Oxford Movement, 1833-1856
"National Apostasy" was a sermon preached by John Keble July 14, 1833. According to John Henry Newman, this signaled “the start of the religious movement of 1833” - the Oxford or Tractarian Movement that, over the course of several decades, challenged the theological core identity of the Church of England. The context of Keble’s sermon was his opposition to the state meddling in church affairs (he opposed the Church Temporalities Bill that sought to reorganize bishoprics in the Church of Ireland so that the government could get their hands on church endowments). In this famous sermon, Keble fussed at the nation for not behaving more like the Old Testament prophet Samuel.
The Oxford or Tractarian Movement sought to return the church to medieval Catholic understandings and practices under the cover of returning to the church fathers. Among the leaders of this movement were Henry Manning, Edward Pusey, Richard Hurrell Froude, William Ward, and John Henry Newman. Keble was the gentle, humble poet of the group. Generally speaking, the Oxford proponents encouraged a more sincere spiritual devotion than was generally experienced in the 19th century church, while discounting the English Reformation and the Protestant character of Anglicanism. Starting in 1833 its members issued well-circulated tracts (90 "Tracts for the Times” between 1833 and 1841) trying to persuade British church and society to restore Christian life to the “Holiness Necessary for Future Blessedness” (Newman).
The impact of the Oxford Movement and the changes they made in theology and practice cannot be over estimated. Generally speaking, they emphasized the importance of apostolic succession (that has less to do with the passing-on of the apostles’ teaching and more to do with the transmission of special grace in ordinations), sacramental confession to a priest (rather than universal priesthood of all believers), the three-fold ministry (deacon, priest and bishop) as the esse of the church rather than bene esse, an understanding of sacramental grace that is automatically conveyed independent of faith (baptismal regeneration and real presence in the elements of Holy Communion), the interpretation of Scripture through the eyes of the church fathers (questioning the Reformation’s dangerous idea of “perspicuity”), and opposition to liberalism in all its forms. On the eve of the Oxford Movement, the Church of England’s theology would be described by everyone as “Protestant,” by evangelicals and old high churchmen alike. After the turbulent 1830s-40s, the church was polarized and fragmented into church parties. The Tractarians were theological innovators who were too eager to leave or reinterpret the foundation of the historic Anglican formularies to suit their own aesthetic tastes.
“The Tractarians came to challenge, then shatter the doctrinal consensus of the earlier High Church Anglicanism, seeming to dissolve the Church of England into its constituent parts as never before. . . The Tractarians in the 1840s may have posed the greatest threat to the church’s equilibrium by explaining away the Articles [of Religion]. . .They provocatively forced churchmen to take sides and to adopt a more rigid dogmatic position.”
“What united them [Anglicans on the eve of the Oxford Movement] was an unquestioned, tacit consensus with regard to the protestant character of the Anglican church - a character that was evidenced above all in the doctrine of justification by faith and the paramount authority of scripture, in a fraternal regard for the continental churches of the Reformation, in esteem of the Reformers both English and foreign, and in loyalty to the standards of the Church of England - the Thirty-nine Articles and the Book of Common Prayer, as well as unofficial secondary standards among which Richard Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity stands pre-eminent. The Tractarians set out to challenge the consensus on each of these points.”
“The Tractarian crisis had serious repercussions for the whole of the Church of England, leading to an increased polarization and fragmentation of church parties which continued to grow deeper throughout the rest of the century.”
“With all readiness I admit that this epoch and its results bought contributions of good to English Christianity. An exaggeration is sometimes used to correct its opposite, and the extreme prominence given by the Tractarians to the sacraments and to the corporate idea and to the greatness of worship had a work to do in that way and did it. But this cannot overcome in me the conviction that the root principles of the Oxford Movement were widely other than those of the Reformation, and out of scale with the authentic theology of the Scriptures. I do not wonder then that from nearly the first the new teaching was regarded with suspicion, and that earnest efforts were made to counteract it.”
Peter Nockles, The Oxford Movement in Context: Anglican High Churchmanship 1760-1857
Paul Avis, Anglicanism and the Christian Church: Theological Resources in Historical Perspective
Andrew Atherstone, Oxford’s Protestant Spy: The Controversial Career of Charles Golightly
Peter Toon, Evangelical Theology 1833-1856: A Response to Tractarianism