| Summary: | This article provides an account of Anglican theology as it emerged as a distinct tradition and ecclesial movement from within Western Catholicism, in the context of the theological and political shifts of sixteenth-century Europe. The pragmatic needs of a succession of English monarchs, along with the theological convictions of the leaders of their national church, led to the evolution of the Church of England and its self-identification as ‘Anglican’, with a corresponding theology, from the late sixteenth century. This development led to three main varieties of Anglican theology from the eighteenth century: high church (later becoming ‘Anglo-Catholic’), evangelical (later including charismatic evangelicalism), and broad (later including social and ecumenical theology).
With the expansion of Anglican churches around the world – a process that gained pace in the eighteenth century and accelerated in the nineteenth century – what is now called the Anglican Communion developed, constituted of over forty autonomous churches who govern their own doctrine and practice and come together for the purposes of consultation more than governance. Anglican theology has also diversified in significant ways, most recently in response to disagreement on some key issues and in response to postcolonial realities. In recent decades, there has been significant development of cross-disciplinary engagement, not least with science. Anglican theology, then, is presented not as a single doctrinal system but as tenets of a movement which now encompass a range of churches, networks, and perspectives from around the world.
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