The Anglican Way: A Guidebook

Was reading this for an “Anglicanism 101” class I was taking through the church, in order to get confirmed, but turns out we were on vacation when the bishop was coming, so. It was a very good overview of the basic theological beliefs of the Anglican church, and I marked it on my Kindle as something I may revisit in the future. I especially appreciated McKenzie's viewpoint about how faith comes from a lot of different backgrounds, and as such there are some more liberal Anglican churches, and some that are more conservative in their attitudes and social beliefs.

McKenzie seems like a thoughtful, pastoral guy, and he makes the smart decision to say “here are a few different perspectives” on the controversial bits (mostly). Good introduction to the sacraments. Makes a good case that the “via media” of the Anglican tradition is the right balance between Catholicism and the Protestants.

Short Review: This is intended to be an introduction to Anglicanism for new converts, but also would make a good discussion book for an adult eduction class. Because it is newly written, it feels fresh and recent, while communicating the weight of the tradition and the importance of Anglican distinctives. I have read other similar books for other Christian traditions and few of them are able to communicate their own tradition without condemning other traditions, but this one is gracious, pointing out differences without condemnation or triumphalism.

McKenzie is writing as a conservative Anglican in the US that has left the United States Episcopal Church, although he clearly states that many Episcopals are orthodox Anglicans. There is a short section on the history of that divide that I thought was helpful.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/the-anglican-way/