On Sacraments, Hooker & ourselves

A word to fellow evangelical Anglicans & reformed catholics of the Anglican Way
A discussion starter

One thing I think is certain. It is impossible in 2002 to work out a satisfactory doctrine of the two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper [Eucharist], simply by reference to the Sacred Scripture. It was ALSO impossible in the 1590's when Richard Hooker penned his "Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity" (in debate with the Puritans who wanted to bring revolutionary change into the Church of England) to work out such a doctrine simply by recourse to the Bible.

Why?

Because the Bible has to be interpreted now, and because it has been interpreted in the past, and because from the past we receive Tradition and traditions which affect the way we read the Bible and receive its contents. This is so in all situations but is particularly so with reference to the establishing of the reality of Sacraments and then of their meaning and purpose. Further, insulated, privatised judgment in the reading and interpretation of the Bible is the origin of heresies!

The central Anglican [reformed catholic] method of approaching the doctrine of the Sacraments was identified and then given solidity by Hooker in Book V of the Laws. He taught that the Sacraments are related to the Incarnation of the Son of God, who gave them, and that only in the light of the Incarnation can they be understood, appreciated and received and become effectual.

Thus before he addresses the nature and purpose of the two Sacraments, Hooker engages in a most careful and engaging statement of the doctrine of the Incarnation of the Son of God as that doctrine was formulated (after much discussion and debate) by the early Fathers and in the dogma of ecumenical councils. Anyone who wishes to read a succinct & brilliant statement of the Church dogma of the Incarnation will find such in Bk V, 51-57.

Of course in going to the Early Church (which after all was the Church that collected the books of, and decided the content of, the Canon of the New Testament) Hooker was following the Anglican method, often summarised since then by the use of the 1,2,3,4,5. Anglicans base doctrine, worship and church order on One Canon of Scripture with Two Testaments, doctrine summarised in Three Creeds, the dogma of Four General Councils and the developments of Five centuries of growth & experience (1-500). They seek to teach nothing contrary to the central doctrines of this formative period.

In the light of the Patristic Evidence, Hooker was able to dismiss the Roman doctrine of transubstantiation & the Lutheran doctrine of consubstantiation as not faithful to Scripture as received in the Early Church, and to propose a doctrine to which, he believed, the early Fathers testified. He proposed that "this is my body" meant Christ saying to the faithful receivers:

"This hallowed food, through concurrence of divine power, is in verity and in truth, unto faithful receivers, instrumentally a cause of that mystical participation, whereby as I make myself wholly theirs, so I give them in hand an actual possession of all such saving grace as my sacrificed body can yield, and as their souls do presently need, this is to them and in them my body."

This became the central Anglican doctrine (cf. Article XXV) of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It was the basis for the teaching on the Sacraments in the extension of the Catechism of the Prayer Book (done in 1604 and added to the BCP in 1662).

In historical terms, it is similar to that taught by John Calvin and the high Presbyterian divines and known as "Virtualism" - from virtus = strength/force/power (i.e., while the bread and wine continue to exist unchanged after consecration, the faithful communicant receives with the sacramental bread and wine the virtue/power/grace of the real Body and Blood of the crucified and exalted Saviour).

Another related approach to the presence of Christ in the Eucharist and developed by 17th century writers such as Jeremy Taylor is often termed "Receptionism" - that along with the actual bread and wine the faithful communicant receives the true Body of Blood of the crucified and now exalted Saviour.

These reformed Catholic or Anglican doctrines of the real presence were meant to avoid the literal identification of the bread and wine with the actual body and blood of Jesus and also to insist on the need for worthy, faithful reception. (In the 19th century Tractarians and then Anglo-Catholics adopted doctrines of the real presence that were derived not from the Reformed Catholic & Caroline traditions of the C of E but from Roman and Lutheran divines - see my Evangelical Theology, 1833-1856, A Response to Tractarianism, 1979.)

Hooker & the BCP Catechism do not deal with modern questions such as what kind of a sacrifice is offered at the Eucharist, but rather with what is received from Christ therein.

The point I am making is that there are TODAY no short cuts to the establishing of a sound doctrine of the Eucharist upon which we can create new liturgies and also officiate at and plan eucharistic liturgies today.

I would suggest that unless we are very familiar with the classic, patristic doctrine of the Incarnation and with the development of the structure & content of the Eucharist n the first five and more centuries, and thus in a position to judge the worth of the new shapes, contents and doctrines of the Anglican liturgies developed since the 1960s by appeal to the 3rd and 4th centuries, it is perhaps best for us to stay with the traditional BCP service in its 1662 C of E or its 1928 ECUSA form, whether we use the same in the traditional language of prayer (the "Thou-God") or the post 1960s attempts at "contemporary liturgical language" (the "You-God" as in the Common Worship, 2000, of the C of E). And further to stay with doctrines of "Virtualism" or "Receptionism" and to adjust our piety and communal sense of "Celebration" to fit these ends.

[Please note that at my church website the two latest recordings I made are available - in the Collects for Peace and on Advent. www.christchurch.biddulph.fsnet.co.uk ]

The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon