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The Episcopal Church in Crisis How Sex, the Bible, and Authority Are Dividing the Faithful
Frank G. Kirkpatrick
ISBN: 0-313-34662-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-34662-0
248 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 6/30/2008
List Price: $44.95 (UK Sterling Price: £31.95)
Availability:
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • It's one thing to know what's been happening, but quite another to think through the clashing agendas and what they imply for the future of Anglicanism....[A]nyone seriously concerned with the current crisis will nevertheless need to take account of this book and its analysis of The Episcopal Church's situation.
    —The Living Church     8/3/2008
  • Kirkpatrick....comprehensively addresses church history and beliefs as a background for the complex issues affecting unity or division within today's Episcopal Church....He covers pertinent details of issues raised--e.g., biblical authority, church history, ecclesiastical authority, and the place for human reasoning--in a multiplicity of meetings and conferences....Recommended for academic libraries.
    —Library Journal     10/15/2008
  • Kirkpatrick (Trinity College, CT) neatly describes the crisis in which the worldwide Anglican Communion is currently embroiled....This excellent book provides a heavily researched and dense overview of what promises to be an ongoing debate....Recommended.
    —Choice     12/1/2008
Description: The current debate in the Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA) over its relationship with the worldwide Anglican Communion has been building for some time. Some Episcopalians (including priests, bishops, and dioceses) have broken or are considering breaking their historic affiliation with the current authoritative bodies of ECUSA because they believe they have betrayed the historic teachings and morality of the Anglican tradition. The author places this emerging crisis in context: historical, moral, theological, cultural, and ecclesiological. He explores how the rift between Episcopalians in the United States originated, how it is being played out now in the rift between the official representatives of ECUSA and the Anglican Communion, what the arguments are for and against all sides, and what are the prospects for either reconciliation at some level between the opposing parties or deepening schism in the future. Kirkpatrick explores the variety of contentious issues, rather than focusing just on the one that gets the most media attention: homosexuality.

The crisis in the Church goes much deeper than that, however, and involves issues of church, tradition, and biblical authority. The author provides necessary background but focuses primarily on the events that have occurred since 2003 when ECUSA approved the election and consecration of an openly gay bishop. While the situation continues to evolve and change, the book provides readers with an up-to-date account of the history of the crisis, an analysis of the conflicting arguments, and a contextual guide for understanding what might come next in this unfolding story.
Table of Contents:
  • W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming
    Introduction
    Section One: The Beginnings of the Crisis
    Chapter One: The Resolution that Shaped the Debate and the Election that Shook the Communion Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world
    Section Two: The Way We Were: Historical Background
    Chapter Two: From Rome to Post-Establishment America By Way of Canterbury Things fall apart
    Chapter Three: The Bishops Assembled: The Lambeth Conferences from 1867 to the Present Surely some revelation is at hand
    Chapter Four: The Uncompleted Struggle for Womens Ordination: From Defective Men to the Conscience Clause The blood-dimmed tide is loosed
    Section Three: From Robinsons Election to the Present
    Chapter Five: From the Chapman Memo to the Windsor Report: The Tension Between Unity, Uniformity, and Episcopal Authority The centre cannot hold
    Chapter Six: From Dromantine to San Joaquin The worst are full of passionate intensity
    Section Four: Perspectives from the Discontented
    Chapter Seven: The Conservative Plea for Moral Certainty and Ecclesiastical Discipline Spiritus Mundi Troubles My Sight
    Chapter Eight: The Communion in Africa: From Imperially Colonized to Moral Colonizers Somewhere in the sands of the desert
    Section Five: Biblical Perspecctives on Slavery and Homosexuality
    Chapter Nine: Reconciling Natural Law, Biblical Truth and the Moral Abomination of Slavery Twenty centuries of stony sleep
    Chapter Ten: The Bible, Sex, and the Contest of Interpretations
    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun
    Section Six: Conclusion
    Conclusion: The Shape of the Future Turning and Turning in the Widening Gyre
    Time-line
    Bibliography:
About the Author: Frank G. Kirkpatrick is Ellsworth Morton Tracy Lecturer and Professor of Religion, Trinity College. He has published five books Community: A Trinity of Models, Together Bound: God, History, and the Religious Community, The Ethics of Community, A Moral Ontology for a Theistic Ethic: Gathering the Nations in Love and Justice, and John Macmurray: Community Beyond Political Philosophy. He has also published a general textbook in the field of ethics, Living Issues in Ethics with Richard Nolan, and numerous articles in scholarly journals, as well as op-ed pieces and topical analyses of current religious events.
LCC Class: BX5930
PDF Catalogs:
Praeger Religion Catalog 2008.pdf
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