The 39 Articles of Religion
As taught in the Anglican / Episcopal tradition
A historical and theological survey of the Church of England's defining confessional document.
The question that defines the "Anglican Way" is not merely "What do we believe?" but "Where is our authority grounded, and how does that authority shape our confession of the Triune God?" In the midst of the sixteenth-century Reformation, as the Church of England sought to navigate the turbulent waters between the Roman Catholic counter-reformation and the more radical wings of the continental Reformation, it produced a document that J.I. Packer famously called the "theological backbone" of Anglicanism: The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion. To study the Articles is to encounter the Anglican attempt to be "reformed catholic"—retaining the ancient, creedal faith of the early church while recovering the biblical gospel of justification by grace through faith alone.
By the end of this lesson
- **Identify** the historical origins and the structural layout of the 39 Articles of Religion, distinguishing between the "Catholic," "Protestant," and "Anglican" sections of the confession.
- **Distinguish** between the Anglican understanding of "Scriptural Sufficiency" (Article 6) and the Roman Catholic view of "Dual Authority" (Scripture and Tradition).
- **Explain** the doctrine of "Justification by Faith Only" as defined in Article 11, grounding the explanation in the exegesis of Romans 3:21-26 and Galatians 2:16.
- **Articulate** the Anglican view of the relationship between faith and good works, explaining how Article 12 prevents both legalism and antinomianism.
- **Trace** the development of the Articles from Thomas Cranmer’s initial drafts to the Elizabethan Settlement of 1571.
- **Defend** the necessity of the "One Oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross" (Article 31) against the medieval and modern misunderstandings of the Eucharist as a "re-sacrifice."
- **Apply** the Trinitarian framework of the first five articles to the liturgy and prayer life of the Anglican believer, demonstrating how "lex orandi, lex credendi" (the law of prayer is the law of belief) functions in the tradition.
- **Compare** the Anglican "Via Media" (Middle Way) as expressed in the Articles with the views of the Radical Reformation (Anabaptists) regarding the nature of the church and sacraments.
Scripture
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