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A Passionate Balance: The Anglican Tradition

Author:	Alan Bartlett
Published By:	Darton, Longman and Todd (London)
Pages:	224
Price:	£9.95
ISBN:	978 0 232 52596

Reviewed by Fr Luke Penkett.

This is a recent offering from the publishers’ Traditions of Christian Spirituality series, but if you are expecting from a book in this series and with this title a balanced presentation of Anglican spirituality, you will be surprised. Instead, Alan Bartlett, Director of the Doctor of Ministry Programme and Tutor in Church History, Spirituality and Anglican Studies at Cranmer Hall, St John’s College, Durham offers us his own “particular perspective” on it. Sadly, this perspective is neither balanced nor far-reaching. It consists of a passionate discussion of the roles played by reason, Scripture and tradition in the Church of England, with occasional acknowledgements of the existence of the wider Anglican Church. I was amazed that such gauche phrases as “taking seriously the reality of sin and holiness remains an Anglican priority” passed the eye of Philip Sheldrake, the editor of the series.

There are disappointing gaps (I looked in vain for mention of the monastic life or the Book of Common Worship) and there are several passages that read like lecture notes. But the greatest lack is the absence of an index.

The book would have been far more balanced if reference had been made to what the Church of England shares with the other parts of the world-wide Church.

What the author does include are Anglican quotations (few from prayers or poems), accompanied by thorough-going end-notes and a helpful bibliography.