Church of Ireland - Doctrine and Practice

Doctrine and Practice

See also: Anglicanism and Anglican doctrine

The centre of the Church of Ireland's teaching is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The basic teachings of the church include:

  • Chalcedonian Christology; Jesus Christ is fully human and fully God in one person. He died and was resurrected from the dead.
  • Jesus provides the way of eternal life for those who believe.
  • The Old and New Testaments of the Bible ("God's Word written") were written by people "under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit". The Apocrypha are additional books that are to be read, but not to determine doctrine. The Apocrypha of the King James version of the Bible constitutes the books of the Vulgate version that are present neither in the Hebrew Old Testament nor the Greek New Testament.
  • The "two great and necessary" sacraments are Baptism and the Eucharist (also called Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper).
  • Those "commonly called Sacraments that are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel" are confirmation, ordination, marriage, reconciliation of a penitent and unction.
  • Belief in heaven, hell and Jesus's return in glory.

The 16th century apologist, Richard Hooker, posits that there are three sources of authority in Anglicanism: scripture, tradition and reason. It is not known how widely accepted this idea is within Anglicanism. It is further posited that the three sources uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way. In Hooker's model, scripture is the primary means of arriving at doctrine; things stated plainly in scripture are accepted as true. Issues that are ambiguous are determined by tradition, which is checked by reason. This may usefully be contrasted with the teachings of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches that place the emphasis on Sacred Tradition and Magisterium: reason is not listed as a source of authority or teaching in these churches.

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