Abstract
This book, which was previously published by Pickwick in the USA in 2020, is the work of an enthusiast for the Tractarians assisted by a systematic theologian with an expertise in the theology of the Scottish systematic theologian Thomas F. Torrance. There is an advantage in this approach: the Tractarians are read principally as theologians engaging with issues in Christian doctrine, especially the more ‘protestant’ concerns of grace and justification. Reading thorny issues such as baptismal regeneration in this light offers a useful addition to the literature, so much of which is focused on the impact of the Tractarians on church politics and such areas as liturgy. While there are many places that verge on the hagiographical, the book is helpful in its use of lengthy citations that are explained in context. In the first chapter, for instance, there is a lengthy account of some of the Evangelicals (such as William Romaine) and high churchmen (such as Alexander Knox) who were influential in the Church of the 1830s. Such representative figures are used as examples of particular manners of theologizing, and while the criteria for choosing particular characters are seldom stated, the long quotations prove useful in giving a flavour of the style of the precursors to the Oxford Movement.
Much the same approach is adopted for the three representative figures discussed in the substantial chapters: Pusey (especially Tract 67), Newman (especially the Lectures on Justification), and Robert Wilberforce (especially his The Doctrine of the Incarnation). Each is discussed in detail and illustrated from their own writings, even if it is not clear why Wilberforce was chosen over Keble. While much of the secondary literature used is dated and often cited at length, more helpful again are the long quotations that allow the three very different figures to speak for themselves into the often heated debates of the time. The Tractarian method tended to involve affirming what were believed to be specific Anglican doctrines against the Calvinism of many of the opponents. As might be expected, the Incarnation features strongly through the chapters but it does so only in the context of the wider debates around grace and the sacraments. A penultimate chapter discusses some of the Tractarians’ opponents in the context of the wider impact of the Oxford Movement, some of whom, including Daniel Wilson and Charles McGrath, are far less frequently discussed in the existing literature than other more prominent theologians such as F. D. Maurice. The final chapter discusses penitential ministry from a theological standpoint using a somewhat idiosyncratic collection of sources.
Overall, this is a book that is useful for those who seek to immerse themselves in some of the theological debates of Victorian England, and it is helpful in reading the Tractarians principally as theologians using their own works, but it is neither an introductory textbook nor a reliable historical account of Tractarianism. There are also some strange editorial decisions, including a whole-page footnote (p. xvii) and the omission of an index.