Oxford movement

A movement to reform the Church of England begun at Oxford University in 1833, the Oxford movement was led by John Keble, John Henry Newman, and Richard Hurrell Froude. All were fellows of Oriel College, Oxford, passionately loyal to the church, and deeply disturbed by the British government's interference in its affairs. In addition, they were influenced by the patristic writings and attracted to the ritual and worship of the early and medieval church.

Newman believed the movement began when, on July 14, 1833, Keble preached on "National Apostasy," a sermon prompted by an attempt in Parliament to suppress ten Irish bishoprics. More important was the publication of Tracts for the Times by Newman. The first three were published on Sept. 9, 1833; and the last, Tract 90, which aroused a storm of controversy, in 1841. The tracts aimed at recalling the English to true churchmanship, to an understanding of the church as an organic, independent body, not a creature of the state, and to a sacramental ministry and life. The Tractarians, as they came to be called, envisioned the movement as a middle way between Roman Catholicism and evangelicalism.

The movement was soon under attack. Liberals protested its dogmatism and evangelicals its Roman tendencies. Gradually some of its members, including William Ward and Henry Manning, joined the Roman Catholic church. In 1845, Newman was converted and the movement came to a point of crisis. Leadership passed to Keble, Edward Pusey, and Charles Marriott. The movement's principles were maintained by Anglo - Catholics who were much influenced by ritualism, Christian Socialism, and liberalism. In 1889 the heirs of the Tractarians, led by Charles Gore, published Lux Mundi, a book that attempted to reconcile the Catholic faith of the Church of England with modern intellectual and moral positions. The Oxford movement had a strong influence on the doctrines, spirituality, and ritual of the established church, and its principles continue to inform the entire Anglican Communion.

John E Booty

Bibliography
O Chadwick, The Mind of the Oxford Movement (1960); R Chapman, Faith and Revolt (1970); R Church, The Oxford Movement: Twelve Years, 1833 - 1845 (1970); E Fairweather, ed., The Oxford Movement (1964); J Griffin, The Oxford Movement, 1833 - 1983: A Revision (1984); M R O'Connell, The Oxford Conspirators: A History of the Oxford Movement 1833 - 45 (1969); G Rowell, ed., Tradition Renewed (1986).

Oxford Movement

An important religious development within the Church of England in the nineteenth century in response to the critical rationalism, skepticism, lethargy, liberalism, and immorality of the day. Emphasizing a return to the traditions of the church, the leaders of the movement longed for a higher standard of worship, piety, and devotion among clergy and church members.

Guided by and receiving its impetus from Oxford University men, the movement also protested state interference in the affairs of the church. On July 14, 1833, in response to the English government's bill reducing bishoprics in Ireland, John Keble preached the sermon "National Apostacy" from the university pulpit. He accused the government of infringing on "Christ's Church" and of disavowing the principle of apostolic succession of the bishops of the Church of England. Insisting that salvation was possible only through the sacraments, Keble defended the Church of England as a divine institution. During the same year John Henry Newman began to publish Tracts for the Times, a series of pamphlets by members of the University of Oxford that supported and propagated the beliefs of the movement. They were widely circulated, and the term "Tractarianism" has often been used for the early stages of the Oxford Movement or, indeed, as a synonym for the movement itself.

It is ironic that these tracts (which were supposed to argue "against Popery and Dissent") would lead some of the writers and readers into embracing the Roman Catholic Church. These men found it increasingly impossible to adhere to church polity and practice on Protestant terms. When Newman argued in Tract 90 (1841) that the Thirty - nine Articles of the Church of England were in harmony with genuine Roman Catholicism, he was attacked with such furor that the series of tracts was brought to an end. Early in 1845, realizing that they would never be allowed to be Anglicans while holding Roman Catholic views, several Oxford reformers joined the Roman Catholic Church. Newman defected later that year, and by 1864 nearly one thousand ministers, theological leaders, and Anglican church members followed his lead. In 1864 Newman's Apologia pro Vita Sua was published, explaining his departure from the Church of England and defending his choice of the Roman Church as the one true church. Newman was made a Roman Catholic cardinal in 1879.

After the defections in 1845 the movement was no longer dominated by Oxford men and became more fragmented in its emphases. Edward B Pusey, professor of Hebrew at Oxford and a contributor to Tracts, emerged as the leader of the Anglo - Catholic party, which continued to push for doctrinal modifications and a reunion between the Anglican and Roman churches. Other groups sought to promote High Church ritual within Anglicanism. Many of the sympathizers the Oxford Movement had gained at its inception (before anti - Reformation tendencies were observed) continued to uphold the primary goals and spiritual fervor of the movement. This has had a great significance upon the theological development, polity, and religious life of the Church of England for over a century. Anglican eucharistic worship was transformed, spiritual discipline and monastic orders were revived, social concern was fostered, and an ecumenical spirit has developed in the Church of England.

While the Oxford Movement was opposed in print by traditional churchmen as well as liberal academic thinkers, perhaps no one group matched the evangelicals in their enormous output of literature, printed sermons, tracts, articles, books, and pamphlets against the Tractarians. These dissenting "peculiars," as some Oxford reformers called them, believed that the Oxford "heresy" was both anti - Reformation and antiscriptural. They fought to ensure that the English church would maintain the Protestant character of its theology. And yet even evangelical writers in England at the end of the nineteenth century noted that the Oxford Movement also brought positive contributions to English Christianity, contributions that could not be disregarded.

D A Rausch

Bibliography
R W Church, The Oxford Movement, 1833 - 1845; E Fairweather, ed., The Oxford Movement; P Toon, Evangelical Theology, 1833 - 1856: A Response to Tractarianism; T Dearing, Wesleyan and Tractarian Worship.