The Rise of Liberal
Protestantism
Friedrich Schleiermacher
(1768-1834)
Schleiermacher’s Theology
Be it in matter of the one
kind or the other [doctrine or order], what Scripture doth plainly deliver, to
that first place both of credit and obedience is due; the next whereunto is
whatsoever any man can necessarily conclude by force of reason; after these the
voice of the Church succeedeth. That which the Church by her ecclesiastical
authority shall probably think and define to be true or good, must in congruity
of reason over-rule all other inferior judgments whatsoever.
Richard Hooker, The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, V.8:2
Hooker’s Principles
Liberal Protestantism in
the 20th Century
How eagerly we wrap
ourselves again in the security of old chauvinisms and certitudes and the dark
comfort they afford.
Nowhere is this danger more present than in the life of the church with its
built-in bias toward the past and the continuum of tradition regarded as fixed
and immutable.
Of course, tradition itself is made up of a series of provocative inbreakings
of divine outrageousness focused for us as Christians in the scandal of the
Incarnation: God's pitching his tent and dwelling among us as one of us in the
person of Jesus, paradoxically both fully human and fully divine as the Council
of Chalcedon declared in 451.
It was that same Jesus who
said to his disciples “I still have many more things to say to you, but you
cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into
all the truth…He will take what is mine and declare it to you.” The historical
Jesus has ascended as the risen Christ to the Father and is no longer with us.
Therefore, wristbands which you see from time to time in the United States
bearing the letters WWJD – What Would Jesus Do are irrelevant. The proper
question is: what is the risen Christ up to right now through the agency of the
Holy Spirit – unsettling, prodding, challenging, stretching, illumining and
sometimes causing havoc? . . .
What are the many more
things the risen Christ – who is himself the Truth – seeking to reveal to us
through the workings and motions, the proddings and promptings of the Spirit of
truth? How do we distinguish the authentic manifestations of the Spirit from
those that are false?
Are we able to recognize the fact that the Spirit of truth is not confined to
the church and is involved with things secular? The changing role of women in
society, and more particularly as they ever more assume positions of
leadership, leads quite naturally to the same changes in the church.
At times the secular challenges the sacred and becomes the means by which the
Spirit of truth stretches and expands the church's consciousness.
To be faithful to Scripture
requires a willingness, indeed an eagerness, to follow the Spirit of truth
wherever we may be led. However, to pray Come, Holy Ghost…enable with perpetual
light the dullness of our blinded sight is dangerous and involves risk – the
risk of being obliged to change our opinions, to cast away protective biases,
to make room for the unfamiliar and sometimes unwelcome.
This is what it means to bear the cost of unblinded sight. And yet, as painful
as this may be, as our certitudes are challenged and purified by the Spirit of
truth, there is worked within us an increasing ability to see as God sees and
to love as Christ loves.
My brother, the people have
chosen you and have affirmed their trust in you by acclaiming your
election. A bishop in God's holy Church
is called to be one with the apostles in proclaiming Christ’s resurrection and
interpreting the Gospel, and to testify to Christ’s sovereignty as Lord of
lords and King of kings.
You are called to guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the Church; to
celebrate and to provide for the administration of the sacraments of the New
Covenant; to ordain priests and deacons and to join in ordaining bishops; and
to be in all things a faithful pastor and wholesome example for the entire
flock of Christ.
With your fellow bishops you will share in the leadership of the Church
throughout the world. Your heritage is the faith of patriarchs, prophets,
apostles, and martyrs, and those of every generation who have looked to God in
hope. Your joy will be to follow him who came, not to be served, but to serve,
and to give his life a ransom for many.
--The Ordination of a Bishop
BCP, p. 517
Anglican Religious Parties
in the 20th Century and beyond
Discussion
Question:
In what ways should or should not experience be taken as an authority for the
Anglican Communion to decide moral and theological questions?