Anglican Doctrine - Approach To Doctrine

Approach To Doctrine

Anglicanism does not possess an agreed-upon confession of faith like the Presbyterian Westminster Confession, nor does it claim a founding theologian like a John Calvin or a Martin Luther, or a central authority such as the Roman Catholic magisterium, to set the parameters of acceptable belief and practice. The universally agreed-upon foundations of Anglican doctrine are the three great creeds of the early ecumenical councils (the Apostles', Nicene and Athanasian Creeds), the principles enshrined in the so-called Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, and the dispersed authority of the four instruments of Communion of the Anglican Communion.

Additionally, there are two parallel streams informing doctrinal development and understanding in Anglicanism. Firstly, there is an appeal to the historical formularies, prayer-books, ordinals and the so-called "standard divines". Most prominent of the historical formularies are the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, principally authored by Thomas Cranmer. These are divided into four sections, moving from the general (the fundamentals of the faith) to the particular (the interpretation of scripture, the structure and authority of the church, and the relationship between church and society). Anglicans also take the principle of lex orandi, lex credendi seriously, regarding the content, form, and rubrics of liturgy as an important element of doctrinal understanding, development and interpretation. Secondly, Anglicans cite the work of the standard divines, or foundational theologians, of Anglicanism as instructive. Such divines usually include Cranmer, Richard Hooker, Lancelot Andrewes and John Jewel.

The second stream of doctrine is contained in the formally adopted doctrinal positions of the constitutions and canon law of various national churches and provinces of the Anglican Communion. These are usually formulated by general synods of national or regional churches and interpreted and enforced by a bishop-in-council structure, involving consultation between the bishops and delegated lay and clerical leadership, although the extent of the devolution of authority from the bishops varies from place to place. This stream is the only binding and enforceable expression of doctrine in Anglicanism, which can sometimes result in conflicting doctrinal understandings between and within national churches and provinces.