In Medio stat Virtus

We Anglicans are going to have to revise our notion of the Via Media, a notion according to which – crudely speaking – both Rome and Calvinism are mistaken notions of Christianity and only Anglicanism has succeeded in returning to the status quo of the early Church. It is an attitude we sometimes encounter on the Internet.

I really do wonder if the "middle way" notion ever caught on on the parishes, or even left the hallowed quadrangles of Oxford University. We read about this notion in the works of Newman, who himself ceased to give credibility to the via media, and became a Roman Catholic.  It would appear that it was pushed by some of the 17th century divines. Newman took it to the limit. I have often had to explain to French Catholics that this "compromise" was the only way to keep the English from killing each other in endless civil wars. The solution was simple: put religion firmly under secular authority and never mind the finer aspects of truth and doctrine!

Atheists often criticise religion for being the cause of human conflict. They are wrong in the absolute, but religion is a dangerous instrument in the hands of men who are fundamentally evil and whose purpose in life is dominating and controlling other people. There are two choices – those of Anglican England or Secular France. You either propose a religion that keeps warring factions apart by doctrinal compromise or you ban religion from the public place – it's a tricky choice!

Of course, in our days, the old arguments are completely moot and our contemporaries are not interested in rehashing the arguments of the 17th century. Fanatical puritans only come in tiny sects nowadays, and the Catholic Church is no longer burning people at the stake. We are conditioned by relativism, but it has made the world a more peaceful place. What we really want is Christianity that is truly orthodox and Catholic, but does not become an instrument of control for evil men who only masquerade as Christians.

The 'classical' Anglican via media is difficult to justify, as is the branch theory (the theological discipline of ecclesiology have advanced since the early 19th century). The key to all this is that we have recourse to books on ecclesiology that have been available to us for only a few decades. I think particularly of authors like Fathers Louis Bouyer, Jean-Marie Tillard and Henri de Lubac. They were writing in the 1950's, and their insights led to an entirely new way of perceiving the Church – essentially in sacramental and mystical terms before considering the Church merely as a material institution.

If there is a need for a via media today, it isn't between fantical puritans and sneaky papists trying to overthrow the English monarchy (don't forget it was the former that chopped the King's head off in 1649). It is between the new warring factions of conservatives and liberals – a conflict that does both no more and no less than herald the extinction of Christianity. English Catholics, especially converts hanging their Tiber-swimming trunks up to dry, are adverse to the Latin words via media, but they are still confronted by the old saying of Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics) translated into Latin presumably by St. Thomas Aquinas and used in his moral theology. In medio stat virtus describes the idea according to which virtue (or strength) is a balance point between deficiency and excess. It is a golden mean, a moderate position, resisting the temptation of going to extremes. A good moderate position will generally not be exactly in the centre, but somewhat to the better or more noble side. For example, courage is the mean between cowardice and foolhardiness, confidence the mean between self-deprecation and vanity, and generosity the mean between miserliness and extravagance.

For a Catholic (already in communion with Rome or belonging to a body aspiring to corporate union with Rome – eg. the Traditional Anglican Communion and the Society of St. Pius X, two bodies of totally different origins and perspectives), the true moderate position is one that adheres to the Church's doctrinal teaching, more conservative than liberal, more traditionalist than modernist, but one that resists the temptation of the conservative and traditionalist extremes. The reason for this is that extreme positions lead to sectarianism, violence and loss of faith. Moderation isn't cowardice, but an instinct to find and live what is right and to empathise with other people. It is the instinct that withdraws from declaring war and seeks a diplomatic solution to a human conflict. A human being cannot drink pure alcohol, but a drink containing no more than 40% of the stuff, like whisky or brandy, can be pleasant to consume in moderation.

Similarly, if I am presented with a version of Christianity that is tolerant, welcoming, encouraging self-criticism and ready to admit being wrong when this is the case – and at the same time firm in its doctrinal convictions and liturgical traditions, I would be more inclined to embrace it. If I am presented with the usual conservative and liberal factions presently on the religious market, I would say "forget it" – and carry on with life elsewhere. I am given to believe that most people think in this way. Looking at it historically, human nature has been such that moderation is hard to find. In our sinfulness, we flit from one extreme to the other, back and forth like a pendulum, just like secular politics between conservatives and liberals, left and right (or whatever they are called in a given country).

I appreciated Fr. Hunwicke's witty comment: "There are many things wrong with the Anglican Faith Community. But, as so often, when people attack it, they do so for very off-centre reasons". (…) "Both those things [via media and branch theory] are totally old hat and – despite fr Longenecker, they are not 'much talked about' by Anglicans". (…) "Leave attacking Anglicanism to us. We do it better because we know it better".

I would agree that the term via media is misleading, and we would probably do better to drop it altogether, but it is our duty to recover the sense of balance and Christian virtue.