The Sacramental Church

What is Anglo-Catholicism? What are its origins? Are Anglo-Catholics real Anglicans/Episcopalians? What is their relationship with Roman Catholics? Has Anglo-Catholicism betrayed Anglicanism's Protestant roots? The Sacramental Church answers these and many other questions. Addressed to the general reader, it explores the history, practices, beliefs, and attitudes of Anglo-Catholicism. While Anglo-Catholicism has deep roots in English Christianity, it attained its modern form through the nineteenth-century Catholic Revival–a movement that aroused strong passions among proponents and opponents alike. The revival, its proponents declared, reclaimed for the Anglican faith its heritage as an authentic branch of the «one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.» Anglo-Catholicism gave Anglicans/Episcopalians options to embrace ceremonial forms of worship, affirm the objective real presence and sacrificial nature of the Eucharist, venerate Mary the Mother of God, or join a monastery without abandoning their Anglican tradition. With an extensive bibliography and numerous direct quotes, The Sacramental Church provides a valuable reference source as well as a very readable story of Anglo-Catholicism–the expression of sacramental Christianity with special relevance to the English-speaking people.