A History of Global Anglicanism (review)

Kevin Ward has two closely related concerns in writing A History of Global Anglicanism. The first is historical: to write a history of the "Anglican communion" from the sixteenth century, when it emerged as a "worldwide faith" (1), to the present. Ward's second concern is presentist. Seeing Anglicanism in crisis, perhaps even facing imminent dissolution, Ward examines its status and prospects in various parts of the world. The two concerns intertwine insofar as Ward suggests that appreciating "the historically deep roots of non-western forms of Anglicanism" (i) can be a source of strength as the communion faces an uncertain future.

Ward writes not only from the perspective of an academic (he is Senior Lecturer in African Studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Leeds), but also of an insider. Ordained in Uganda in 1978, he is a member of the General Synod of the Church of England and a trustee of the Church Mission Society. Ward acknowledges that he is fully invested in the institution about which he is writing; he states that he is writing, in part, "in the hope and expectation that Anglican communion continues to have a distinctive role in the Christian mission" (15–16). This perspective does not prevent him from critically examining the institution. He includes, for example, an extended section on the church's role in buttressing apartheid. But though he acknowledges on several occasions that Anglicanism's history is "intimately bound up with colonialism" (3), Ward does not dwell on Anglicanism's role as an agent of imperialism. Similarly, the colonial and postcolonial conditions that led the metropolitan church—and several generations of historians—to neglect non-Western Anglicans' contributions to the development of the communion are often noted but seldom explored. Thus, the Empire functions more as a historical stage than a subject of analysis.

Despite this omission, A History of Global Anglicanism is an impressive achievement in its ambitious scope and its acute sensitivity to local context. The book is organized geographically, opening in the British Isles and giving careful attention to developments in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland as well as England. Ward also explores the disproportionate contribution of Irish and Scots Anglicans overseas (a trend examined in recent work on other imperial institutions like the army, colonial service, and Freemasonry). From the Atlantic Isles, he moves out to the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Oceania. Within each chapter, Ward traces the history of Anglicanism from the moment the first Anglicans arrived through the twentieth century. Through this geographical organization, and by exploring areas of the world one would not expect to factor into a history of Anglicanism (such as Brazil), Ward makes a significant historiographical and methodological contribution. In the process, he builds on the work of historians like Lamin Sanneh, William Sachs, and Bill Jacob, who have critiqued and transcended the Eurocentric assumptions of Christianity's historiography.

Organizing the book geographically allows Ward to "escape imprisonment within a Europe-centered story" (11), but it also creates some drawbacks. First, the nation-state remains the primary unit of analysis. Three chapters focus on individual nations; each of the regional chapters is divided into sections on individual nations. Reliance on the nation-state as the main category of analysis is problematic when discussing periods prior to the existence of these nations; it also does not allow Ward to consider broader units of analysis. Thus, while it is a global history that leaves the reader with a full appreciation for Anglicanism's "kaleidoscopic nature" (9), the book was not conceived and executed as a self-consciously world history. The proliferation of short sections results in a fairly choppy read. Development of an overall narrative connecting the chapters, with attention to key turning points in the history of global Anglicanism, would have overcome some of this disjointedness. Ward skillfully adopts this approach in the final chapter—on the twentieth century—where he examines...