Saint Augustine

Dear N.:

Thank you, as always, for your lovely comments. Yes, I reckon Anglicanism is an Augustinian Church with a theology firmly rooted in the writings and theological- spiritual tradition of the great North African Saint. However, I believe where Anglicanism differs from the strictly Calvinist system per se is in the balance and tension which Anglicanism maintains concerning the Church and Sacraments. It has often been said that Calvinism is Augustine's doctrine of grace and salvation without Augustine's doctrine of Church and Sacraments. Here, sadly, I am very much inclined to agree. One can hold to certain more 'negative' views of anthropology, soteriology, and grace so long as one maintains the Incarnational nature of the Body of Christ embodied, enhypostasised, in the Church and Sacraments as the extensions of the Incarnation. Here is where I believe Calvinism, as such, falls short. Perhaps Calvin does not fail here, but I perceive his disciples did. Augustine's doctrine of grace and man divorced from his doctrine of Church and Sacraments readily becomes gnostic, as would any other view so isolated, because it becomes disincarnate, disconnected from the sacramental nature of man, redemption, and communion with God. This is precisely my critique of Calvinism. Are we Augustinian, yes. Hyper-Augustinian or TULIP Calvinist, well... no. At least, this is how I understand what I have experienced and known of Calvinism from my reading of Calvin himself and from how that was translated into church life - particularly in my early exposure to the hard-shell primitive Baptists... now those folks were Calvinists. They make most confessional Presbyterians look positively Arminian. In the end, I see Catholic Anglicans just don't think in terms of 16th century protestant thought - supralapsarian or Arminian or Dort or Westminster or extrinsic forensic justification: we think in terms of the Word made Flesh, Incarnation, Sacrament, Eucharist, Body, Theosis. The categories or compartments seem very different. Is it the Great Tradition opposed to more sectarian views?