Anglican Identities: Logos Idealism, Imperial Whiteness, Commonwealth Ecumenism
by Gary J. Dorrien
Baylor University Press, 656 pp.

When it was announced that Gary Dorrien was publishing a book on Anglican history, I was excited by the project but slightly skeptical. Dorrien’s theological treatises that he has published at an astounding rate over the last forty years cover a wide range of ideas and questions, yet he is, by training, teaching, and writing, a theologian and ethicist. What could he, from his fields, have to bring to the larger historical conversation? (1)

While Dorrien has no new facts that one would not get from any number of those books, he argues, even in the book’s subtitle, that his historical interjection is centered around three lenses through which it is best to understand his book – logos idealism, imperial whiteness, and commonweal eumenism. Dorrien sees his subtitle as being “always about the Anglican emphasis on the Word Incarnate, the role of English Anglican imperial whiteness … and the dream of a radical ecumenism with a commonweal spirit.” (2)

Dorrien’s idea of logos idealism is where his work sings – offering deep dives into the theological movements of Anglicanism, from Thomas Cranmer through Desmond Tutu, shaped by a focus on incarnational theology. As a whole, this task has never been completed before by a scholar in the Anglican Communion, and Dorrien is worthy of our gratitude for this offering. 

Dorrien’s chapter “Renewing Christian Socialism, Anglo-Catholic Style” is of particular importance and use coming from a leading scholar of Christian Socialism at a time when younger generations of Anglicans proudly declare themselves Christian Socialists, in particular the way that the chapter draws on and contrasts F.D. Maurice and his successors with prior ideological movements, such as liberals and idealists. This situating of connected and not all-encompassing ideologies as being part of the same body speaks to this logos idealism, where all things are gathered together under the Word, and as part of a flourishing ecclesiology. 

While perhaps a bit too academic in their composition, Dorrien’s structure and substance present themselves easily to the reader, and the enterprising leader could easily pare down the chapters into meaningful bite-size chunks of information for adult education in the parish church, perhaps as a year-long study or as a main text for an undergraduate or graduate course. 

Dorrien’s chief mistake is found primarily in his self-imposed endpoint of Stephen Sykes and Tutu in the 1980s. (3) By selecting this somewhat arbitrary point, (4) he blocks himself from writing about the ordination of women to the priesthood (first done regularly in a province of the Anglican Communion in 1971 but them becoming more common in the 1990s) and the continued journey towards sacramental affirmation of the lives and ministries of LGBTQ+ people, as well as the schisms that continue to develop from these decisions. (Dorrien 

In particular, the development of these schisms would be an interesting ground for Dorrien’s discussion of imperial whiteness and its continued relevance in the Communion, which is, in my opinion, the most interesting of Dorrien’s three lenses of interjection. Of specific interest in this vein are the “broad church liberals” of the mid-nineteenth century, especially Frederick Temple, who became the Archbishop of Canterbury around the turn of the twentieth century. In reading and critiquing Temple and his contemporaries via their edited collection Essays and Reviews, Dorrien writes that Temple’s contribution was “steeped in Eurocentric ethnology and reeking of its White supremacism,” aptly noting that “no critic said that was the offensive part.” (5) Through highlighting this and other instances in which white supremacy snuck into the Anglican tradition unchallenged, Dorrien reminds the reader that we cannot just hide behind the examples of William Wilberforce, Jonathan Myrick Daniels, and their fellow saints in pretending that we are innocent.

We miss this insightful commentary on questions that have been raised about whether Americans cultivated and influenced primarily African bishops into supporting schismatic movements like the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and opponents of The Episcopal Church’s (TEC) movements through the instruments of communion. (6) What could have been a stellar book, thus, loses some of its sheen because the reader, the academy, and the church loses out on this opportunity, (7) as well as Dorrien’s chance to introduce post-colonial theologians and their thoughts into the larger discussion.

Questions around “commonweal ecumenism” (or “ecumenism for the good of the church,” as Dorrien offers that Richard Hooker, whom he deems “the proto-Anglican founder of Anglican theology,” offered a “radically inclusive concept of the church” (8)) are also raised when the development of a schismatic body means other denominations may have to choose which Anglican body they wish to affiliate with and challenges his assertion of it as a key lens for understanding Anglicanism. At a time when TEC is moving towards full communion with the United Methodists and continuing dialogue with the Presbyterian Church (USA), two denominations that support same-sex marriage, the ACNA trumpets ecumenical partnerships with the Orthodox Church in America and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, two denominations that do not. What does our strain of commonweal ecumenism have to say when we are so deeply divided on questions of gender and sexuality? 

What has been so admirable about much of Dorrien’s work is that the questions he tackles in his other recent monographs, such as A Darkly Radiant Vision: The Black Social Gospel in the Shadow of MLK, feel so real and present that, befitting his background as an ethicist, they call the reader and the church into deep thought and faithful action. However, the lack of that overarching question or hook for action on the part of the reader cannot overshadow the fact that this will be a great book for learning, for teaching, and for providing a unique historiographical hook with his three lenses through which he makes his historical inquiries. The questions this book will lead scholars to will be many, and what a gift to the church it will be to have them as well.

1. Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook, the newly confirmed Historiographer of the Episcopal Church, offers a “Guide to recent books on Anglican History,” which is a good introduction to the historiographical debates and discussions in the field of Anglican History from 2010 through 2020.

2. Dorrien, 1-2.

3. Dorrien, 1.

4. Dorrien said at the American Academy of Religion conference that this choice was because this book was intended to be a two-volume set, and as this reviewer told him in person – the church would be better off with his thoughts on the developments in Anglicanism over the last five decades.

5. Dorrien, 292.

6. See Jim Naughton, “Following the Money”.

7. Some highly regarded scholarly viewpoints on the matter are: C. C. Brittain and A. McKinnon, The Anglican Communion at a Crossroads; R. J. Caldwell, A History of the Episcopal Church Schism in South Carolina; and M. Hassett, Anglican Communion in Crisis.

8. Dorrien, 2-3.