written before Law read Jacob Boehme and was persuaded, like others before him had been, to take Boehme’s thinking in a Universalist direction (although Boehme himself was not a Universalist). The Serious Call is beautifully written –as is everything that Law wrote because he was a great English stylist. It also has some memorable and witty caricatures like that of ‘Mr Mundanus’ the worldly fuss body. But it is a bleak book that focuses on rejecting all worldliness and all fun and merriment, applying oneself solely to the seriousness of duty. Indeed reading it seems to have increased poor Dr Johnsons’ melancholy tenfold. However, of course it appealed to the Wesley brothers and to Henry Venn. And for a time William Law acted as a sort of soul friend to the young and anxious Wesley brothers. However, in the end young John Wesley broke off with old William acrimoniously for he thought him to be not sound on justification through faith alone. In later life Wesley as a mellowed old man who had begun to believe in a wider hope – set very wide actually – if not in universalism per se, expressed the view that even though William Law was not ‘sound’ on justification doctine as a formula he was none the less justified through Christ. But the books that influenced the universalists were actually Law’s later Boehme inspired writings ‘The Spirit of Prayer’, ‘The Spirit of Love’, and the ‘Address to the Anglican Clergy’ written when he was close to death and was no longer afraid of coming out explicitly as a Universalist.

Thanks for your patience and do catch up with me on the Quaker thread if you have time and inclination.

All the best

Dick

Thanks Dick. I had not spotted the influence of Gregory and Origen on Wesleyan Holiness thinking, but now you mention it :slight_smile: I will also be looking up some of William Law’s books when I get time. Thanks again for all your informative and enjoyable posts.

OK Drew old chum - I’m in for a penny and in or a pound so I’ll plonk the post on the holiness Movement down here first (I wrote it originally for Sherman’s attention)

I quote from the very fascinating book, ‘One with God: Salvation as Deification (Theosis) and Justification’ by the Lutheran Ecumenist Veli-Matti Karkkainen (pages 74-77)

‘Wesley drew from the well of Eastern spirituality in his readings of the Eastern father’s spiritual texts; in fact he preferred the Eastern teachers over the Westerners. These included Athanasius [and not the bloke or committee of blokes who wrote the Creed], Basil, Jon Chrysostom, Clement of Alexandria, Clement of Rome, Dionysus the Areopagite, Gregory of Nazianzus, Ephraem Syrus [that is ‘the Syrian’], Origen, and others…

…[But] like any Western revivalist of [his] time [Wesley] was very critical of several features of the Eastern Church and abhorred, for example, its rigid liturgy, as he saw it.

However, Wesley learned s many spiritual lessons from the Eastern fathers, for example from Clement of Alexandria that there are three kinds of persons; the unconverted, the converted but immature, and the mature or perfect Christian…In John and Charles Wesley’s Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), a poem is titled ‘On Clement of Alexandrians’ description of a Perfect Christian’…

…This kind of taxonomy, of course, sets his theology in tension with the standard Protestant view of justification. Wesley, of course, knew the category of ‘justification’ and… gave due attention to it. Even though his own spiritual journey was not marked by anything desperate like that of Luther’s – for Wesley the agony was over the ‘deeper life’ rather than guilt as such – [his] emphasis on entire sanctification and perfection led him to highlight the importance of pardoning and being justified too. But, together with his experiential emphasis, Wesley preferred to centre the Christian life around sanctification rather than justification. IN this insistence on the need for a real transformation of the believer’s life, Wesley not only approaches the ethos of the Eastern Orthodoxy tradition but also the part of Western spirituality that has marked by Roman Catholic theology…

…It is interesting to note how Wesley as the leading champion of modern Protestant revivalist traditions ended up cherishing the kind of spiritual exercises that have always been treasured dearly in both Eastern and Western mystical and spiritualistic traditions…’Like the ancient Greek Christian ascetics, Wesley believed that the soul’s therapy could be facilitated through ascetic cures…

…Jurgen Moltmann correctly notes that for Wesley sin is a sickness that requires healing rather than a breach of the law requiring atonement. Therefore, Wesley is less interested than Reformation theology in the permanent justification of the sinner and more interested in the process of moral renewal. Ted Campbell has argued that Wesley regarded the Gospel as a ‘medicine’, a cure. The result was that Wesley ‘developed something like a scientific taxonomy of spiritual problems with which his ministers could diagnose and cure.

