Anglican Christianity and Modernism: A Clash of Religions

The Rev. Dr. Leslie Fairfield

In the 1870s a new religion began to infiltrate the Episcopal Church.

Its origins lay in the German universities of the early 19th century. As this religion crossed the Atlantic to the United States, it went by different names. Some called it "Liberalism," some referred to it as "The New Theology," others named it the "Broad Church," and some referred to it as "Modernism." Since the latter was the title that its advocates preferred in the early 20th century, that's the one I'll use (And I'll define Modernism in a moment).

Modernism appealed to an increasing number of Episcopal clergymen who viewed classical Christianity as outmoded. The infiltration of Modernist theology came to a head in the 1920s.
A movement amongst Episcopal clergy tried to delete the 39 Articles from the new 1928 Prayer Book. But a coalition of laypeople forced General Convention to back down. And the onset of the Depression and World War II deflated Modernism's optimistic belief in human progress. So the movement went underground in the Episcopal Church for a generation.

In the 1960s Modernism came storming back. The English Bishop John A.T. Robinson sounded the charge in 1963
with his ironically titled best seller Honest to God. The American Bishop James Pike denied the Trinity in 1966 and the
House of Bishops let him keep his purple shirt. And the blue-ribbon Oxford theologian John Macquarrie began instructing Episcopal seminarians in Modernist theology through his classic textbook Principles of Christian Theology.

Except for Trinity School for Ministry in Pittsburgh, and since its recent renaissance Nashotah House in Wisconsin,
the other nine Episcopal seminaries have been teaching Modernist theology for more than a generation.
The current leadership of the national Church underwent their theological formation in the Modernist tradition.

Classic Anglican Christianity is a very different faith.

Classic Anglican Christianity believes in a God who exists as a community of three Persons, who are nevertheless one God. We believe that these Persons exist beyond the universe, "other" than time and space. And we believe that God created the universe out of nothing. We trust that the Triune God loves the universe and intervenes constantly both to preserve it, and to heal it from the toxic evil that has mysteriously infected it.

We believe that Jesus was and is the Second Person
of the Trinity. He exists outside of all time and space. Nevertheless in His love he entered history in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago. He came to identify with us, and to rescue us from death. We believe that Jesus died on the Cross to pay for our sins. He satisfied the norms of justice that He, the Father and the Spirit uphold. We believe that Jesus rose from the dead as a matter of historical fact - not as the resuscitation of a corpse, but as the first instance of a totally new life that He wants to share with us for all eternity.

Finally we believe that Jesus personally affirmed the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures, and personally commissioned the teaching that the Church later acknowledged to be the New Testament. These Scriptures represent God's official message to the human race. And while its interpretation requires the utmost of care, scholarship and grace, its central Story is non-negotiable.

Modernism rejects all of these classic affirmations.

For Modernism, the word "god" refers to an impersonal force that is completely within the universe. There is no dimension of this "force" that is "beyond" or other than the cosmos. This "force" neither speaks nor acts. But we know it exists, because we encounter it from time to time in the depths of our psyches. The 19th century German theologians called these experiences "god-consciousness." Modernists attribute these episodes to an undefined "spirit," disconnected from any "Father" or "Son."

Modernism therefore rejects Jesus as the pre-existent Second Person of the Trinity. For Modernists, Jesus was simply
a Palestinian sage. He was the first human being in evolutionary history to experience "god-consciousness" fully and completely. Otherwise he was purely human. He did not rise from the dead as a matter of historical fact. Rather, His followers experienced a "Christ event" in which their dead teacher seemed still to be present and alive for them. The prospect of an actual life after death for the rest of us is neither likely nor important.

Finally Modernism views the Bible as a human artifact. The Bible represents one ancient people's attempt to talk about "god-consciousness" and to pass on that experience to future generations. Modernists believe that the Bible was completely conditioned by its ancient environment. It has considerable historical interest but no authority for Christians today. As one Episcopal bishop recently put it, "The Church wrote the Bible, so the Church can re-write the Bible."

To sum it up, Modernists use all the old familiar Christian words, but change all the meanings. And they do not tell the laity what they have done.

These two religions are mutually exclusive.

You may believe in a God who is beyond time and space and who intervenes in it. Or you may believe in a "god" that is merely an impersonal force completely within the cosmos. Not both. There is no halfway point, no via media between these two opposing religions. (The classic Anglican phrase via media means something entirely different).

There are dozens of consequences that follow from our choice between classical Anglican Christianity and Modernism.
Let me just mention two.

If you opt for Modernism, you give up hope. The "god" of Modernism is simply the "force" that's spinning a sick system. Even
a momentary appraisal of human behavior immediately reminds us that we are in big trouble. Even in American suburbia (gasp) there are intractable problems that don't go away when you throw government money at them. Addictions, fractured families, teen suicide…you fill in the blanks. The Modernist "god" offers absolutely no hope, no intervention from outside, no autonomous burst of healing energy. The Modernist "god" is simply an experience that we have. In other words, God is Us. That is not good news.

If you opt for Modernism, likewise, you give up reason. Let me say that again…if you opt for Modernism, you give up any account of rationality or accurate knowledge. If "mind" is not a gift from God -
a possibility that Modernism categorically excludes - then "mind" is simply a random product of genetic inheritance interacting with accidental environmental stimuli. Therefore a thought in my head
is as likely to have been caused by some ancestral experience on the African savannah - or by the pizza I ate for dinner - as it has of portraying the tree that I'm looking at right now. It is irrational to suppose that rationality emerged spontaneously from irrationality.

All of which is to say that classical Anglicanism offers an account
of values that we cherish, such as hope and rationality.
Moreover classic Anglicanism is Christian, and Modernism isn't.

Two different religions.

Dr. Fairfield has kindly included a bibliography of background reading for his upcoming visit.

Saint Augstine, Saint Augustine Confessions, translated with an Introduction by R.S. Pine-Coffin,
Penguin Books: London, 1961.

Brown, Peter, Augustine of Hippo, University of California Press; Berkeley, 2000

Brown, Peter, The Rise of Western Christendom, Blackwell Publishing: Malden, MA, 2003

Oden, Thomas, How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering The African Seedbed of Western Christianity, intervaristy Press Books: Downers Grove, IL, 2008

Salisbury, Jane E., Perpetua's Passion, Routledge: New York, 1997

Stark, Rodney, Cities of God, Harper One: New York, 2006

Stark, Rodney, The Rise of Christianity, Harper One: New York, 1996.