Papers and Addresses of the Church Congress in the United States (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922. Excerpt: ... CHURCH UNITY AND CREDAL REQUIREMENTS By Ohaeles Fiske, D.D. A chief characteristic of the American Episcopal Church is its unfailing amiability. Now amiability may be a beautiful virtue, or it may become a besetting sin. It may be the happy expression of one's kindly attitude towards life. For the most part Anglican Churchmen have never been narrow, aggressive, or disputatious. Modern Puritanism finds little in common with our ways. We do not stand at attention to pick quarrels with people who enjoy life in other fashion than our own ideas commend. We do not engage in violent agitation, nor are we fond of dictatorial methods of moral reform. We live and let live. We have never set forth a book of discipline. We have little love for personal piety based upon and backed up by legal enforcement. On the whole we are an agreeable and pleasant people to live with. Our theological position also has usually been well balanced and kindly. We have never been harsh in our judgment of the beliefs of others. The Articles of Religion (called our "forty stripes save one"), were not a challenge of orthodoxy, but a more or less successful attempt at a comprehensiveness which would include without compromise of principle. Midway between Rome and Protestantism, we tried to set forth the truth in each system and to express the faith of the ages in terms that would hold within the Anglican communion sympathizers with both extremes of thought. Of course violently aggressive extremists refused to be satisfied with what seemed to them a compromise, but for the most part the Articles accomplished their purpose, and at any rate the Anglican Church was fairly successful in combining evangelical truth with catholic order. As a matter of fact we have usually lived on amiable terms bo...