Anglo-Calvinism?

Dear N.:

Thank you for your gracious and thoughtful reply. I would agree with your summation insofar as I affirm with you that those doctrines which are peculiarly Roman, such as the dogmatic teachings on transubstantiation, papal supremacy and fire purgatory and the like, are most certainly excluded by the Anglican Tradition. However, I am a Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed-believing Catholic, not a Calvinist. I do not think the Anglican doctrinal formularies can bear the weight which the Calvinist places upon them. Anglicanism's long and sometimes contorted history witnesses to this. The Common Prayer Book and the Articles are certainly Western. They are Augustinian, not Calvinist. Oftentimes the two positions are unfortunately blurred, but the distinction must be maintained. The more extreme soteriological, sacramental, and ecclesiastical views of Calvin cannot rest securely on the Anglican framework, which was never designed to hold them. Granted, the Anglican formularies are patent of a comprehensive interpretation, and for such they were in fact designed. But the rather rigid rationalism and neo-scholasticism of the Calvinist hermeneutic exceed, so far as I can determine, the limits of Anglican toleration - a toleration wrapped up in musterion, holy mystery. The insistence on conforming the Anglican formularies to the continental Calvinist confessions, historically speaking, arises more from puritanism and the effort to 'purge' the Church of England of her Catholic inheritance than from the organic theological development of Anglicanism. The point of the Via Media is that it is by its very nature requisite of a strict observance of that universal and ancient Tradition of teaching, sanctifying, and governing that existed in the undivided Catholic Church of the first millennium. The Via Media is the Faith of antiquity, the Faith of the Fathers. Hence, those distinctives of Calvinist-Genevan theology which are clearly at odds with the received Tradition transmitted and taught throughout the whole Church, East and West, for the first thousand years of Christian history (and are thus unequivocally demonstrated to be so) must be excluded from the Via Media by necessity. I feel compelled again to stress that the Articles and lesser Anglican formularies were never intended to function as a Creed or dogmatic statement of faith. I shall endeavour, with the handicap of not being a professional historian or scholar, to document the necessary differentiation between Anglican Catholic teaching and Calvinism. What follows are but a few documentary examples of the difference. Please note the explicit use of liturgical theology in making the distinctions - lex orandi, lex credendi. Aside from Holy Scripture, the Prayer Book is Anglicanism's primary doctrinal source:

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Creation

Calvinism:

'All men are not created on an equal footing, but for some eternal life is preordained, for others, eternal damnation' (Calvin's Institutes - 1539).
'Original sin is seen to be an hereditary depravity and corruption of our nature - whatever is in man, from intellect to will, is all defiled and crammed with concupiscence' (Institutes).

The Anglican Church:

'Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God... So, for curious and carnal persons, lacking the Spirit of Christ, to have continually before their eyes the sentence of God's Predestination, is a most dangerous downfall, whereby the Devil doth thrust them either into desperation, or into wretchlessness of most unclean living, no less perilous than desperation' (Article XVII).
'Original sin is the fault and corruption of the Nature of every man, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the spirit. (Article IX).
'O merciful God, who hast made all men and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor desirest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live; Have mercy upon all who know thee not as thou art revealed in the Gospel of thy Son... (Collect for Good Friday).

Predestination and Election

Calvinism:

'By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he has decided in his own mind what he wishes to happen in the case of each individual. For all men are not created on an equal footing, but for some eternal life is preordained, for others eternal damnation. God, to carry out his judgements, directs the councils and excites the wills of those whom he is rightly said to blind, to harden, and to turn, through Satan, the minister of his wrath' (Institutes).
'By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestined unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death - neither are any redeemed by Christ, but the elect only. The rest of mankind God was pleased to pass by and to ordain them to dishonour and wrath' (Westminster Confession).

The Anglican Church:

'Almighty and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross for our salvation, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility' (Collect for Palm Sunday).
'Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who penitent; create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we... may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness' (Collect for Ash Wednesday).
'Thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy' (Prayer of Humble Access).
'O God, who declarest thy almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity...' (Collect for Trinity XI).
'All glory be to thee, Almighty God, our heavenly Father, for that thou, of thy tender mercy, didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption; who made there (by his one oblation of himself once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world... (Prayer of Consecration).

