Editing Anglo-Catholicism (section)

===Theology===
[[File:High Altar and Reredos, Church of the Good Shepherd.jpg|thumb|right|250px|High altar and reredos, [[Church of the Good Shepherd (Rosemont, Pennsylvania)]]]]
Historically, Anglo-Catholics have valued "highly the tradition of the early, undivided Church, they saw its authority as co-extensive with Scripture. They re-emphasised the Church's institutional history and form. Anglo-Catholicism was emotionally intense, and yet drawn to aspects of the pre-Reformation Church, including the revival of religious orders, the reintroduction of the language and symbolism of the eucharistic sacrifice," and "the revival of private confession. Its spirituality was Evangelical, but [[High Church]] in content and form."<ref>{{cite book|last=Sheldrake|first=Philip |title=The New Westminster Dictionary of Christian Spirituality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bPOft7krR84C&pg=PA110|year=2005|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=0664230032}}</ref> At the same time, Anglo-Catholics held that "the Roman Catholic has corrupted the original ritualism; and she [the Anglican Church] claims that the ritualism which she presents is a revival in purity of the original ritualism of the Catholic Church."<ref>{{cite book|last=Bassett|first=Allen Lee|title=The Northern Monthly Magazine, Volume 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YvIaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA348|year=1863|quote=The Anglo-Catholic asserts that the Roman Catholic has corrupted the original ritualism; and she claims that the ritualism which she presents in a revival in purity of the original ritualism of the Church.}}</ref> The spirituality of Anglo-Catholics is drawn largely from the teachings of the [[early church]], in addition to the [[Caroline Divines]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Sheldrake|first=Philip |title=The New Westminster Dictionary of Christian Spirituality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bPOft7krR84C&pg=PA110|year=2005|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=0664230032|quote=Anglo-Catholic spirituality has drawn inspiration from two sources in particular, the early Church, and the seventeenth-century 'Caroline Divines'.}}</ref> Archbishop of Canterbury [[Matthew Parker]], in 1572, published ''De Antiquitate Britannicæ Ecclesiæ'', which traced the roots of the Anglican Church, arguing "that the early British Church differed from Roman Catholicism in key points and thus provided an alternative model for [[patristic]] Christianity,"<ref name="DaviesO'Loughlin1999">{{cite book|last1=Davies|first1=Oliver|last2=O'Loughlin|first2=Thomas|title=Celtic Spirituality|url=https://archive.org/details/celticspirituali00paul_0|url-access=registration|access-date=28 March 2014|year=1999|publisher=Paulist Press|isbn=9780809138944|page=[https://archive.org/details/celticspirituali00paul_0/page/7 7]|quote=In 1572 Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, published his important work ''De Antiquitate Britannicae Ecclesiae'', in which he argued that the early British Church differed from Catholicism in key points and thus provided an alternative model for patristic Christianity, in which the newly established Anglican tradition could see its own ancient roots. James Ussher, the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh, was promoted by a similar motivation in his ''A Discourse of the Religion Anciently Professed by the Irish and the British'' of 1631.}}</ref> a view repeated by many Anglo-Catholics such as [[Charles Chapman Grafton]], Bishop of the [[Diocese of Fond du Lac]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Lineage from Apostolic Times of the American Catholic Church: Commonly Called the Episcopal Church|author=Charles Chapman Grafton|author-link=Charles Chapman Grafton|url=https://archive.org/details/lineagefromapos00grafgoog|year=1911|publisher=Young Churchman|page=[https://archive.org/details/lineagefromapos00grafgoog/page/n103 69]|quote=Thus in doctrine and worship, we see that the Celtic Church in Britain conformed in all essentials to Holy Scripture and the teaching of Apostolic times, which in several respects it varied from Roman practice. The Celtic Church was poor and not aggressive. It had been drive into a state of isolation. It had suffered from cruel wars. it had, however, kept the Faith, the Apostolic government, the Priesthood, and it offered a true worship and was kept alive in God's great Providence. We may well look to her as our spiritual Mother, with a grateful heart, and be thankful that we have inherited so much from her whose daughters we are.}}</ref> In addition, Anglo-Catholics hold that the Anglican churches have maintained "[[Four Marks of the Church|catholicity and apostolicity]]."<ref>{{cite book|last=Sheldrake|first=Philip |title=The New Westminster Dictionary of Christian Spirituality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bPOft7krR84C&pg=PA110|year=2005|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=0664230032|quote=Anglo-Catholics' concern to defend the catholicity and apostolicity of the Anglican churches has led them to emphasize the conviction that priority in the formation and shaping of Christian discipleship is to be given to disciplined membership of the Christian community.}}</ref> In the same vein, Anglo-Catholics emphasise the doctrines of [[apostolic succession]] and the [[Anglican ministry#Threefold order|threefold order]], holding that these were retained by the Anglican Church after it went through the [[English Reformation]].<ref name="Armentrout2000">{{cite book|last=Armentrout|first=Don S.|title=An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church: A User-Friendly Reference for Episcopalians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g4_P098HhHMC&pg=PT33|year=2000|publisher=Church Publishing, Inc.|isbn=9780898697018|page=33|quote=It has placed considerable emphasis upon the Holy Eucharist, and the apostolic succession of the episcopate. Anglo-catholics were concerned not with doctrine but with restoring the liturgical and devotional expression of doctrine in the life of the Anglican Church.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Buchanan|first=Colin |title=Historical Dictionary of Anglicanism|date=27 February 2006 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G5Ig4SDJFgkC&pg=PA25|publisher=Scarecrow Press, Inc. |isbn=0810865068|page=2006|quote=The central theme was "apostolic succession" and the authority and divine commission of the threefold orders retained by the Church of England at the Reformation, thus providing for a secure pattern of the sacraments.}}</ref>

