Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Religion & Culture / Religious Studies

Faculty/School

Faculty of Arts

First Advisor

Not applicable

Advisor Role

Not applicable

Abstract

The reign of Edward VI witnessed an unparalleled receptivity to foreign theological ideas on the part of the Church of England. In this very short space of time, 1547-1553, the reforming policies initiated under Henry VIII were consolidated and pushed much further. The classical documents of Anglicanism, the Book of Common Prayer and the Articles of Religion, were formulated in this period. The Reformed theologians of the continent and those in English exile played an influential role in the shaping of these classical documents and in the policies which lead to their creation. The continental theologians in Edwardian England thus contributed to the formation of the Anglican confession itself.

The following thesis examines the process by which these Reformed theologians were enabled to leave their mark on the Anglican identity. At the same time, this process is depicted against the larger European background in which emerging confessions existed in uneasy tension with the ecumenical vision of a united Protestantism. It is argued that the Edwardian Church of England was a paradigm of Reformation Protestantism with its conflicting ideals of ecumenism and confessionalism.

Convocation Year

1986

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