Category Image Okay, Enough Dr. Toon


Often, I have found myself bothered, generally in a non-specific sort of way to the writings of the Rev. Dr. Peter Toon, one time president of the Prayer Book Society here in the U.S. In a recent essay , Dr. Toon raises some points to which I have much more specific problems.

In this essay, Dr. Toon looks to the Tractarian movement as a bad thing, to which I can only agree in that it did not go far enough. The Tractarians, at times, seemed more interested in defending their right to exist within the Church of England, than they really did in converting the C of E to its Catholic roots. Dr. Toon would disagree, and, often in his writings calls people back to the reformed roots of the Church of England. Of course, this is an absurd, very anachronistic position. To speak of the reformed roots of the Church of England is to consider the Church to have been founded at the time of the reformation, rather than more than a millennia earlier. Certainly, this reformed theology can't really be found in the early Church, outside of some elements of the theology of St. Augustine.

Dr. Toon also decries things of the AngloCatholic movement as "ritualism", an attempt to dismiss the entire movement with a slur as opposed to engaging the reality that such "ritualism" was the norm in the universal Church, which Dr. Toon repeatedly in his writings claims to support. What Dr. Toon really supports is a brief 350 year period within the Church of England as being the measure of what the Church should be. He is, in many ways, just another fundamentalist, except that what he holds most dear is not Scripture, but rather the Book of Common Prayer, and more importantly the 39 articles. In fact, there are times when I suspect he would sooner eliminate the Nicene Creed than the 39 articles.

I would recommend that Dr. Toon study the Old Testament a bit more, and realize that God, Himself, established ritual as a necessary part of Worship. God, Himself, appointed sacrifice as a part of worship, and God, Himself, established priests as the leaders of such Worship. He did not establish hour long sermons and temples which placed the pulpit and the preacher as the center point of worship. If you doubt that this is what reformed theology leads to, just look at any large Church built during the first 200 years or so after the reformation. The altar (the throne of God) disappears in the interest of the pulpit, or the throne of man.

This is, after all, what Dr. Toon longs for. I'm sure he would be happiest if we could return to the days when the Eucharist was only celebrated once a month or less, so that we could allow more time for preaching. More man, less God. I know he would be displeased to be accused of such sentiment, but realistically it is what he really longs for.

Posted: Thursday - December 15, 2005 at 12:02 AM          

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