Final Perseverance

Calvinism:

'They whom God hath accepted can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved' (Westminster Confession).

The Anglican Church:

'Let us, while we have the light, believe in the light, and walk as children of the light; that we be not cast into utter darkness... Let us not abuse the goodness of God' (English Commination Service).
'I heartily thank our heavenly Father, that he hath called me to this state of salvation, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. And I pray unto God to give me his grace, that I may continue in the same unto my life's end' (Prayer Book Catechism).
'Deliver us not into the bitter pains of death... suffer us not, at our last hour, for any pains of death, to fall from thee' (Burial Office).

The Rule of Faith

Calvinism:

'The authority of the Holy Scripture dependeth not on any man or church; but wholly upon God the author thereof... The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself' (Westminster Confession).

The Anglican Church:

'Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation' (Article VI).
'The three Creeds ought thoroughly to be received and believed...' (Article VIII).
'The Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and authority in Controversies of Faith' (Article XX).
'It is evident unto all men diligently reading holy Scripture and ancient Authors...' (Preface to the Ordinal).
'Here you have an Order for Prayer, and for the reading of the holy Scripture, much agreeable to the mind and purpose of the old Fathers' (Preface, English Prayer Book, 'Concerning the Service of the Church').
'Granting some Ceremonies convenient to be had, surely when the old may be well used, they cannot reasonably reprove the old only for their age, without betraying their own folly, for they ought rather to have reverence unto them for their antiquity' (Preface, English Prayer Book, 'Ceremonies').

The Sacraments

Calvinism:

'A sacrament is a testimony of God's grace to us confirmed by an external sign with our answering witness of piety towards Him' (Institutes).

The Anglican Church:

'Christ instituted two sacraments only, as generally necessary to salvation; that is to say, Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord' (Catechism).
'A Sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us; ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof' (Catechism).
'Sacraments ordained of Christ be not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather they be certain sure witnesses, and effectual signs of grace, and God's good will towards us, by the which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen
and confirm our Faith in Him' (Article XXV).

Holy Baptism

Calvinism:

'Grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed to it that all who are baptised are undoubtedly regenerated' (Westminster Confession).

The Anglican Church:

'Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, that this child is regenerate, and grafted into the body of Christ's Church, let us give thanks unto Almighty God for these benefits' (Baptismal Office).
'Sanctify this water to the mystical washing away of sin; and grant that this child, now to be baptised therein, may receive the fullness of thy grace, and ever remain in the number of thy faithful children' (Baptismal Office).
'We call upon thee for this child, that he, coming to thy holy Baptism, may receive remission of sin, by spiritual regeneration' (Baptismal Office).
'Baptism - wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven' (Catechism).

The Holy Communion

Calvinism:

'If it is true that the visible sign is offered to us to attest the granting of the invisible reality, then on receiving the symbol of the Body, we may be confident that the Body itself is no less given to us' (Institutes).

The Anglican Church:

'The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is generally necessary to salvation' (Catechism).
'The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life' (Communion Service).
'The Body and Blood of Christ which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper' (English Catechism).
'The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner' (Article XXVIII).
'Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us' (Prayer of Humble Access).
'Vouchsafe to bless and sanctify... these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine; that we...may be partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood' (Prayer of Consecration).

The Eucharistic Sacrifice

Calvinism:

'In this sacrament Christ is not offered to his Father, nor any real sacrifice made at all, but only a commemoration, so that the Popish sacrifice of the Mass is most abominably injurious to Christ's only sacrifice' (Westminster Confession).

The Anglican Church:

'The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was ordained for the continual remembrance of the sacrifice of the death of Christ' (Catechism).
'Wherefore, O Lord and heavenly Father... we thy humble servants, do celebrate and make here before thy Divine Majesty, with these thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto thee, the memorial thy Son hath commanded us to make... And we earnestly desire thy fatherly goodness, mercifully to accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving' (Prayer of Consecration).
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I truly believe these words speak for themselves. I have endeavoured to be fair, and to refrain from selective quotation or proof-texting. In all, these garnered authoritative statements express the fact that we have here two very different systems of faith and practice. I would submit that they are not only different, but entirely incompatible and irreconcilable. Thank you again for your kind consideration.