Chapter 10: Christian Apologetics
“…Apologetics means of course Denfense. The first question is – what do you propose to defend? Christianity, of course: and Christianity as understood by the Church in Wales. And here at the outset I must deal with an unpleasant business. It seems to the layman that in the Church of England we often hear from our priests doctrine which is not Anglican Christianity. It may depart from Anglican Christianity in either of two ways: (1) It may be so ‘broad’ or ‘liberal’ or ‘modern’ that it in fact excludes any real Supernaturalism and thus ceases to be Christian at all. (2) It may, on the other hand, be Roman. It is not, of course, for me to define to you what Anglican Christianity is – I am your pupil, not your teacher. But I insist that wherever you draw the lines, bounding lines come a great deal sooner than many modern priests think. I think it is your duty to fix the lines clearly in your minds: and if you wish to go beyond them you must change your profession.
This is your duty not specially as Christians or as priests but as honest men. There is a danger here of the clergy developing a special professional conscience which obscures the very plain moral issue. Men who have passed beyond these boundary lines in either direction are apt to protest that they come by their unorthodox opinions honestly. In defense of those opinions they are prepared to suffer obloquy and to forfeit professional advancement. They thus come to feel like martyrs. But this simply misses the point which so gravely scandalizes the layman. We never doubt that the unorthodox opinions were honestly held: what we complain of is is your continuing your ministry after you have come to hold them…
…We are to defend Christianity itself – the faith preached by the Apostles, attested by the Martyrs, embodied in the Creeds, expounded by the Fathers. This must be clearly distinguished from the whole of what any one of us may think about God and Man. Each of us has his individual emphasis: each holds, in addition to the Faith, many opinions which seem to him to be consistent with it and true and important. And so perhaps they are. But as apologists it is not our business to defend them. We are defending Christianity; not ‘my religion’…
This distinction, which is demanded by honesty, also gives the apologist a great tactical advantage. The great difficulty is to get modern audiences to realize that you are preaching Christianity solely and simply because you happen to think it true; they always suppose you are preaching it because you like it or think it good for society or something of that sort. Now a clearly maintained distinction between what the Faith actually says and what you would like it to have said or what you understand or what you personally find helpful or think probable, forces your audience to realize that you are tied to your data just as a scientist is tied by the results of the experiments; that you are not just saying what you like. This immediately helps them to realize that what is being discussed is a question about objective fact – not gas about ideals and points of view.”
THE ANGLICAN THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATION:
Orthodox and Catholic, Free of Innovation
“One canon (the Bible) reduced to writing by God himself,
two testaments, three creeds, four general councils,
five centuries, and the series of fathers in that period –
the centuries, that is, before Constantine, and two after,
determine the boundary of our faith.”
The Rt. Rev. Lancelot Andrewes
Bishop of Chichester, Ely, & Winchester
ECCLESIA ANGLICANA
We have no doctrine of our own...
we only possess the Catholic doctrine
of the Catholic church enshrined
in the Catholic creeds,
and these creeds we hold
without addition or diminution.
We stand firm on that rock.
The Most Rev. Geoffrey Francis Fisher
Archbishop of Canterbury
“In the midst of the world there is the Christian Church, the pledged followers of Jesus Christ, filled with Christ’s own Spirit; the family and the community, not of those who are perfect, not always of those who are very good specimens of holiness, but of men and women and children who, by being pledged to Jesus crucified and risen, are being put into the way of being made holy, put into the discipline of that cleansing and sanctifying and perfecting which is the restoration of the true divine life in humanity.”
The Most Rev. A. Michael Ramsey
Archbishop of Canterbury
