Source: Elwell, Walter A., editor. 1984. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Grand Rapids: Baker. pp. 1088-9.
The historical doctrinal standard of the Church of England and the worldwide network of Episcopal churches in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury. The articles arose as one of the manifestations of the sixteenth century English Reformation, and more specifically from the liturgical genius of Thomas Cranmer, who served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1533 to 1556. Cranmer and like-minded colleagues prepared several statements of more or less evangelical faith during the reign of Henry VIII, whose divorce from Catherine of Aragon provided the political impetus for the English Reformation. But it was not until the reign of Edward VI that England's reformers were able to proceed with more thorough efforts. Shortly before Edward's death, Cranmer presented a doctrinal statement consisting of forty-two topics, or articles, as the last of his major contributions to the development of Anglicanism. These Forty-two Articles were suppressed during the Catholic reign of Edward's successor, Mary Tudor, but became the source of the Thirty-nine Articles which Elizabeth the Great and her Parliament established as the doctrinal position of the Church of England. The 1563 Latin and 1571 English editions of the articles, which benefited from the consultation of the queen herself, are the definitive statements. Elizabeth promoted the articles as an instrument of national policy (to solidify her kingdom religiously) and as a theological via media (to encompass as wide a spectrum of English Christians as possible). Since her day much controversy has swirled over their theological significance. In more recent years they have been of greatest interest to the evangelical and Catholic wings of the Anglican-Episcopalian community who, though their differ between themselves over the meaning of the articles, still consider them valid, in contrast to the more liberal (or "broad") groupings within Anglicanism for whom the articles are little more than a venerated historical document.
The Thirty-nine Articles have been justly praised as a moderate, winsome, biblical, and inclusive statement of Reformation theology. The articles repudiate teachings and practices that Protestants in general condemned in the Catholic church, they deny, e.g., supererogation of merit (XIV), transubstantiation (XXVIII), the sacrifice of the Mass (XXXI), and implicitly the sinlessness of Mary (XV). On the other hand, they affirm with the continental reformers that Scripture is the fianl authority on salvation (VI), that Adam's fall compromised human free will (X), that justification is by faith in Christ's merit (XI), that both bread and wine should be served to all in the Lord's Supper (XXX), and that ministers may marry (XXXII). The articles borrow some wording from Lutheran confessions, especially on the Trinity (I), the church (XIX), and the sacraments (XXV). But on baptism (XXVII, "a sign of Regeneration") and on the Lord's Supper (XXVIII, "The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner"), the articles resemble Reformed and Calvinistic beliefs more than Lutheran. Article XVII on predestination and election is much debated, for it pictures election unto life in terms very similar to those used by Reformed confessions, and yet, like the Lutherans, is silent on the question of reprobation to damnation. The Thirty-nine Articles mute considerably the attack on extreme views from the radical reformation which is present in the Forty-two Articles of 1553. Thus, the Thirty-nine Articles do not contain the repudiations of antinomianism, soul sleep, chiliasm, and universalism that the early statement did. But they do retain affirmations concerning the propriety of creeds (VIII), the necessity of clerical ordination (XXIII), the right of the sovereign to influence religion (XXXVII), the right of private property (XXXVIII), and the legitimacy of official oaths (XXXIX), which had been challenged by some radical reformers.
The articles take on a more expressly English cast when they address matters of special relevance to the sixteenth century. Articles VI and XX allow the monarch considerable space for regulating the external church life of England. Article XX also sides more with Luther than with Zwingli in treating the authority of Scripture as the final and last word on religious matters rather than as the only word. Article XXXIV upholds the value of traditions that "be not repugnant to the Word of God." And Article XXXVII maintains the sovereign's right to "chief government" over the whole realm, including the church, even as it restricts the monarch from exercising strictly clerical functions of preaching or administering the sacraments (in 1801 the American Episcopal Church exchanged this article for one more in keeping with New World view on the separation of church and state).
The Thirty-nine Articles remain a forthright statement of sixteenth century reform. They are Protestant in affirming the final authority of Scripture. They are at one with common Reformation convictions on justification by grace through faith in Christ. They lean toward Lutheranism in permitting beliefs and practices that do not contradict Scripture. They contain statements which, like Zwingli in Zurich, give the state authority to regulate the church. They are "catholic" in their respect for tradition and in their belief that religious ceremonies should be everywhere the same within a realm. They are ambiguous enough to have provided controversy for a thousand theologians, but compelling enough to have grounded the faith of millions.
M. A. NOLL
Bibliography. E. J. Bicknell, A Theological Introduction to the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England; P. Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, I, III; J. H. Newman, Tract 90; W. H. Griffith Thomas, The Principles of Theology: An Introduction to the Thirtynine Articles.