Editorial Matters: persuasion, doctrine and the Anglican inheritance

How the church commends its faith, how it receives the teaching of other traditions, and what it means to be Anglican at all are the concerns that run through this issue.

Apologetics with imagination

The opening article is an inaugural lecture on apologetics. Its argument is that modern evangelical apologetics is often too narrow, content to win arguments while neglecting the audience. A fuller account would study the hearers, as the apostles did, and would appeal to the imagination as well as the reason.

Mary and the ecumenical question

A second article introduces an agreed statement on Mary from Anglican and Roman Catholic scholars. It notes the points evangelicals can welcome and the questions that remain, particularly where claims of convergence outrun the evidence.

What makes Anglicanism Anglican

A third essay returns to the Reformers to identify six enduring commitments, and is honest about the vices that can accompany each virtue. The issue closes with a review article in which two ordained women, holding different views, assess two recent books on women, equality and authority.