…By participating in the life of grace, a life given by the Holy Spirit, the Christian is enabled to love God, other people, and the whole of creation with perfect love. It is noteworthy that for Wesley this vision of the transformation of life not only encompassed individual life but also the whole creation – another indication of similar orientations between the East and Wesley. In fact, for Wesley the category of ‘new creation’ combined in a critical way both individual and cosmic aspects of salvation. His was a vision of the very real transformation in the creature and the world that salvation brings about. The note of hope and expected transformation virtually sings its way through any f the sermons produced by Wesley in the final years of his long life. The following passage from his 1783 sermon ‘The General Spread of the Gospel’ echoes this hope in a most beautiful way:

‘God is already renewing the face of the earth: And we have strong reason to hope that the work he hath begun, he will carry on unto the day of the Lord Jesus; that he will never intermit this blessed work of his Spirit, until he has fulfilled all his promises; until he hath put a period too sin, and misery, and infirmity, and death; and re-established universal holiness ad happiness, and caused all the inhabitants of the earth to sing together, ‘’Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!’’

As is clear in this passage, the new creation is cosmic in its overall dimensions and implications, but is focussed for Wesley in the renewal of persons. “Ye know that the great end of religion is to renew our heart in the image of God,” he proclaimed. The renewing of the face of the earth begins, therefore, with the renewing of its inhabitants. This is the pattern followed by the Eastern fathers, linking cosmic redemption to human salvation’

Now I quote from me: ‘Wesley was not a Universalist – but certainly his hell fire and damnation stage belonged to his youth; and as he matured he believed in the wider hope, a fully inclusive vision of who God might save. He had a truly Ecumenical vision and a heart filled with truly ecumenical charity. After he died the Methodist movement split in Britain into factions nobly the establishment and socially conservative Wesleyan Methodists and the more radical and working class Primitive Methodists (which later gave birth to the Salvation Army). Certainly the worldwide Methodist traditions today – particularly those that stress Wesley’s teachings on holiness/sanctification/theosis (and this would include parts of the Charismatic movement) – have rich resources to draw on in Wesley for a faith that can include Universalism and, indeed, concern for the environment. Indeed the pre-Keswick Broadlands conferences of Christian Universalists owed much to Wesley as well as to William Law and to Quaker spirituality’.

Wonderful Thread Rev.Drew. As someone with an Anglican Background I really appreciate this. By the way, can you send me the PP presentation you did sometime ago about UR? I would like to ask if you may allow me to translate it into Spanish and share it with some people. Thannks

Hi Ricky,
Thanks! I’m glad you found the thread interesting. I think our in-house historian Dick (Sobornost) still has a bit more evidence to bring to the table, so it may yet come to life again. :sunglasses:
I’m attaching the powerpoint and handout I used at the ICS Conference earlier this year and you are welcome to translate it into Spanish and use it however you wish. Only one condition - can you please let me have a copy of your spanish version? I may have opportunities to use it here in Barcelona or elsewhere in Spain.
God bless you,
Drew
Evangelical Universalism C.ppt (1.09 MB)
AN INTRODUCTION TO EVANGELICAL UNIVERSALISM handout.doc (403 KB)

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Claro que si, Rev. Drew!!! Pronto voy a traducir tu trabajo!!!

Now in Dual Language:

Sure thing, rev. Drew! I will translate your work pretty soon!!!

Ricky

muchas gracias Ricky!

Somewhere here I was hoping to make a joke about Elizabeth’s; insistence that Calvinist Preachers should wear Anglican vestments rather than the black Geneva gown – but I’ve been beaten to it!!! Theo Hobson – in his recent book on Milton – has compared this to making rugby players dress up in pink tutus and sashay around. So thanks Theo for stealing my best joke :frowning: :laughing:

:laughing: :laughing: !!!

Hi Drew –

Shall we get this one up and running again?

Yes please!

http://www.wargamer.com/forums/smiley/229031_thewave.gif

Wow - there is an awful lot of stuff on this thread. I’m taking some time out to read through it all and to summarise the main points (and any modifications that have occured to me with the benefit of reflection). I’ll give my summary soon of the story so far. Then I’ll come up with a plan of how to finish off.

In the meantime - ban me from all other threads until I’ve finished this one. Be ruthless! :laughing:

Thread bumping to remind you it has OVER SEVEN THOUUUUUSANNNNNNND reader views for good reasons. :slight_smile:

OK Jason – yes that’s not bad viewing for an obscure thread without spice factor I guess :laughing: . I am just doing some reading to get myself back into the swing of things. Interpret a temporary silence as a good sign that I’m getting on with this and will pursue the theme.

All the best

Dick

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Glad to see these are back again! :smiley:

If I had more money sitting around, I’d sponsor publishing a monograph of this material (assuming you kept your citations for footnotes).

