Most of what you say agrees with what I said, you possibly think you are saying something different. You believe Anglican has protestant doctrine, that is incorrect.
I believe that classical Anglicanism is Protestant. Today, it’s hard to p(name removed by moderator)oint one theology that can be said to be Anglican because there are so many. There are many Anglo-Catholics who arguable are more Catholic than the Pope. There are other Anglicans who might be High Church but essentially Protestant in their beliefs. And then there are many Anglicans who reach into the strong tradition of Reformed Anglican that has always been a current and reflect a low church Anglicanism strongly tinged with Calvinism, as can be seen everywhere in the Diocese of Sydney, Australia.
In the 39 articles of swaying backwards and forwards between two camps there is only one Article that could be considered protestant. Article 22.
I think it’s an arguable point just how “Protestant” and “Catholic” Anglicanism is supposed to be. But to say that the 39 Articles of Religion are not a strongly Calvinist doctrine is frankly contrary to the plain reading of the text.
Article 6: 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 an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.
Article 10: The condition of Man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith, and calling upon God: Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will.
Article 11: We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own works or deservings; Wherefore, that we are justified by Faith only is a most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification.
Article 12: Albeit that Good Works, which are the fruits of Faith, and follow after Justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God’s Judgement; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith; insomuch that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit.
Article 13: Works done before the grace of Christ, and the Inspiration of his Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as the School-authors say) deserve grace of congruity: yea rather, for that they are not done as God willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin.
Article 14: Voluntary Works besides, over and above, God’s Commandments, which they call Works of impiety: for by them men do declare, that they do not only render unto God as much as they are bound to do, but that they do more for his sake, than of bounden duty is required: whereas Christ saith plainly, When ye have done all that are commanded to you, say, We are unprofitable servants.
Article 17: Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour. Wherefore, they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God be called according to God’s purpose by his Spirit working in due season: they through Grace obey the calling: they be justified freely: they be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like the image of his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ: they walk religiously in good works, and at length, by God’s mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity. . . .
Article 19: The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men . . . As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, have erred; so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies, but also in matters of Faith.
Article 20: The Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies, and authority in Controversies of Faith: And yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God’s Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and a keeper of holy Writ, yet, as it ought not to decree any thing against the same, so besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation.
Article 21: General Councils . . . And when they be gathered together, (forasmuch as they be an assembly of men, whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and Word of God,) they may err, and sometimes have erred, even in things pertaining unto God. Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor authority, unless it may be declared that they be taken out of holy Scripture.
Now Henry VIII was only interested in remarriage. That is a moral grounds. That is the only reason. Nothing else. Only a moral ground for the split, not your protestant theology. Though John Henry Newman recognized that they had wandered far from the tree.
Henry VIII was not a Luther. Anglicans today do not ask themselves “What would Henry do.” They look to Thomas Cranmer and Richard Hooker and to the Book of Common Prayer and the historical formularies. The English Reformation did not stop at the death of King Henry. It continued.
