“Discipleship" is a buzzword with lots of tired, old baggage. Unfortunately it has come to mean those things that we do (the celebration of disciplines) heavy-lifting our way towards increased holiness. It’s the 21st century equivalent of the Medieval monastic exercises that was described as “ladder-climbing” - with the end of the ladder, unfortunately, always two more steps higher.

For John Hooper, the gaudy Medieval robes communicated a theology that is not consistent with a Protestant understanding of ministers and Holy Communion. He finally concluded that “vestments” are not a mountain to die on, especially if they kept him from opportunities to minister the gospel.

It is worth recalling that in Cranmer’s carefully ordered collection of homilies, the “Homily of Salvation” followed the homily on the “Misery of Mankind.” This reflects Cranmer’s Reformational understanding of the order and function of the law and the gospel.

Diarmaid MacCulloch delivered the 1998 Birkbeck Lectures at Cambridge University which he expanded into this book. In The Boy King, MacCulloch addresses the six-year reign of King Edward VI (1547- 1553): what led up to his enthronement, the issues, challenges and accomplishments of his reign, and the lasting effects on church and society of a young king determined to land the newly formed Church of England in, what came to be called, Protestantism.

Words and meanings change over time. “Evangelical,” for example, was the term used for sixteenth century English Protestants, but it has been kicked around so much that today almost any Christian who reads the Bible will slap it on their website. Pentecostals, Anglo-catholics (Evangelical Catholics), three-streamers, and seminaries who self-identify as evangelical are often very separated from it’s original context and meaning.

Who was responsible for the 16th century Protestant Reformation? Johannes Gutenberg was. The inventor of the movable type printing press, died February 3, 1468. Gutenberg's 1450 invention was a powerful factor in the spread of the Reformation, making the Bible and the writings of Martin Luther and other reformers much more widely available.

Who caused the 16th century Reformation? Erasmus did. In some ways Desiderius Erasmus was nearly as important as Luther, Calvin and Cranmer. But unlike the others who would become Protestant leaders, Erasmus of Rotterdam was not a theologian and he never brought himself to embrace the evangelical faith. So how is it that someone…

If you love the Book of Common Prayer, you owe much to Martin Bucer. Bucer was the German Strasbourg Protestant reformer (1491-1551) that Thomas Cranmer invited to England to help him write the Book of Common Prayer. He arrived in England with the returning Protestant exiles who had fled England under Henry VIII. He was given the prestigeous Regius Professor of Divinity chair at Cambridge University.

The purpose of the Center for Reformation Anglicanism is: To raise up, train, and support Reformation Anglican leaders and laity for today’s church and for the future of gospel ministry in the Anglican Communion. Anglican and Episcopal Churches are in trouble today for a lack of historical context and definition.

Was the little town of Bethlehem really that still? And did the morning stars proclaim the holy birth while mortals slept, as Phillips Brooks wrote in his well-known hymn “O Little Town of Bethlehem”? Underlying the romanticized picture of the first Christmas morning is an empty theology that R.R. Reno describes as “a pallid Christian humanism.”

It is impossible to overemphasize the impact the Book of Common Prayer has had on church and society in England and around the world. Its introduction was a tsunami: a night-and-day change from the Medieval Roman Catholic worship and theology to Protestantism (to a distinctly law/gospel Lutheran theology, with a Reformed understanding…

Myles Coverdale is the 16th century English reformer that nobody knows. If you have ever appreciated reading or singing the Psalms in the 1662, 1928, or 1979 Books of Common Prayer, they are Coverdale's English translation! Coverdale's beautiful renderings of the Psalms are used in Handel's "Messiah," based on the Prayer Book Psalter…

The Bible is not a rulebook or a catalogue of good examples to keep us in line, but primarily the overarching story of God’s saving grace in Jesus. Reformation Anglicans join the English reformers in recognizing that God’s word speaks in two ways: law and gospel. Law is the portion of Scripture that commands, prescribes, and exposes our guilt.

When the first bricks are badly laid, the wall, in the end, will be wonky. When we leave the doctrinal formularies of Reformation Anglicanism and wander the roads of our personal aesthetic tastes, the end result is Charles Gore, liberal Catholicism, and "Lux Mundi." Charles Gore, the popular Principal of Pusey House Oxford, died on this day January 17, 1932.

When Mary died, her half-sister Elizabeth was crowned Queen of England January 15, 1559. Elizabeth was the last of five monarchs of the House of Tudor. She had private Lutheran leanings, but she was more interested in keeping peace between the different Protestant factions in England. In her long reign as Queen and Supreme Governor…