The author describes this book as a project that he has been meaning to finish for the whole of his working life, observing that the history of Anglican moral theology is not well known to many Anglicans, even professional theologians. While acknowledging the admirable work on ethical issues that has been produced by some modern Anglican scholars, Sedgwick suggests that it is unclear in what sense these are ‘Anglican’ books, or how their authors contribute to the vision of Anglican moral theology, which highlights the need for a study of this kind.
The result is a work that provides a comprehensive and detailed account of the origins of Anglican moral theology, exemplary in its thoroughness and self-evidently the product of a lifetime of academic study and scholarly reflection. As such it is a welcome and much-needed contribution to the discipline.
Sedgwick maintains that although one cannot speak of the emergence of a single tradition of moral theology within Anglicanism, more broadly one can discern an overarching, coherent and developing phenomenon made up of ‘contesting but ultimately reconcilable rival traditions’. The distinctive themes that emerge include the essential relationship between moral theology and pastoral care, and the integration of moral reasoning with a spirituality that is both devotional and ascetical. The core of this study focuses on the turbulent period spanning the years 1530–1690, although the author’s investigation of the origins of Anglican moral theology begins much earlier.
Sedgwick sets out his stall with immense care. His opening chapters engage with fundamental questions of definition, including the differing ways in which the concept of Anglicanism has been construed by historians of the Reformation period (the use of such terminology is, of course, complex and contested), and issues of methodology. He also engages directly with the arguments of those who would question the validity of any attempt to construct a history of theological ideas at all, taking as his starting point the work of Skinner and the Cambridge School of historiography of the 1960s.
The range of background influences considered by the author is comprehensive. Sedgwick begins by charting the development of ethical thought within the Jewish Scriptures and the New Testament, before turning his attention to developments in the postbiblical era, most notably in relation to penitential practices in the early Church. The contributions of Augustine and Jerome are also considered, in a section that concludes with the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215.
Sedgwick then turns his attention to the medieval sources of Anglican moral theology, considering the distinctive contributions of Abelard, whose work he regards as marking the rebirth of moral theology, and Aquinas, whose significance includes his successful integration of Aristotelian and Augustinian insights, as MacIntyre and others have previously noted. The author’s account of nominalism and the rise of casuistry includes an instructive section upon the work of John Mair, whom he describes as bridging the transition from medieval to Reformation moral theology.
The most significant contribution of this work is to be found in its second half, which analyses in detail the ethics of the later Reformation in England, focusing on the work of William Perkins and Richard Hooker, and culminating in a study of the Caroline divines and Jeremy Taylor. Sedgwick’s exploration of the development of casuistry during this time is informative, and the comparisons and contrasts that he draws between the writers whose work he evaluates (including Hooker and Perkins) is one of the distinctive contributions of his book.
This is a careful, detailed and in-depth study that is clearly written, systematically argued and densely packed with information. By comparison, its closing section, entitled ‘The End of Casuistry’ feels to be a rather breathless canter along the final furlong, as Sedgwick attempts to give an account of the development of moral theology after Jeremy Taylor within the space of approximately seven pages. The major themes outlined here are significant but tantalizing in their brevity (including as they do the role of social and national stability versus ideological unity during the period, increased religious toleration and a new confidence in the powers of the individual conscience), which cries out for a more detailed and expansive treatment.
Sedgwick is aware of the limitations of a historical study such as this, particularly given the pace at which moral theology is changing in the modern era and the global context in which such conversations must take place today. Yet he presents a persuasive case for the necessity of this exploration as a starting point, and as a resource for informed ecumenical debate.
This subject clearly warrants a second volume, to facilitate a much deeper and more detailed exploration of the subsequent story of Anglican moral theology, and the themes that are outlined in the closing pages. More generally, however, Sedgwick has unquestionably provided us with a thoroughly researched, carefully argued, and persuasive account of the origins of Anglican moral theology, upon which he must be congratulated.
