Book reviews

their working vocabulary challenged and expanded in places. Still, Stunt

does not use words to obscure meaning; the text is free of academic jargon.
Those who have been raised in the Brethren or have had significant
contact with them will find Stunt’s essays of particular interest. The spirit and
temperament of the people chronicled in The Elusive Quest are in many ways
not so different from the mavericks and ‘spiritual malcontents’ among the
Brethren right through to the twenty-first century. For the insider, this work
provides historical reflections which can contribute to self-understanding;
for those looking on, this work can help them to understand better what is
often a misunderstood movement. For example, many early Brethren were
drawn both from evangelical Quakers (chapter 2) and those with a dedicated
military career (chapter 14). Fellow travellers included Anglican clerics and
dissenting, nonconformist millenarian enthusiasts. Nonetheless, Stunt has
composed a tuneful historical symphony out of a cacophonous assortment
of people and movements.

TJ Marinello
Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology
Tyndale Theological Seminary, The Netherlands

Enriching modern Anglicanism through

insights from the early Church
Andrew B McGowan, Ancient and Modern: Anglican Essays
on the Bible, the Church and the World, Morning Star
Publishing, Northcote, Vic., 2015, softcover, 337 pages, ISBN
9781925208153.
Written by one of the foremost scholars on early Christian meals and
Anglicanism, Andrew B McGowan, Ancient and Modern springs forth from,
and is mainly concerned with, the Anglican Church—addressing pertinent
issues affecting Australian Anglicanism and the Anglican Communion more
broadly. Nevertheless, many of its chapters are on historical topics which,
whilst addressed in such a way as to shed light on the contemporary Anglican
experience, are also worthy of reflection in and of themselves. Ancient and

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Modern is divided into four parts, each of which is followed by a series of

questions for discussion.
Part 1, ‘Is the Bible Enough?’, explores questions regarding the com-
prehensiveness of the Bible for the entire Christian experience, how this
relates to God’s Word, the scriptural bases for Holy Communion, and the
inclusiveness of the reconciliation effected by Christ’s blood. McGowan
asserts that the Bible is not exhaustive of Christian experience; that God’s
Word refers primarily to Jesus Christ, and not to the scriptures, which
nevertheless point to him. Moreover, he notes that the ecclesial community
is the proper framework for the interpretation of the scriptures, and that
Christ’s call is to a diversity of people to partake of his kingdom—people
whom he in any case has reconciled to himself. All of these are refreshing
assertions that are anchored in a serious engagement with the scriptures,
patristic literature, and reflection on the historical practices of Christianity.
Part 2, ‘After Christendom: The Ancient Church and the Modern
World,’ begins with an assessment of the subordinationist Christology of
Arius to determine whether or not modern subordinationism can in fact
be described as Arian. It continues with an essay on ecology that looks to
traditional Christian sources such as St Augustine of Hippo for positive views
on humanity’s relationship with the earth. The third chapter in this part looks
at Eucharistic practice, identifying a tension in current Anglican practice
between the ‘transmission’ of the type of bread and wine Christ used at the
Last (Mystical) Supper, and whether or not this should be ‘translated’ into
different foods in modern times to reflect the cultural practices of various
Eucharistic communities (e.g. the use of juice and other non-alcoholic
drinks, and the use of leavened as opposed to unleavened bread). The next
chapter curiously, though not without precedent, defines secularism as
resulting from the early Christian distinction between the community of
faith and the existing Roman social order, so that secularism is described
as a ‘conceptual space’ where the two realms, even today, negotiate their
‘difference and freedom’ (94). This is then related to the functioning of this
‘space’ within the contemporary Australian context. The last chapter in
this part addresses the sacrality of places by honing in on the development
from the atopical holiness of early Christians to their veneration of martyr-
relics, which ‘localised’ the universality of the holy, after which came the
Constantinian church building projects. The latter part of this chapter turns
to the modern debates that raged over the location of the Holy Sepulchre,

