This brief book by the former Dean of Chapel at Duke University and the new Rector of St Martin in the Fields in London offers an intelligent and insightful introduction to the Christian faith as it has been received in the Anglican tradition. It is a cross between a basic exposition of the Christian tradition and Church history and a discussion of some of the key emphases of historic Anglicanism. It is broad minded, eirenic and generous and rises above the pressure points of the contemporary developments of the Anglican Communion. As an introduction to the Christian faith (Chapter 1), there is little to criticize (although the definition of the Council of Chalcedon is called a ‘Creed’). Every now and then some of the simplifications are a little misleading (as in the discussion of via media [p. 18]), and there are several generalizations which could do with substantiating (e.g. p. 25). There are frequent nods to the Thirty-Nine Articles (e.g. p. 13) and use of the language of Anglican liturgies (p. 16), but there is little in this account that would not be acceptable to any member of a mainline denomination. Chapter 2 on the Sources of the Faith offers intelligent accounts of the doctrine of revelation, about which Wells has written in detail. The discussion of tradition draws the reader to the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral and the use of the creeds, which is followed by a brief account of reason. The so-called triad of Anglican theology, however, is certainly not given a status which is difficult to justify on the basis of the tradition: reason is understood as a way of addressing Scripture in order to highlight its sharp conflicts and problems rather than a source of doctrine itself (p. 64).

Chapter 3 addresses the order of the faith by which is meant worship and holiness. Good accounts of the sacraments are related to the distinctive traditions of common prayer embodied in the liturgical formularies devised by Cranmer (p. 75). This leads into a discussion of ministry and mission, where the author adopts a representative model of the priesthood united through communion with the bishop, who is a spokesperson ‘to the watching world’ and to the wider church (p. 85). After a brief account of mission, Wells moves into a chapter on what he calls ‘The Character of the Faith’ which focuses on the history and identity of the Anglican Churches, especially in England, the USA and the wider communion. It is a masterly condensing of history, which offers an excellent overview of a complex subject. Although Wells raises some of the conflicts (as over homosexuality, p. 99), he does not major on division but instead tries to explain some of the differences between the churches. He concludes on an optimistic note by emphasizing the growth and signs of healing in the African churches which seem to reveal the power of God at work among them. In contrast, he sees part of the crisis of the Western churches to rest in their difficulty in expressing ‘what salvation means today’. Trying to express this meaning through mutual encounter and dialogue, he concludes, ‘is where the Churches of the Anglican Communion need each other. As they always have done’ (p. 117). All in all, this is a book which will explain a broad, intelligent and unpartisan Anglicanism to a general audience, and for that it is to be highly commended.