Firmly I Believe: An Oxford Movement Reader

What we know today as Anglo-Catholicism began with a small act of political protest in an Oxford pulpit. In 1833, John Keble preached a sermon that gave voice to widespread and growing fears of increasing state control of the Church and erosion of its status. Keble’s sermon sparked an immediate and active response and the Oxford Movement sprang into life. Publications flowed from its luminaries, including John Henry Newman and Edward Bouverie Pusey—ninety influential tracts and other works focused on the themes that today characterize Anglo-Catholicism: a high doctrine of the Church as a divine society, the importance of the sacraments, insistence that Anglican clergy were priests in the Apostolic Succession with sacerdotal power, and the quest for personal holiness. Firmly I Believe offers a wide selection of the writings of the Tractarians and other supporters of the Oxford Movement. This unique volume is both an ideal starting point for students and scholars and a rich treasury of Anglo-Catholic devotion and theology.