Anglican Adjectives pt.1: Biblical

For those desiring to learn more about the Anglican tradition and its history, I invite you to pick up JI Packer’s wonderful book The Heritage of Anglican Theology. In this book, Packer lays out seven shared “Anglican adjectives” — essentials shared by all Anglicans.

The seven adjectives are: biblical, liturgical, evangelical, pastoral, episcopal, national, and ecumenical. In this series of brief posts, I plan to tease each of those adjectives out.

What It Means To Be “Biblical”

“Authentic Anglicanism, first of all, seeks always to present itself as biblical Christianity.” We begin with the belief that God’s word (the Bible) can be trusted and understood. As we read and seek to understand the Bible, we do so as humble recipients—*not* seeking to impose our beliefs upon the Bible, but instead, seeking to hear the Bible on its own terms. We desire to have our beliefs be formed by God’s words, not the other way around.

“The Bible—interpreted from within, by itself, and interpreted as a whole—must always have the last word.” To better understand the Bible, we rely on teachers, tradition, and the wisdom of sound interpreters, but in all of that, the Bible itself is the supreme authority! Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles states: Holy Scripture contains all things necessary for salvation.

Friends, we must remember, the Bible is a gift given to us by the Creator of all things—God's own Word, by which He instructs, corrects, and shapes us into the image of His Son. The Bible thus holds a place of absolute prominence in our worship and in our daily lives.