Anglicanism

Abstract

This work surveys the historical origins, theological diversity, and global evolution of Anglicanism. Chapman traces the tradition from the Tudor Reformation, where royal supremacy created an English national church based on political obedience, through the seventeenth-century civil conflicts and the 1689 Toleration Act, which transformed the Church of England from an all-inclusive national body into an established denomination alongside tolerated dissenters. The study examines the subsequent emergence of distinctive party movements, focusing on Evangelicalism’s emphasis on personal conversion and biblical authority, Anglo-Catholicism’s stress on apostolic succession and ritual revival, and the Broad Church embrace of critical scholarship. It further charts how British overseas expansion and missionary societies transplanted Anglicanism across North America, Africa, Asia, and Australasia, prompting the creation of independent provinces governed without monarchical oversight. In analyzing the modern Anglican Communion, Chapman emphasizes how the historic commitment to provincial autonomy, combined with a post-colonial demographic shift toward the global South, has generated acute institutional strains. These tensions are reflected in recent debates over the limits of theological comprehensiveness, women’s ordination, and human sexuality, raising questions about whether the Communion can maintain unity through mutual conversation or will fracture into competing alignments. – AI-generated abstract.