There is no doubt that the Son of God took our human nature into so close a union with himself that one and the same Christ is present, not only in the firstborn of all creation, but in all his saints as well. And so all that the Son of God did and taught for the world’s reconciliation is not for us simply a matter of past history. Here and now we experience his power at work among us.
I have reflected at length upon spiritual discipline, what it is, what motivates it at best, what it is oriented toward. I have concluded that I cannot “capture” it with my mind, because it inevitably involves what I regard as opposites—strictness and fear as well as generosity and delight. It seems to me that at some point I must simply give up my struggle to understand and give myself to a regimen that has been tested by others of faith.
It came about, however, that Pippin, King of the Franks, died, and his son Charles became head of the realm. Charles brought many nations under the power of the Franks, and among these were the Frisians, whose lands were added to his dominions after the defeat of Radbod
Often, indeed, a particular conversion takes a long time and is effected through a gradual process; yet even then its completion takes place at a moment, and though the transition effected in that moment may be very small, yet it is in its essential nature abrupt. Most of us have watched the sun setting behind a sharp horizon.
For Temple, the incarnation of Christ brings about the realization of the ideal and the real together in history. In the incarnation, the power that creates the world and sustains it enters the world in its own forms of matter and Mind. Because the incarnate one is also the creator, the incarnation is the natural culmination of the very processes of the world itself. So Christianity “is the most avowedly materialist of all the great religions; its own most central saying is: ‘The Word was made flesh,’
O holy God,
as evening falls remain with us.
Remember our good deeds and forgive our failings.
If by “Anglican theology” we mean a set of definitive texts, creeds, and historical documents that sets Anglicans apart from other Christian bodies, we will search in vain to find it. We can, however, find a wide array of theologies being done by Anglicans. And there is a difference. Noting how Anglicans do theology may prove more fruitful than detailing what Anglicans believe.
Richard Hooker, who was born about the time Latimer died and who himself died three years before Elizabeth, comes nearer to being its definitive theologian than anyone else the Church of England has produced, with his Treatise on the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity being the nearest approximation to an Anglican summa
In the busyness of life many have lost the ability to recognize the Presence in their midst and the awareness that they can converse with the risen Lord. This is the only part of the gospel you can truly make your own.
Joy of my life while left me here!
And still my Love!
How in thy absence thou dost steer
Me from above!
A life well led
This truth commends,
With quick or dead
It never ends.