The Catholic Religion

by Vernon Staley, Dr Frederick Haas (Editor)

With great pleasure we issue a completely new revised edition of this important book. This new edition is intended to those who want to understand the Catholic Anglicanism better and stick to its original traditions. It is still one of the most important works that describe and explain the whole Catholic faith, as the Fathers of the Church have handed down. Until now, there were only copies of the original. Since these were relatively difficult to read, we decided to publish a completely new edition. The typesetting of this new edition is completely digitalized and got a fresh new and modernized look. Every paragraph is carefully formatted which makes this book as easy to read as never before. No blurred or black spots that distract the reader anymore. While the whole content is unchanged (including the author's accentuations, illustrations, etc.), biblical citations were reformatted (using Arabic instead of Roman numerals and using a colon to separate chapter from verse) and integrated in the text. Moreover, the table of content has been repositioned and simplified for a better overview. May this new edition venerate our Lord and serve to help people and also clergy to understand the faith even better.

Genres: Theology, Church, Christianity, Religion

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1893

About the author

1852-1933

Reviews

[Wesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read for the fundamentals of Anglo-Catholic theology. Someone needs to write this book in modern language for those seeks a via media between Protestant and Roman Catholic.

[Vinnie Santini · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a great book for people new to the Anglican Church and want to dig a little deeper. Staley covers a lot of material with a depth that doesn’t overwhelm. This is a manual, not a systematic theology of catholic religion! Sometimes I wanted More detail on the theology section is why I gave it a four star. The second part on the Church in England was worth the price of the book and helped solidify in my mind the historical continuity of the Anglican Church. Highly recommended!

[Dam Keavees · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fr. Vernon Staley delivers a beautiful and simple yet very deep exposition of the Anglican Christian faith, managing to define it not just by its Reformational history, but also by its catholic heritage - characterizing the Anglican Church as a component part of the one holy catholic and apostolic church, not departing from the primitive Catholic Church, following faithfully in the steps of the Fathers, and being loyal to the English traditions, history, and aesthetics. Anglicanism is both reformed and catholic. The occasional commentary from Brian Goodchild helps to bring Staley’s work into the modern day. This book is the perfect primer for Anglicanism for people acquainted with theology, but who feel they still have a surface level understanding of it.

[Keenan Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Catholic Religion, by the Rev. Vernon Staley, is a fantastic and accessible overview of Anglo-Catholic beliefs. While Fr. Staley does root all of these beliefs in Holy Scripture and the Catholic tradition of the Church, he does not do this exhaustively. I say this as a compliment because there are plentiful resources diving deeply into these doctrines of the Christian faith individually, arguing in favor of the Anglo-Catholic interpretation. But this book is not meant to be an elaborate systematic theology. Rather, this book is a wholistic answer to the question: “What do Anglo-Catholics believe?”

[Dennis Geoffroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best short introduction and defense of the validly of the Church of England (Anglican faith).

Even though the topic is kind of dry and this work was originally published in the 19th century it was immensely readable and only took me a couple days to get though.

[Gabriel Franke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thorough overview of Anglican theology. Fair takes on highly debated topics; embodies the “Via Media” approach to our history and theology. Thank you Vernon.

[FatherSwithin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good summary of the catholic faith in the Anglican communion. I plan to use this for an 'inquirers class' in the parish. It is not a 5-star book because of the language (first published in 1893), and missing some discussion of more modern concerns. It also lacks some specifically American topics that I will have to supply for the class. I greatly appreciated the short history of the English Church, since I think that is necessary for a true understanding of the topic.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Staley offers a good and comprehensive overview of the faith from a distinctly Anglo-Catholic perspective.

[S. P. Machado · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uma ótima iniciação a teologia anglicana.