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I’ve found out some interesting things about Archbishop Parker and the revision of the articles. Before the Edwardine Articles were submitted for revision to convocation he prepared his own revisions in a manuscript of the 42 articles in red lead pencil. This manuscript is still extant with crossings out and annotations signed by Parker. The bulk of his editing has to do with giving the Edwardine Articles a more Lutheran, less Genevan slant, while clarifying differences between Anglican and Catholic dogma.

Parker’s revisions were discussed in convocation by the lower and upper houses of clergy. The ‘Acts of Convocation’ (printed in Synodalia pp. 495 – 527 a document of record) states that the Articles were discussed at the fourth and fifth sessions of Convocation – as well as in private discussions that are noted without specifying what was discussed- and probably at the next three sessions being signed by Parker and sixteen other Bishops at the ninth session.

The three articles against Soul sleep, Chiliasm and Universalism were actually retained by Parker in his notebook it seems. So this means they were omitted after discussion at Convocation. This suggests that the initiative was not Parker’s then. Neither was it Queen Elizabeth’s – her hand is only seem in changes to articles 20 and 29 which were revised again after she had seen them when convocation had submitted their revisions to her.

The only Article concerning eschatology of which evidence of heated debate is recorded is Article 3 (Of Christ’s descent into Hell). Parker retained the phrase that Christ ‘preached to the spirits in prison’ in his notebook. However, on the advice of Bishop Alley of Exeter this phrase was dropped because there was much argument about it in Convocation.

It strikes me that there are no smoking guns here. It seems we’ll never know exactly why the 42nd article was dropped or who was behind it. It seems that Strype – the seventeenth century biographer of Parker – must have been the first to assert that the Articles originally aimed at Anabaptist extremism were dropped because the threat no longer seemed real. (I will have to check this – it may also come from the Matteus a short biography of Parker written by one of his pupils and included in Strypes biography. It is interesting that Farrar in Eternal Hope speculates that Parker himself may have been responsible for the abrogation because all of this evidence seems to contradict his claim.

I’m glad we covered the ground we did in the original discussion – because it has opened up interesting pathways of enquiry. I think however, the best way forward with the discussion it to take the focus off personalities – even the fascinating personality of Elizabeth – and instead look at the factors, which include the abrogation of the 42nd Article, that allowed ‘Wide Hope’ Anglicanism to prosper and develop even when the Church was predominantly controlled by Calvinists (and there was a petition from a group of Puritans in the 1579s that complained that the Prayer Book smacked of Origenism). And how Wide Hope Anglicanism led eventually to the possibility of Anglican universalism.

The influence of Erasmus –

Erasmus was such a profound influence on the Early Reformation in England that even when Calvinism gained ground it was not possible to eradicate him; his writings and influence were too widespread – his Textus Receptus and Annotations on the New Testament were used in the Universities, his Praise of Folly had canonical status as a founding spur to the Reformation, his Paraphrases on the New Testament were owned by every parish in England by Royal command, and his Enchiridon (Handbook of the Christian Soldier) was much printed. So Erasmus always played counterpoint to Calvinism in the Elizabethan Church creating a climate for the decline of hell through:

His (provocative and dangerous) love of Origen – even though Erasmus did not advocate UR as such – made Origen more respectable in academic circles

His emphasis that living a good Christ like life as the goal of religion and not fretting about the mysteries of salvation or of exact doctrine (including heaven and hell)

His emphasis that salvation is open to all and that the relationship between predestination and freewill is a dark mystery that should never be the cause of dissension

His belief that it is impossible to separate the elect and the reprobate at least in this life

His belief that hell is not a material fire but rather the torments of conscience

His stance against the burning of heretics – the outward and visible sign of hard belief in ECT

The influence of Bucer and Parker –

This is all about toleration, moderation, and a reluctance to specify dogma too nicely so as to exclude people from the Church and from salvation. This tolerant moderation was in part the legacy of Erasmus (see above).

The influence of the Queen –

Elizabeth’s Humanist background also seems to have schooled her in a moderate, ‘conservative’ form of Erasmian Protestantism.

Elizabeth’s identification with her ‘people’ also had an inclusivist flavor favorable to emergent universalsim. She obviously felt – not only for political reasons but because of her almost mystical identification of her with her people – that all should feel included in the economy of salvation.

It was she who asked for the comfortable words to be included in the prayer book to safeguard her people against ‘damnable despair’. The service for the burial of the dead reflects the need for comfort and Elizabeth obviously objected strongly to the doctrines of radical Calvinism concerning double predestination.
The influence of Richard Hooker

In Richard Hooker – who in retrospect had massive influence on the development of Anglicanism even though he was writing at a time when Calvinist Anglicanism seemed triumphant. Hooker draws together the threads of wide hope charity delineated above in his Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity.

The Abrogation of the 42nd Article – whatever the original reason for it – had influence in this wider context it seems to me.

All the best

Dick