Religion and Theology

The Oxford movement belonged to the High Church of Anglicans which later developed to be Anglo Catholicism. Most members of this movement were associates of the University of Oxford who championed for the traditional practices of the early church.  However, they did not manage to convince the rest hence the conceiving of the Anglican Church as one of the three branches of Catholic Church (Church. 33-36).

The Oxford movement was also referred to as the Tractarian Movement.  This term was adopted after the movement published a series entitled Tracts of the times. This series lasted from 1933 to 1941.  Later in 1945 other names Newmanites and Puseyites were used to refer to the group after inclusion of new Tractarians (Church. 40).

The initial aim of the movement was to give the church a bit of secularization. This included reduction of the number of Irish bishops in the Ireland Church through Reform Act of 1832 among others such as liberalism as an element in theology which the leaders of the movement were against. Given that they were interested in restoring the churchs early traditions, they were forced to rethink the relationship which they wanted to have with the Roman Catholic Church (Church. 41-45).

Debates emerged amongst the church clergy where they discussed whether to include traditions of the liturgy from the medieval practice but others felt that the church needed some life. In the final Tract, Newman one of the Tractarian said that the Roman Catholic doctrine was similar to the thirty nine articles of the 16th Century church of England.  As a result Newman quit the movement and went to the Roman Catholic Church as well as Manning who converted to Roman Catholicism in 1851.  These conversions of Newman and Manning affected the Oxford movement profoundly (Adam. 21-24).
Critics of the Oxford movement said that they had tendencies of Romans, which later introduced the doctrine of Anglicans. As a result Anglican religious leaders emerged. In the effort to bring more life to church they started practicing liturgy and ceremony which also resulted to the formation of Liturgical Movement. This had a very strong impact and so the sacrament of Eucharist was embraced as worship. Many did not like this idea and so they took legal actions whereby they disputed the act of Eucharist as a ritual (Adam. 54-56). 

It was also noted that the Americans were well at home with the Tracts as opposed to British.  Therefore even though the Oxford movement originated from England, it had a strong impact on the practices and traditions in the American churches thereafter influencing some changes in the American Church. For Tractarians bishops are the heads of the Church and these positions are humanly appointed but divinely guided. In addition, the Church is also divine and therefore considered above politics. They also believed that the experience that one goes through in a divine society shapes his or her attitude towards the spirit (Ollard. 76-79).

However, it was noted that criticism by the Tractarians on the early church did not have an impact on the Episcopal Church as expected. The three major claims that brought about conflicts were issues to do with the apostolic succession, confession to the priest or baptismal regeneration, and the claim by the Episcopal Church that Christ was in the Eucharist (Brian. 60-63).

According to Ollard (72-75), Samuel Johnson who lived between 1696 and 1772 was the first man to subscribe to the high Church practices in America.  He also requested people to practice one doctrine, liturgy and scripture.  According to him, the order created by the church was for the purpose of conveying grace.  Those who converted to the high Church paid the price of having to move from the popular Church to the new and unpopular.  However, there was a difference in the high Church in America and the high Church in England given that Episcopal Church in England was not established. It was rather treated with political animosity since it was not embracing the Protestants point of view.  As a result Protestants moved out of England to other places in the effort to convert new members.  For the American Church, it is said that they had earlier undergone some changes so by the time the Oxford movement came, it was easy to sway people to their side (Williams. 81-83).

The Tracts of life are also said to have had more impacts to people than the normal sermons. However, the followers of Episcopal Church had a profound understanding of their tradition and cultures leading to minimal conversion by the Oxford movement.  In England, the Tractarians are said to have faced more opposition than American. However, historians also pointed out that the Native Catholics in American were more sophisticated making it hard for them to buy the concept in the tracts of time (Cullman. 55-58).

John Henry Hopkins being a powerful figure at the time influenced the attitudes of people towards the Catholic Church in America and Tractarianism. Hopkins is said to have defended the traditional rituals in the liturgy on the basis that the ritual practices were indeed biblical.  The controversy over the above practices led to the publication of The Primitive Church in the year 1835.  The latter is said to have also influenced the next series of the Tracts of the Times. Prior to the two publications, the Christian Year had been produced by Keble in the year 1821 in which he elaborated the need to strengthen Churchmanship with religion (Cullman. 64-66).

In the Novelties which disturb our peace, Hopkins is brought out as a person with disturbing issues.  Hopkins had four letters written to the clergy, the laity of the Church and the bishop.  The third letter talked about the Holy Eucharist and how the Tractarians viewed it.  Hopkins is said to have stated that the Puseys view about the Holy Eucharist is similar with the doctrine of the Roman Catholics and thus called for disapprobation. In Tract 10 and Tract 90, Hopkins illustrate that just because the Anglicans deny that the Holy Eucharist substantiates the body and blood of Christ, it does not mean they deny the presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.  Hopkins also accused the Tractarians of distorting Anglican position of the Holy Eucharist (Williams. 98-101).

There have been debates as to whether the Oxford movement influenced the genesis of Nashotah House as well as the controversies surrounding the Catholic traditions.  Churches in America were influenced particularly Biretta Belt of the Episcopal Church, Minnesota Church and California Church.  This is detected through the similarities that the Tractarianism had with the Nashotah-Style Anglo-Catholism. For instance, Blessed John Keble was ingrained in a glass window of St. Mary the Virgin at Nashotah, and their belief that a church is a holy place which originated from the Oxford movement (Church. 109-114).

Nashota Society of Protestant Monks plan of inception is said to date back from 1840 when Jackson Kemper visited the general seminary. During that time, Oxford movement was the subject matter of the day and most students at the seminar used to practice Hobartian high Churchmanship. Nashotah Seminary grew to become the most influential especially in the matters of Holly Eucharist. They preached the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the significance of the Holy Eucharist with the Sacrifice of Christ as well as the purpose of adoration of the Holy Eucharist. There were very many controversies about the presence of the Eucharist in the Nashota Seminary (Cullman. 112-115). 

The Modern Church continues to experience controversies.  Some churches who disagreed with the traditions and practices of the early church split to form other churches.  The Anglican American Church continues to recognize the Holy Eucharist however, there are other challenges that have emerged.  The issues that are at the center of controversy of the Episcopal Church are homosexuality and women ordination, the institution of marriage where by in the recent past the Anglican Church has witnessed gay marriages between priests.  Another thing the Anglican Church argues about is the introduction of a prayer book similar to the Roman Catholic Church and also liberalization of the churches concepts (Ollard. 128-132). 

This is an indicator that the controversies in the Episcopal American Churches and other church movements will continue since each generation comes with its own culture and expectations.  The Episcopal Church has however tried to deal with the above issues. In 2009 the Anglican Church of North America came up with an ecclesiastical structure that was set apart from the Episcopal Church.