Anglican Theological Review

24/08/2026

Call for Papers:
Renewing Ministry for a Changing Church



https://conta.cc/4ggWUoT

Email from Anglican Theological Review, Inc. Renewing Ministry for a Changing Church Call for Special Issue of the Anglican Theological Review Renewing Ministry for a Changing Church This special issu

17/08/2026

A look inside our upcoming Summer edition:

Our third research article comes from Zachary Thomas Settle (Episcopal Church in Minnesota), whose essay, "A Cup on the Table in the Shadow of the Infinite: On the Incarnational Possibilities of Poetry," reflects on the theological power of poetry. Because poetry has long been an important part of ATR's mission, we are especially pleased to feature an article that explores poetry itself as a source for theological reflection.

Focusing on Marie Howe's poem "The Teacher," Settle examines its rich biblical imagery through the work of Austin Farrer, David Brown, and Paul DeHart. He argues that poetry, as an expression of culture, can bear witness to the mystery of Christ's incarnation, revealing how ordinary, finite experiences can become windows into the infinite.

14/08/2026

A glimpse inside our upcoming Summer edition:
Lyndon Shakespeare (St. Barnabas College, Australia) examines the growing epidemic of loneliness in "Embedding Human Sociality: A Theological Sketch." Writing from the context of unceded Aboriginal lands in Australia, Shakespeare offers a theological response to social isolation by drawing on Indigenous knowledge systems and a richer understanding of human connectedness. His essay invites readers to imagine forms of community that extend beyond relationships alone and are rooted in place, belonging, and shared life.

This contribution continues ATR's ongoing engagement with the mental health crisis, building on our 2025 special issue. We are also delighted to welcome Lyndon as our new Book Editor for Theological Ethics.

13/08/2026

A glimpse inside our Summer 2026 Edition:

Our Summer issue opens with Dr. Andrew R. H. Thompson's (the University of the South) "Called to Freedom: The Episcopal Resistance Ethic of Scudder, Stringfellow, and Dozier." Thompson explores the work of three influential Episcopal lay theologians to argue that a distinctive ethic of resistance has long existed within—and alongside—the Anglican tradition's commitment to institutional life.

Beginning with ATR founding editor Vida Dutton Scudder, Thompson traces themes of Christian socialism, political witness, and institutional reform through the writings of William Stringfellow and Verna Dozier. Together, these voices offer a compelling vision of faithful resistance that remains deeply relevant to the church's engagement with political and social life today.

School of Theology at the University of the South
University of the South

23/06/2026

In this short video, Jeff Baker of University of Alabama school of law, invites you to read his Address published in the Spring issue. Centering the “greatest commands” of love and the imago dei as organizing principles for the public life of the church, Baker's prophetic Address (delivered at the 130th Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles Annual Meeting and Convention) considers three paths for a church seeking justice in relationship to its state: the church of empire, the church of exile, and the church of dissent.

View Baker's address at this link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00033286261427293

28/05/2026

A look inside our Spring 2026 Edition:
Our first research article, “‘Great Letters,’ ‘Fairer Letters’: A Theological-Bibliographical Investigation” from Charles Hefling, takes up what appears to be a narrow question about the typography of a single 1627 edition of the 1604 Book of Common Prayer and reveals its wider theological significance. Attending closely to the distinctive printing of Christ’s words of institution, Hefling situates the controversy within the turbulent ecclesial debates of the seventeenth century and shows how questions of type and form were inseparable from questions about the Eucharist and the nature of the Church. He further offers a careful and suggestive argument about the likely figure behind this typographical innovation, while dispelling a long-standing legend surrounding the edition itself.

26/05/2026

Inside our Spring 2026 Edition:

In the lead article for this issue, Jeffrey R. Baker reflects on the vocation of the church in what he names an “imperial republic,” marked by rising nationalism, deepening inequality, and renewed forms of exclusion. Grounding his argument in the twin commands to love God and neighbor and in the doctrine of the imago dei, Baker contends that love is not a private sentiment but the governing principle for public life, law, and policy. From this foundation, he considers the paths available to the church in relation to the state, warning against both the seductions of power and the withdrawal of disengagement. Instead, he commends a more demanding witness, one shaped by dissent rooted in love, attentive to the dignity of every person, and willing to challenge systems that deny it. Drawing on Scripture, legal reasoning, and the long history of faithful resistance, Baker presents a vision of the church as a public body called neither to dominate nor to retreat, but to bear steady, courageous witness in the midst of political life. We offer this essay as an invitation to reflect on the church’s public calling and the enduring challenge of aligning our common life with the claims of justice and love.

Jeff Baker

25/05/2026

Inside our Spring 2026 Edition:

At the heart of the church’s life is the simple, sacred act of bread being broken and shared. In this Practicing Theology article, Julie Gittoes takes this familiar practice as the starting point for a theological reflection on the Eucharist as an act of attention, desire, and grace that reshapes our imaginations and gathers the church into God’s reconciling work in the world. Drawing on the Acts of the Apostles, she traces how the Spirit gently but persistently reorders the church’s common life, widening its sense of belonging, transforming ordinary spaces into places of grace, and teaching disciples to live less by possession than by gift. In this vision, Eucharist and Scripture become the measure of the church’s life, not by success or stability, but by participation in God’s ongoing movement of reconciliation.

21/05/2026

Inside our Spring 2026 Edition:
Our third research article, by David Anoby of Trinity Western University, revisits The Tempest with fresh theological and literary insight. In “From Magic to Prayer: The Interplay Between Disenchantment and Re-enchantment in Shakespeare’s The Tempest,” Anoby challenges a well-established interpretation that views Prospero’s final renunciation of magic in favor of prayer as a retreat into the merely conventional or mundane. Instead, he offers a more nuanced reading, arguing that Shakespeare’s work reflects a dynamic and ongoing interplay between enchantment, disenchantment, and re-enchantment within the context of religious culture.

19/05/2026

A glimpse inside our Spring 2026 Edition:
After graduate work in medieval studies, Sara Miller-Schulte just recently graduated with a Master of Sacred Theology at the School of Theology at the University of the South and is a candidate for holy orders in the Diocese of Western Louisiana.

Her provocative essay uncovers a little-known phenomenon of early modern England: the alleged and sometimes actual “baptism” of animals. Set against the backdrop of seventeenth-century religious conflict, the author shows how these acts were rarely about animals themselves and instead functioned as tools of satire, protest, social disorder, and even slander. By tracing cases involving horses, cats, and dogs, alongside theological traditions shaped by figures like Thomas Aquinas, the essay reveals how debates over baptism exposed deeper anxieties about what it means to be human. In doing so, it connects these strange episodes to broader questions about sacramental theology, social hierarchy, and the troubling extension of such logic to marginalized human communities.

School of Theology at the University of the South
University of the South