Conflict and the Practice of Christian Faith: The Anglican Experiment

Anglicans around the world have responded to the gospel in many different cultural contexts. This has produced different customs and different ways of thinking about church issues. In the process of enculturation Anglicans have found themselves encountering social and political realities as malign forces against which they have had to struggle. As a consequence the personal and local dynamic in Anglicanism has created not just diversity of custom and mental habits but it has done so at points that have been vital to the way Anglicans have been committed to the gospel. Conflict and the Practice of Christian Faith looks at the process by which local traditions developed in Christianity and how these traditions have related to other sub-traditions of the universal church. It assesses some specifics of the Anglican experience and argues for a significant re-casting of some prominent elements of that tradition at the same time clarifying some of the distinctive elements in the Anglican tradition. This leads to a more nuanced appreciation of the force of the social and political framework within which Anglicans have had to work out their salvation and of the different forms of secular society and different understandings of plurality and diversity. It also entails showing how the imperial route to catholicity took no firm root in Anglicanism. Going global has been a significant experiment in Anglican ecclesiology that is by no means over yet. The terms of that experiment lie at the heart of the current Anglican debates. The book will be of interest to Christians generally who belong to faith traditions spread across different cultures. It is also a case study of the issues of global reach and local tradition. In this wise and erudite book Bruce Kaye provides a constructive way forward for Anglicans and all Christians to negotiate how to find unity without denying our necessary differences. In particular Kaye draws us into the mystery of Christs universal Lordship so that we can see how locality is a necessary expression of the cosmic character of Christs cross. Kaye also provides an extremely important account of Anglican identity beginning with Bede that frees us from the unhappy political alternatives of modernity. I know of no more hopeful book for the future of the Anglican Communion. --Stanley Hauerwas Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics Duke Divinity School There are few Anglicans in the world who can write with such clarity about the global Communion and few theologians who can range with such confidence across the fields of history sociology and philosophy. This is a beautifully crafted book that reveals Dr Kayes wide reading and reflects his deep thinking. It will persuade Anglicans of all affiliations to think again about their Church and will help non-Anglicans to make sense of the challenges and the conflicts that every Christian community must face as the local expression of a universal faith. This is a fine book from a gifted theologian and an accomplished writer. It is highly recommended. --Tom Frame Director St Marks National Theological Centre Bruce Kaye continues to be one of the most astute and accomplished thinkers on ecclesiology and world Christianity today. In this book he uses the case of the current challenges before the Anglican Communion to present an understanding of the catholicity of the Church that honors the realities of both the universal and the personal. Here is a defense of plurality and diversity that goes beyond political correctness to the heart of the Gospel. Anglicans global Christians and anyone interested in the intersection between faith and globalization will profit greatly from this book. --The Rev. Ian T. Douglas Angus Dun Professor of Mission and World Christianity Episcopal Divinity School Bruce Kaye was General Secretary of the Anglican Church of Australia from 1994 to 2004. After studying in Sydney he took a doctorate in Basel and