In agreement with the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] and [[Oriental Orthodoxy|Oriental Orthodox]] churches, Anglo-Catholics—along with [[Old-Catholic]]s and [[Lutheran]]s—generally appeal to the "canon" (or rule) of St [[Vincent of Lerins]]: "What everywhere, what always, and what by all has been believed, that is truly and properly Catholic."

The Anglican [[Thirty-nine Articles]] make distinctions between Anglican and Catholic understandings of doctrine; in the eyes of Anglo-Catholics, the Thirty-Nine Articles are [[Catholic (term)|catholic]], containing statements that profess the universal faith of the early church.<ref name="Albion1935">{{cite book|last=Albion|first=Gordon|title=Charles I and the Court of Rome: A Study in 17th Century Diplomacy|year=1935|publisher=Burns, Oates & Washbourne, Limited|page=169|quote=The " Catholic" articles are N°" 1–5, 7–8, 9 (first half), 10, 12, 15 (first half), 16–18, 19 (first half), 20 (first half), 23, 25 (half), 26, 27, 33, 34, 38, 39.}}</ref> As the Articles were intentionally written in such a way as to be open to a range of interpretations,<ref>{{cite book |last=Martz |first=Louis L |year=1991 |title=From Renaissance to Baroque: Essays on Literature and Art |publisher=University of Missouri Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/fromrenaissancet00mart/page/65 65] |isbn=978-0-8262-0796-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/fromrenaissancet00mart/page/65 }}.</ref> Anglo-Catholics have defended their practices and beliefs as being consistent with the Thirty-nine Articles, for example in Newman's [[Tract 90]] of 1841.<ref name="Buchanan2009" /> Since the late 20th century, Anglo-Catholic thought related to the Thirty-nine Articles has included the [[New Perspective on Paul]].

Anglo-Catholic priests often hear private [[Confession (religion)|confession]]s and [[Anointing of the Sick|anoint the sick]], regarding these practices as sacraments. Anglo-Catholics also offer prayers for the departed and the intercession of the saints; [[C. S. Lewis]], often considered an Anglo-Catholic in his theological sensibilities, writes:
{{quote|Of course I pray for the dead. The action is so spontaneous, so all but inevitable, that only the most compulsive theological case against it would deter me. And I hardly know how the rest of my prayers would survive if those for the dead were forbidden. At our age, the majority of those we love best are dead. What sort of intercourse with God could I have if what I love best were unmentionable to Him?
|''Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer'', pp. 107–109}}

