Product Description

What is Anglicanism? How is it different from other forms of Christianity, and how did it come to have so many different versions throughout the world? Although originally united by location and a common belief, Anglicanism has gradually lost its pre-eminence as the English state church due to increasing pluralisation and secularisation. While there are distinctive themes and emphases which emerge from its early history and theology, there is little sense of unity in Anglicanism today. In Anglicanism: A Very Short Introduction, Mark Chapman highlights the diversity of contemporary Anglicanism by exploring its fascinating history, theology, and structures. Putting the history and development of the religion into context, Chapman reveals what it is that holds Anglicanism together despite the recent crises that threaten to tear it apart.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81533 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 168 pages

About the Author
Mark Chapman is Vice-Principal of Ripon College, Oxford, and is a historian and historical theologian. He has written extensively on religion and its role in society. He is editor of numerous books and journals, and his publications include By what authority? Authority, Ministry and the Catholic Church (1997), Liturgy, Socialism and Life: The Legacy of Conrad Noel (2001), and Building Community in South Africa: A Christian Perspective
(2003).

Customer Reviews

Lucid, concise, informative and witty
Chapman takes a basically historical path into explaining Anglicanism, starting with Cranmer and the Reformation and then tracing other themes over the centuries (e.g. chapters on each of evangelicalism and AngloCatholicism), finishing off with a big chapter on the worldwide Anglican communion.
Chapman's account is brief but he always picks up on choice examples to illustrate his points, e.g. the changes in the wording of the eucharistic prayer between the 1549 and 1552 prayer book, to show how Anglicans moved away from the real presence, or on the hymn "The Church's one foundation" was written to bulwark one side in the Colenso controversy in the 19th century.
So while it remains an introduction to Anglicanism, he's also got enough detail to interest those who are more familiar with the subject. Indeed, most of the chapters are weighty enough to form the first chunk of reading for someone doing an A level or undergraduate essay on anything from the Reformation to the Oxford movement.
His overall thesis is that Anglicanism started as primarily a Crown-based denomination: loyalty and faith in the Crown was at its core. It is therefore struggling still to define itself now that the Crown and English state no longer give it its natural definition: within England, a key point of departure was Catholic emancipation in the early 19th Century, formalising Anglicanism as one denomination among many; within the world, the change has been the end of empire, meaning that England no longer has meaningful authority.
His explanations shed great light on the current difficulties within the Anglican Communion: why should each church agree on everything? when was that ever the expectation?
In summary, this book fabulously achieves what it sets out to do: to provide a brief introduction to Anglicanism. Because the author is so in control of his subject, he has done more than that: it's a real insight into the Anglican denomination: its blessings and its problems.

An introduction that reflects the very problems it tries to describe.
Credit when credit is due. Mark Chapman's work as a theologian is well know and rightly praised. This Very Short Introduction (VSI), as with all the series, is exactly what it sets out to be. Well written and in the main informative. I first came across the series when I bought the VSI to Islam, and the Koran before my first tour of Iraq in 2004 and very very useful they proved to be.

Where this VSI falls sadly short is that Mr Chapman is, alas, to near to the flame of the subject to be truly objective. In some ways it would be impossible for it to be otherwise given Mr Chapman's credentials. The very discourse that he sets out to show by way of the current problems of the Anglican Communion seep into his text leaving a rather unpleasant aftertaste. Yet the first chapters, which are sharp and well written, give a rounded view of the subject.
The end of chapter 5 and the progression of the Anglo-Catholic movement with it's modern day legacy I found could have spoiled this entire VSI and did leave me to question how fair an account this might be. His inclusion of a quote by Evelyn Waugh, even if described as crude, was distasteful and added nothing. If it was that crude then it should have no place in such a work, Waugh or no Waugh.

It is, I suppose, inevitable that Chapman, a strong evangelical, should feel mistrust of the Anglo-Catholic movement but an Oxford VSI is no place to show boat it. His description of the Forward in Faith movement is simply unrealistic and now proven to be untrue. The movement grows apace. Time will tell if this is a good or bad thing but Mr Chapman's clumsy attempt to dismiss this movement smacked of the school playground rather than informed theological debate. He may not like it but he should try and do the right thing by presenting even cases when looking at why Forward in Faith came into existence rather than a simple my side (Evangelicalism) is winning and the other (Anglo-Catholicism) is losing. This discussion should not be about win or loose but surely finding a medium for the future?

I also find the contradiction between his views on the ordination of women and homosexuals confusing. He is for the ordination of women but against homosexuals, or it reads that way, given his comments within both chapters.
I hope this is nothing but a rather cleaver way of illustrating the problem the Church now faces? In accepting the ordination of women but not of practicing gay men the Anglican communion and the see of Canterbury created it's own unique problem. Be strong on all issues or you have to eventually give way to them all when challenged and rightly so. The church simply cannot have one rule for one and another for another! This point is very well made by Chapmen given he seems to be in the same boat!

One of the others problems with this subject rather than this VSI is that secular people tend not to want to write about the current issues in the Anglican Communion because in an increasingly secular world people are not bothered about the Anglican Church anymore. This means the likes of Mr Chapman do a good job on the whole but in the final analysis are found wanting because they are too close to what they are writing about. Objectivity is replaced by personal view in a way that a secular writer would not, I hope, be.

This VSI is a useful tool on the subject matter from an otherwise excellent series of books. But it's use must be offset by additional reading to gain a balanced picture especially in the latter chapters which, sadly, become a soapbox for some of Mr Chapman's personal feelings. If only he had resisted the temptation and followed the vein of the first chapters. I look forward to an updated version soon as this organic subject continues to unfold.

Short but (almost) perfectly formed...
A very helpful introduction which does exactly what the title suggests. I felt there was a lack of clarity in some areas, perhaps due the large and varired history of the topic. SOme cross-referencing may have helped in this. I still feel that value for money was had.