What Makes Us Episcopalians?. John E. Booty

of our experience, by the operation of God-given reason what is essential and what is non-essential, what should be adhered to at all costs, and what should change with changing times, people, and other circumstances.

      The Gospel frees us from the tyranny of lesser things, frees us to serve God and our neighbors and thus to obtain that measure of human dignity and creativity which were ours at creation. Christianity is a faith deeply involved with history. Anglicanism from the beginning has acknowledged the importance of history. This appreciation is not a dedication to antiquarianism, but a result of our encounter with God in history, through Word and sacrament, ever working in history to judge and save us.

      Chapter 2. Scripture Unfolds

      God's Sacred Drama

       We are a Bible Church

       through and through.

      In 1801, after much discussion and some amendment, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church adopted the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, first authorized by Convocation of the Church of England in 1563. In so doing, the Episcopal Church affirmed the authority of Scripture in an article which reads: “Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.”

      This affirmation echoes the conviction of sixteenth century reformers such as Thomas Cranmer that Scripture, not “unwritten traditions,” possesses supreme authority for faith. In affirming this principle, the fledgling Episcopal Church reached back through the sixteenth century, beyond the Middle Ages to the early Church which cherished Scripture and maintained its authority against claims of false prophets and erroneous doctrine.

      While all in the Church of England were required to subscribe to this article on Scripture, not all understood it in the same way. Some Puritans claimed no one should so much as pick a straw from the ground without express warrant of Scripture. Richard Hooker, sixteenth century theologian, opposed such Puritans, saying Scripture presupposes the operation of reason, God-given “right reason,” and was given in order to set aright what God had created good but Adam had crippled by sin.