 |
| King Charles I; Henrietta Maria; and their two eldest children, King Charles II and Mary, Princess of Orange by Sir Anthony Van Dyck. |
I've always been attracted to those writers known as the "Caroline Divines." They were for the most part men of good will who sought to follow God faithfully during the reigns of King Charles I, the Protectorship of Oliver Cromwell, and the reign of King Charles II. Their writings reflect the realities of the age in which they lived, were firmly rooted in the classical Christian past, and hoped for a better day when the Kingdom of God might be expressed in a more ecumenical and ordered form. They are a very foundation stone of Anglican thought and ethos, and God uses them to feed my soul. I recently purchased a new book edited by Benjamin Guyer: The Beauty of Holiness: The Caroline Divines and Their Writings. It was published in 2012 by Canterbury Press in Norwich as a volume in The Canterbury Studies in Spiritual Theology. http://www.amazon.com/Beauty-Holiness-Caroline-Canterbury-Spiritual/dp/1848250983.
Theirs was a difficult age filled with religious conflict and dynastic struggles, with regicide and social uncertainty, with civil war and divided families. But through it all they managed to focus on developing relationships with God which valued the past, acknowledged the present realities, and never lost hope. As one literary historian of the period has said, "they did the best of things in the worst of times." Theirs was a vision of an earthly kingdom where Christ's Church was united even as the prophets had predicted it would be after the great in gathering of God's people from every nation. They envisioned a world where the powers of men acknowledged the authority of God and ruled justly and righteously in his name. It was a world where imperfection lived alongside holiness while men and women signed as Christ's own sought to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil (as they lived together in God's earthly kingdom!) Today, many would call their vision idealized and naive, but it was born of painful human reality as people of different parties sought to live together, affirming revealed faith and discovered knowledge as their twin guides. They sought to chart a course which avoided the pitfalls of radical religion on the one hand and of easy believism (or denial of real differences) on the other. In so doing they set a tone for Anglicanism, an ethos if you will, which affirmed the faith received while avoiding the harsh doctrinal pronouncements and actions of many of the reformers in both the protestant and catholic camps, as well as the rejection of Biblical teaching and tradition which characterized some more pragmatic churchmen. They did not leave their faith undefined, as so many do in such an age. They rather stated their faith simply and clearly while seeking to live it without rancor or hardness or hatred for those with whom they disagreed.
You can learn more about them at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Divines. They provide wonderful examples for people like us in an age like ours. Their spirit and approach to difficult times provides an example which compels me to continue to embrace the Anglican Way, even in our current difficulties. Here I have found a peace, and a way of maintaining that peace which feeds my soul and overcomes him who would destroy me. For your reading profit and pleasure, might I suggest the following list of free online books, available at http://anglicanhistory.org/caroline/. More great Anglican titles are available free online at http://www.anglicanlibrary.org/.
No comments:
Post a Comment