A thin gruel for the soul
by Canon Phil Ashey, AAC:
The following is a review by the Rev. Canon Phil Ashey of the book, What Do Anglicans Believe? (Anglican Consultative Council, 2020):
The great Christian philosopher and theologian, Dallas Willard, once wrote that every compelling and coherent worldview must address four questions:
· How does one become a good person?
Christianity, including the Anglican way of following Jesus, has answers to these questions. Reality is the unshakeable Kingdom of God (Hebrews 12:18-29). The good life is not about consumption, but rather righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). The one who is blessed by Jesus (in every counter-intuitive and counter-cultural way he names in Matthew 5:1-12) is the good person. And one becomes such a person, a “disciple” according to Jesus, by denying oneself, taking up one’s cross, and following Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:24).
Sadly, you will find no answers to these questions in What do Anglicans Believe: A Study Guide to Christian Doctrine from Anglican and Ecumenical Statements, published by the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) last week. You may recall that the ACC is one of the four “instruments” or authorities of the Anglican Communion that meets periodically and is supposed to speak on behalf of the whole Anglican Communion. This academic study with selective citations of ecumenical and Anglican sources does not, however, speak for the vast majority of Anglican disciples of Jesus Christ in the Global South and elsewhere who find answers to the four questions above from our primary authority, the Bible.
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