With the exception of a few noteworthy individuals, Christianity has been characterized as a male-dominated religion with women playing a subordinate and silent role. In the Roman Catholic Church, a dramatic change occurred after Vatican Council II. Women demanded more ecclesial responsibilities, challenged the status quo, and even began to publically question church teachings. Nuns left the cloistered convent life and began to minister to the poor and the outcasts of society in untraditional ways, although there has been some criticism of their methods. Since the 1960s, the role of women in the Catholic Church and their relationship with their church has thus become an issue that will not disappear. In the Anglican Church, too, debates surrounding the ordination of women, same-sex marriage, and women bishops have recently caught the attention of the media, but since the 1850s this church has been actively involved in adapting to the evolving views of feminism and sexuality that had an impact on English society. Timothy Willem Jones tells this story in his insightful and well-researched book, which challenges conventional interpretations of Anglicanism.
Based on his doctoral dissertation, Jones's book records the manner in which the Anglican Church worked to develop new approaches to gender and sexuality from 1857, which saw the passage of the Matrimonial Causes Act, to the important role that the church played leading up to the Wolfenden Report in 1957, which led to the decriminalization of homosexual acts between consenting adults. This aspect of the church's history has been neglected or minimalized by historians, and Jones sets out to show how the Anglican Church responded to societal changes about sex and gender. Even though the male hierarchy and clergy had traditionally dominated church policy, women and their concerns also played an important part in the changing environment that Jones describes, and consequently spiritual equality and a more inclusive appreciation of the feminine in Anglican ecclesiastical affairs made significant progress in the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries.
After an introduction that outlines the scope of the book, the author discusses six significant topics dealing with sex and gender that confronted the Anglican Church: marriage and questions of equality, the revival of Anglican sisterhoods, women's voting rights, the ordination of women, birth control, and the relationship between celibacy and homosexuality. Jones's analysis of the important part played by the church in these sometimes contentious debates is presented in an objective and convincing manner that successfully debunks traditional notions of the church as a reactionary, backward-looking organization. “It will surprise many, both within and without the Church of England,” he argues, “to learn that for much of the past 150 years it was at the forefront of social change in the areas of gender and sexuality” (183). The Anglican Church did not run away from discussing questions of gender and sexuality, and as Anglicanism modified its views, it also helped to alter society's attitudes toward these issues as well.
Jones presents a solid historical background to the major debates surrounding these questions, and his use of documents from Convocations, Church Congresses, and the Lambeth Conferences as well as his analysis of the attitudes of church leaders provide the reader with an appreciation of the many issues and viewpoints that confronted the church. The author's understanding of the theological and sociological implications of each topic is apparent, and he clearly demonstrates how they influenced the attitudes of the Anglican Church. Each chapter contains fresh insights into the problems that the Anglican Church encountered, and Jones convincingly demonstrates that it responded to sexual and gender questions in an enlightened manner. The chapters dealing with divorce and remarriage, sex and suffrage, and women's ordination are especially exceptional, but this is not to suggest that the other topics are less important.
This book reveals a church struggling to find unity within its ranks as it entered the twentieth century. In addition to the author's discussions of the debates that took place at ecclesiastical meetings, in particular the Lambeth Conferences, he also shows that Anglicanism was often divided on questions of gender on another level. The evangelicals took a more liberal position, while Anglo-Catholicism and its affiliated organization, the English Church Union, were more conservative and less willing to compromise because of its emphasis on the Catholic understanding of sacramentality and tradition. To some extent, this division still exists today. Jones believes, however, that the Anglican Church will continue to work toward sexual equality in church affairs.
Anyone interested in modern Anglican history and the manner in which the Anglican Church dealt with the emotional issues of gender and sexuality will appreciate the importance of this book. Jones writes in a clear and convincing style, and he bases his conclusions on numerous archival sources and printed material, including newspapers, articles, and books. One omission from his bibliography, however, is John Shelton Reed's Glorious Battle: The Cultural Politics of Victorian Anglo-Catholicism (1970), which is an important contribution to the discussion of the Anglo-Catholic movement and its opponents. The author has successfully demonstrated that by allowing open discussion and debate, the Anglican Church did not abandon its leadership role in issues of sexuality. Although much progress has been made, he points out that the barrier to women bishops still remains. Jones concludes by hoping that this symbol of sexual subordination in Anglicanism will eventually crumble.
