An excellent article and book review by Charlie Ray. Eminent, sensible and well-argued.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Book Review: The True Profession of the Gospel: Augustus Toplady and Reclaiming Our Reformed Foundations
“At every Coronation for over three hundred years, British Monarchs have promised to maintain, 'the true profession of the gospel . . . the Protestant Reformed religion.' At a time when many Evangelicals and Anglicans are questioning their theology and re-thinking their identity, it is more important than ever for us to remember this gospel of sovereign grace.” --Lee Gatis--
A Critical Review of THE TRUE PROFESSION OF THE GOSPEL: AUGUSTUS TOPLADY AND RECLAIMING OUR REFORMED FOUNDATIONS, by Lee Gatiss
Lee Gatiss. The True Profession of the Gospel: Augustus Toplady and Reclaiming Our Reformed Foundations. (London: Latimer Trust, 2010). 131 pages.
Anglo-Reformed Evangelicals will appreciate the work of Lee Gatiss in this concise survey of the Reformed theological tradition in the Church of England from the time of the English Reformation up to the eighteenth century Arminian and Calvinist controversies between John Wesley and George Whitefield and between Wesley and Augustus Toplady. The material comes from Gatiss' studies for a series of lectures given for the Fellowship of Word and Spirit conference in 2009. The lectures then inspired Gatiss toward this focus in his thesis for a master of theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He did his undergraduate work in the United Kingdom at New College, Oxford and Oak Hill College, London. [I mistakenly called New College an evangelical college earlier. I believe Oak Hill College is evangelical.]
What I particularly like about this book is Reverend Gatiss' irenic tone while at the same time making pointedly critical observations about the state of the Anglican church primarily in the United Kingdom; his observations apply with equal ultimacy to the Anglican Communion around the world. He begins with an assessment of the modern situation in the Evangelical and Anglican movement and how it relates to the more latitudinarian and liberal parties as well as the Anglo-Catholic and Tractarian parties within Anglicanism. In particular the controversies over the biblical, moral and ethical stances taken by the Global South against theological relativism and omnisexuality or pansexuality in the more “civilized” provinces in the U.K., U.S.A. and Canada has heated things up considerably. Gatiss describes this conflict as a midlife crisis:
No-one can deny that paroxysms of doubt and division, fuelled by lust (for illicit sex or simply money and power), have wracked both constituencies on a global scale. The result is a confusion about the character of Evangelicalism and the identity of Anglicanism—who is 'in,' who is 'out,' what is authentic and what an intrusive novelty? This should be unsurprising given the levels of theological experimentation and cultural accommodation that have been tried. (P. 3).
The real point or thesis of the book is the discussion of what true Anglicanism is or at least should be given its historical roots in the English Reformation and even before the Reformation. For Lee Gatiss what constitutes “true” Anglicanism is the oath taken by the monarch at Coronation services in the Church of England. Yes, that still implies a divine connection between rulers and their accountability to God. The oath taken by Queen Elizabeth II was “to the utmost of her power” to uphold “the true profession of the gospel . . . the Protestant Reformed religion” (p. 5). Unfortunately revisionists will always seek a way to spin or revise that concept to justify their departure from it. This also raises the question of the reification of the term “Reformed” as Carl Trueman discusses historical fallacies in his new book, Histories and Fallacies: Problems Faced in the Writing of History, (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010).
Given the brevity of this book, Gatiss expertly summarizes the modern situation, the history of the unique English expression of the Reformed theology which was taking place throughout the world during the English Reformation, and the subsequent Evangelical revivals in the eighteenth century. Moreover, the latter part of the book gives an overview of Augustus Toplady's life and his contribution to the apologetic for the Anglo-Reformed tradition in the Church of England. I found the discussion of the polemical rhetoric between John Wesley and Augustus Toplady particularly stimulating since I did my seminary training at Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky. [Asbury is part of the Wesleyan holiness tradition and was started in reaction to the modernist controversies of the 1920s.]
Gatiss' supervisor for his Th. M. was none other than Carl Trueman, professor of historical theology at Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia. His other supervisor for his dissertation was Dr. Garry Williams of the John Owen Centre in London. As I noted in an earlier post Trueman has a high view of English common sense philosophy and empirical philosophy in the telling of history. Undoubtedly, however, depending on who is doing the telling there are presupposed assumptions so that there is no such thing as a reified “objectivity” in doing historiography. This is no less true of Gatiss in his telling of the Anglican Reformed history and the remarkable influence of Augustus Toplady during his short life (November 4, 1740 – August 11, 1778). In this case those who lean toward Evangelicalism and a broader tradition of Reformed theology in the Church of England and Anglicanism at large will find the book uplifting and validating. Gatiss convincingly argues that the Anglo-Reformed movement is the real position of the Church of England and it is upon this bedrock that the Anglican Communion thrived during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
For more, see Charlie's review at:
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