Prefatory note: This is an updated version of my earlier review of Reformation Anglican Worship. The original post engendered a fruitful and clarifying conversation between the Rev. Dr. Jensen and myself, in which I profited much. In particular, he highlighted a couple of areas in that first version where he felt my reading was not altogether fair. I […]
Marcus Throup’s All Things Anglican offers anyone who seeks to know more about this particular tradition within the Christian faith an excellent overview and place to start.
What is unique about Anglicanism is the different nuances and beliefs that many who adhere to such a title hold, and as such, when trying to figure out where you […]
Most books of the Bible have an obvious internal coherence. It’s easy to understand why an unfolding narrative or the argument of an epistle is presented as a book in our Bibles. But, for many of us, the book of Proverbs evades this sort of analysis.
The book of Proverbs seems to be a collection […]
Poet, writer, artist, and designer Amy Bornman’s first book, There Is a Future: A Year of Daily Midrash, explores Scripture narratives through the lens of midrash. “Midrash,” Bornman reminds us, “is a practice in study and imagination.” The rabbinical tradition “honors the text by wondering about it.” As such, this book is her grand vehicle for traversing […]
Whether it’s Benedictine, Franciscan, Augustinian, or any other monastic spirituality, each one has a book called a Rule of Life. These Rules spell out each order’s unique character and practices, such as the balanced life of prayer and work that the Benedictines are famous for, or the holy poverty embraced by the Franciscans. These Rules date back to […]
I regret not having come across this book earlier in my exploration of Anglicanism. For those of us who come from contemporary or non-liturgical church settings, our first encounter with Anglicanism can be confusing. But here, in a concise 185 pages, is a book that answers literally scores of questions about this form of the Christian faith. It […]
Have you ever stopped to consider what “story” you are living in? What we believe is true about the world, or “the story” of the world, profoundly shapes how we live.
Living in God’s True Story: 2 Peter by the Rev. Dr. Donald L. Morcom seeks to challenge what we believe to be the […]
When I began Worshiping with the Reformers by Karin Maag, I expected a history lesson and perhaps a further introduction into more of the details of the Anglican tradition. What I did not expect was the book captivating me in such a way that I found myself sitting in worship with my eyes watching the liturgy playing […]
Transformed In Christ: 1 Corinthians is a concise, easily accessible summary of the apostle Paul’s first letter to the young church in Corinth, a large, prosperous, Greek city. Authors Ron Elsdon and William Olhausen lead us, through an examination of specific questions that Paul answered in his letter, into a rich understanding of the struggles faced as […]
If you’ve not yet browsed the BibleProject’s free library of resources, stop what you’re doing and go browse BibleProject.com!
Seriously, other than perhaps the free tools available at NetBible.org, the BibleProject is the best collection of free Bible study resources online that […]
If you’re looking for a brief introduction to Anglicanism written by a well-known and conservative Anglican theologian, then you should take a look at Anglicanism: A Reformed Catholic Tradition (Lexham Press, 2021, 166p) by Gerald Bray.
Building upon his previous accessible commentary on the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (The Faith We Confess), Bray, a […]
It took about 3 months to finish this one phone call. When I was done, I had written a book called The Rector and the Vestry. It is available on Amazon.
In November of 2019, I was speaking with a friend and colleague in ministry. He is the Rector of a small but growing […]
The Bible is filled with passages that declare the wonder and majesty of our God. He is extraordinary in every way. Isaiah described a scene so holy that it left him nearly speechless! (Isaiah 6) God’s ways can be supernatural, and the way He works and moves in our lives can be spectacular and miraculous.
But not ordinarily.
J. I. Packer. The Heritage of Anglican Theology. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021, 384 pages, $39.99)
About a decade ago, I came across a copy of J.I. Packer’s Knowing God in Kathmandu (long story). I remember little from my reading that night save for Packer’s obvious, humble confidence […]
The 2015 second edition of Bishop Colin Buchanan’s Historical Dictionary of Anglicanism, published by Rowman & Littlefield, is an extraordinarily comprehensive and informative resource for getting a grasp on the historical breadth and depth of the Anglican tradition.
Yes, the book is expensive, but it would be well worth the expense for an Anglican […]
The Seabury Society has published a slim volume called A People’s Companion to Holy Communion, meant to function as a guided tour through the Holy Communion service in the ACNA’s 2019 Prayer Book. As explained in the Preface, this book builds upon the 1914 work of Bernard Iddings Bell, The People’s Book of the Holy […]
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I despair about the quality of online conversations among Christians. I’m sure that every tribe has their issues, but we Anglicans can be particularly menacing in Twitter threads and Facebook comments. We’re trying to chart a better, “clarity and charity” path forward here at Anglican Compass, but it’s tough to do! […]
Theology and worship are, or at least ought to be, inseparable. Furthermore, every Christian is a theologian, not just the academics. And we Christians should follow the examples of our early brothers and sisters in Christ who “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). What a fine […]
When Jesus was crucified on His Cross, the last words He spoke before he died are extraordinary examples of what was in His heart. Jesus cried out “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” This is one of the most passionate and intense moments in the entire Scripture—the Son of God crying out the opening […]
Psalm 22 is a pilgrimage from the depths of pain and suffering to the final proclamation of victory. Jesus knew the entire psalm by heart and understood the psalm as a prophetic depiction of his own death but also a prophetic declaration of hope and victory at the end. The Psalm on the Cross is a […]
These were the dying words of Jesus as he hung on the cross on Mount Calvary. But what did He mean by them?
These words are read as part of the “Seven Last Words of Jesus from The Cross”. And they raise […]
When it comes to learning the essentials of the Christian faith, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel (in fact, please don’t!).
Christians have covered the basics in a process of instruction and learning called “catechesis” for centuries. And documents used for this purposed (called “catechisms”) have frequently focused on the Apostles’ Creed, the […]
What does it mean to have a ‘personal relationship’ with Jesus Christ? One thing it does not mean is ‘customized’. In this excerpt from When the Lord is My Shepherd: Finding Hope in a Hard Time, we go deeper into the pastoral connections that we are promised.
Believing that the Lord is a shepherd is a pastoral […]
We just published Simply Anglican by Winfield Bevins. Winfield graciously agreed to answer some questions about the book’s backstory and what he hopes it will accomplish!