Anglicans of Anglo-Catholic churchmanship also believe in the [[Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist|real objective presence]] of Christ in the Eucharist and understand the way He is manifest in the sacrament to be a [[mystery of faith]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Herbert Stowe|first1=Walter|title=Anglo-Catholicism: What It Is Not and What It Is|url=http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/whstowe/what1932.html|publisher=Church Literature Association|year=1932|quote=How the bread and wine of the Eucharist become the Body and Blood of Christ after a special, sacramental and heavenly manner and still remain bread and wine, and how our Lord is really present (real as being the presence of a reality), is a mystery which no human mind can satisfactorily explain. It is a mystery of the same order as how the divine Logos could take upon himself human nature and become man without ceasing to be divine. It is a mystery of the Faith, and we were never promised that all the mysteries would be solved in this life. The plain man (and some not so plain) is wisest in sticking to the oft-quoted lines ascribed to Queen Elizabeth, but probably written by John Donne: "Christ was the Word that spake it; He took the bread and brake it; And what the Word did make it, That I believe and take it." The mysteries of the Eucharist are three: The mystery of identification, the mystery of conversion, the mystery of presence. The first and primary mystery is that of identification; the other two are inferences from it. The ancient Fathers were free from Eucharistic controversy because they took their stand on the first and primary mystery—that of identification—and accepted our Lord's words, " This is my Body," " This is my Blood," as the pledge of the blessings which this Sacrament conveys. We have since the early Middle Ages lost their peace because we have insisted on trying to explain unexplainable mysteries. But let it be repeated, Anglo-Catholics are not committed to the doctrine of Transubstantiation; they are committed to the doctrine of the Real Presence.}}</ref><ref name="Lears1981">{{cite book|last=Lears|first=T. J. Jackson|title=Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture, 1880–1920|year=1981|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226469706|page=202|quote=Many folk tale enthusiasts remained vicarious participants in a vague supernaturalism; Anglo-Catholics wanted not Wonderland but heaven, and they sought it through their sacraments, especially the Eucharist. Though they stopped short of transubstantiation, Anglo-Catholics insisted that the consecrated bread and wine contained the "Real Objective Presence" of God.}}</ref> [[Eastern Orthodox opposition to papal supremacy|Like the Eastern Orthodox]] and Lutherans, Anglo-Catholics, with the exception of the minority of [[Anglican Papalism|Anglican Papalists]], reject the Catholic doctrines of the [[papal supremacy]] and [[papal infallibility]], with Walter Herbert Stowe, an Anglo-Catholic cleric, explaining the Anglican position on these issues:<ref name="1932WHS">{{cite web|url=http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/whstowe/what1932.html|title=Anglo-Catholicism: What It Is Not and What It Is|last=Stowe|first=Walter Herbert|year=1932|publisher=Church Literature Association|access-date=12 June 2015|location=London|quote=The primary issue between Anglo- and Roman Catholicism is authority and the basis thereof. This fundamental issue centres in the Papacy and its authority, land from this conflict flow all other differences of faith, worship, discipline and atmosphere. The four key phrases which make up the Papal claims are primacy, spiritual supremacy, temporal supremacy, and infallibility in faith and morals.}}</ref>
{{quote|Anglo-Catholics reject all these claims except that of Primacy on the following grounds: (i) There is no evidence in Scripture or anywhere else that Christ conferred these powers upon St. Peter; (2) there is no evidence that St. Peter claimed them for himself or his successors; (3) there is strong contrary evidence that St. Peter erred in [[Incident at Antioch|an important matter of faith in Antioch]], the eating together and social intercourse of Jewish and Gentile Christians affecting the whole future of the Church and the Christian Religion, and this lapse was so serious that St. Paul withstood him to the face; (4) he did not preside at the first Council of the Church in Jerusalem and did not hand down the decision of the Council; (5) he was Bishop of Antioch before he was bishop anywhere else, and, if the papal claims are in any way true, the Bishop of Antioch has a better right to hold them; (6) that St. Peter was ever in Rome is disputed, and the most that can be said for it is that it is an interesting historical problem; (7) there is no evidence whatsoever that he conferred such powers upon his successors-to-be in the See of Rome; (8) there was no primitive acceptance of such claims, and there never has been universal acceptance in any later age.<ref name="WHS32">{{cite web|url=http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/whstowe/what1932.html|title=Anglo-Catholicism: What It Is Not and What It Is|last=Stowe|first=Walter Herbert|year=1932|publisher=Church Literature Association|access-date=12 June 2015|location=London}}</ref>}} However, Anglo-Catholics share with Catholics a belief in the sacramental nature of the priesthood and in the sacrificial character of the [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]]. A minority of Anglo-Catholics also encourage priestly [[clerical celibacy|celibacy]]. Most Anglo-Catholics, due to the silence of the Thirty-Nine Articles on the issue, encourage devotion to the [[Blessed Virgin Mary]], but not all Anglo-Catholics adhere to a high doctrine of [[Mariology]]; in England, her title of [[Our Lady of Walsingham]] is popular.<ref name="Campbell1996">{{cite book|last=Campbell|first=Ted|title=Christian Confessions: A Historical Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2mUxxxGt_sC&pg=PA150|date=1 January 1996|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=9780664256500|page=150|quote=Anglo-Catholics interpret the silence of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion to allow for belief in some or all of the Mariological doctrines affirmed by Catholics.}}</ref>