Why "Arminian Nunnery"?

Time for a little archaeology. In my book, the two most important renewal movements in the history of English-speaking Christianity were both born at Oxford University. And they were both born out of interesting interactions between the Evangelical and High Church streams of the Church of England. The first was the Wesley brothers Holy Club, which gave us Methodism. The second was Tractarianism, also called the Oxford Movement or Anglo-Catholicism. While I see strengths in both these streams of the Church, I am much more of a High churchman than I am an Evangelical, Anglo-Catholic as I am. The most important part of my theological education took place in a Methodist context with a decidedly Methodist doktorvater. (For interest's sake, I was not born Anglo-Catholic, but a Campbellite of Campbellites, where my foundational theological education took place.)

So, one thing I note in the case of the High Church party, early Methodism, and the Tractarians, is the terms of (supposed) abuse hurled at them from the broader church and some of the more extreme Calvinists: they are Arminians and crypto-Catholics. (And, especially in the case of Methodism, they are enthusiasts.) Two basically contradictory labels that are simultaneously the worst things imaginable and dwelling in some sort of demonic union in these bad Christians and bad churchmen.

Woodcut from the first page of The Arminian Nunnery (1641)

This kind of pairing is older than either of the two Oxford movements, as the name of the blog testifies. I draw my blog's name from the label given to a High Church family's experiment of an intentional, disciplined life of a community of prayer -- the Ferrars at Little Gidding. A shrill and fearful denunciation was published against the Ferrars, entitled "The Arminian Nunnery." Since Arminian and Catholic are the directions I believe Anglicanism and Anglican theology should go (along with widespread use of the Prayerbook offices), I happily adopt this somewhat paradoxical slur as a badge of honor. And, in a turn that would set many of my High Church antecedents' teeth on edge, I intend for me (and my communities) to be enthusiastic about it!