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before affirming that the significance of the tomb of Jesus lies in the fact
that it is both a specific place and a ‘no-place, utopia, and as such entirely
and universally available’ (117).
Part 3, ‘The Past and Future of Anglicanism’ begins with an appraisal
of the status of liturgical studies in contemporary Anglican theological
education and the role of the Book of Common Prayer in determining the
current situation. It continues with the rise of lay presidency or administra-
tion within the Anglican Church, especially in Sydney, and how this is based
on a misconception of the places of Word and Sacrament in worship, with
the former being prioritised to the latter and thus constituting an anomaly
that did not exist in the early Church. Instead, McGowan gives the example
that in the early Church the Word was preached in various ways by the
entire charismatic community (1 Cor 12:28) whereas the Eucharistic meal
would have been presided by the host, pointing to a ministry of leadership
in the early Church that is discernable in Anglicanism’s ordained ministry.
This chapter is organically connected to the next, which explores the future
of Australian Anglicanism with recourse to the problematic rise in some
quarters of a reductionist Evangelicalism in contrast to the high standard set
by Morpeth—which exemplifies traditional Anglicanism engaged with educa-
tion—and the necessity of the quadrilateral as ‘four elements fundamental to
the Christian Church—the Scriptures, Creeds, the two Sacraments of Baptism
and Eucharist and the Episcopate’ (156). The following chapter concerns truth
and reconciliation within the Anglican Church and focuses particularly on
the problem of sexual abuse. Next, the relationship between mission and
worship in contemporary Anglicanism is addressed and nuanced: while
the two are related, the author affirms that worship belongs to the ecclesial
community—and should have some consistency—so that mission, which
is nevertheless a directive for Christians, does not overwhelmingly affect
the nature of worship via the fluctuation of cultural trends. The following
chapter responds to the claim that Jesus was not religious by contextualising
him in such a way as to show that he was. The final chapter in this section
assesses theological education in Australian Anglicanism, specifically with
reference to three crises: of formation, theological ministries, and discern-
ment and support. Here McGowan argues that theological education and
formation should go hand in hand.
Part 4, ‘Word Made Flesh: Sermons’, is divided into two sections,
‘Occasional Sermons’ and ‘Seasonal Sermons’ respectively. These sermons,

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which have much pedagogical merit, are on a number of varying topics and
so I will not address them here. I turn instead to my only misgivings about
the volume, which are that in drawing on the broad sweep of Christian
tradition throughout the centuries, there is very little engagement with the
Orthodox Church (whereas Roman Catholicism is, naturally, represented).
I acknowledge that this was not the author’s main concern, but it could
have been an interesting avenue for him to explore, given that Orthodoxy
represents itself as the most ‘traditional’ of the Christian faith communities
(and, I suggest, with good reason). Historically the Fellowship of St Albans
and St Sergius has pointed the way to such a mutually enriching engagement
between Anglican and Orthodox theologians, and McGowan’s extensive
knowledge of patristics, coupled with his long running teaching role in a
multi-denominational theological educational institution, places him in
an ideal position to engage in such a dialogue. Such an engagement might
have shed light on the author’s criticism of certain trends amongst some
Evangelicals in Australian Anglicanism. Certainly his attempts to assert
the importance of hierarchy, the sacraments (particularly the Eucharist),
the contextualisation of the scriptures within the believing community,
and a concern with ecology, could draw fruitfully from a tradition where
these important facets of the Christian experience have been maintained,
arguably, since the Church’s inception, and most certainly remain active
topics for reflection among contemporary Orthodox theologians. In any
case, this volume—which is mostly concerned with Anglican experience—is
important for Australian Anglicans (and the Anglican Communion gener-
ally), and for Christians from other traditions—like myself—seeking better
understanding of the Anglican expression of the Christian faith.

Mario Baghos
Associate Lecturer in Church History
St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College, Sydney

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