E.A. Litton: An Evangelical and Catholic Theologian
Anglicans can sometimes be stereotyped as having no good theology. We might have a great liturgy, inspiring preaching, and beautiful worship, but we aren’t always thought of as a theological people. In this post, I hope to dispel that rumor by introducing you to E.A. Litton, a forgotten gem of a theologian you may not have heard of before.
First, though, I want to encourage all Christians, especially Anglicans, to care about their doctrine. There is real fruit in the study of theology. As Kevin Vanhoozer says in his book Faith Speaking Understanding, doctrine “gives direction for bearing faithful witness, for speaking understanding.”
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Doctrine has a purpose. Doctrine is for worship and discipleship. Tons of excellent Anglican systematic theologians have contributed to this wonderful discipline, from Richard Hooker in the 16th century all the way up to the late, great John Webster of this century. And other lesser-known giants have helped to establish a distinctly Anglican way of speaking and understanding our faith.
A Forgotten Country Priest
Enter Edward Arthur Litton, a late 19th-century Anglican pastor and theologian. Litton served three village churches in England, but most of his life was rather obscure. His magnum opus, a two-volume systematic theology (which was re-edited by the great Reformation and New Testament scholar Philip E. Hughes), is the only thing people remember him by. This brilliant work was a standard Anglican textbook for nearly a century.
Dr. Litton is undeniably and proudly Protestant. Yet, though Litton sees the Anglican tradition as broadly reformed, he is careful and thorough with all his judgements, not rigidly bound to a system, and constantly in conversation with the whole Church. His treatment of election and the atonement put him not quite firmly in the Calvinist or Arminian camp. In classic Anglican form, Litton stops where Scripture stops,
We can only bow our heads before the mystery. On the one hand we are assured that God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son for it, and with this an antecedent decree of reprobation cannot be reconciled; on the other, Scripture affirms, and experience proves, that in carrying out this design the Divine Agency pursues a method of selection; that the true church, in the present dispensation of things, is evermore a remnant according to the election of grace.
E. A. Litton, Introduction To Dogmatic Theology, (originally published 1892).
Scriptural and Christ-Centered
So often, I see Anglicans trying to shove our tradition into a different one. We should remember how straightforwardly biblical and minimal the Anglican way is. Anglicans, at their best, know how not to push too far or say too little. Litton has a firm grasp on the words of Scripture, yet he is not anxious to cram these words into a clean system. Listen to how he is able to admit the strengths of two bitter rivals of church history:
And thus the combatants may not be in reality so much at variance as they had supposed. The most extreme Calvinist may grant that there is room for all if they will come in; the most extreme Arminian must grant that redemption, in its full Scriptural meaning, is not the privilege of all men.
Litton, Introduction To Dogmatic Theology
Litton goes through each locus of systematic theology with a humility of spirit, an attention to the tradition, and, above all, a commitment to the Word of God that is uniquely seen in Anglicans. His name index is like a Hall of Fame of Christian theologians: Anselm, Aquinas, Augustine, Bellarmine, Calvin, Chemnitz, Gerhard, Luther, Melanchthon, Hooker, Origen, and Tertullian. There are certainly some major Anglicans in there, but mostly, Litton is not trying to defend an Anglican settlement for its own sake. Instead, he is modeling the sort of evangelical catholicity that I think Anglicans ought to champion more than they currently do.
His Christ-centered, reformational approach is especially noticeable in the core of his work: an especially thorough Christology section. Litton dives into a profound exposition of the early Church Councils, Anselm’s doctrine of satisfaction, and the Reformed/Lutheran debates of the later Reformation. Through his brilliant prose, Christ is the center of everything:
The person of Christ is the foundation of his work, but the work itself consists in the restoration of the normal relations between man and God… he came to affect a reconciliation between man and God separated by sin, and to establish a new spiritual polity, of which Himself should be the head, and His Church visible manifestation.
Litton, Introduction To Dogmatic Theology
Evangelical and Catholic
Litton is a churchly Protestant. He expects God to use the Means of Grace to draw us nearer to him. Consider how beautifully Litton writes about the Eucharist:
He draws near because it is the command of Christ that he should do so; because therein he ’shows forth the Lord’s death,’ testifies to the church that his hope of salvation rests on the atonement, and to the world that he is not ashamed of the Cross of Christ; because this verbum visibile is also a making over to him individually what the word preached declares in general terms; because this ordinance is specially adapted to stimulate his love to the Savior and increase his faith; because they’re in he realizes, as he does no other Christian right, his Unity with all the love Christ.
Litton, Introduction To Dogmatic Theology
Unity is right. Litton shows us that the Reformation and Catholicity belong together. We don’t need to be embarrassed by the Creeds, polity, and sacramental practice of our catholic heritage. Nor do we need to downplay the commitment to Scripture, the unconditional grace of God, and the Christocentric emphases of our evangelical heritage. Anglicans have always held these two poles in balance.
Still, the vision of evangelical catholicity is a less clear path than other paths taken by other Christians. There will be ambiguity, and that’s okay, even in the realm of dogmatics. You’ll see that in Litton and other great Anglican dogmaticians like Webster and Sonderegger. There aren’t always clean-cut answers. For those who are brave enough to take up this challenge and “bow at the mystery,” there will be no infallible magisterium or iron-clad scholastic tradition that answers every question. Instead, we will need to do this difficult work alongside brothers and sisters in the Church. That’s where doctrine belongs. That means finding faithful friends in this life, but also making friends with the saints who have gone on. That’s what it means to do “catholic” theology, “according to the whole” (in the words of the ACNA catechism, To Be A Christian).
Hopefully, Litton can be one of these saints for you. There’s a great conversation happening throughout the centuries. Theology prepares us for Heaven, where we shall see our Lord face to face. It’s a service to God, not an exercise in pointless speculation. Don’t believe the rumors. Take and read, fellow Anglicans.
Image: St. Andrew’s Church, Naunton, one of the churches where Litton served as vicar. Photo by Dave Porter, courtesy of Canva.
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