THE ENTIRE BOOK REVIEW IN
ANGLICAN AND EPISCOPAL HISTORY
On April 14, I posted a comment on Samuel Richards's review of my book, A History of the Episcopal Church Schism in South Carolina, in the quarterly journal, Anglican and Episcopal History. Unfortunately the review itself is not freely available on the Internet. The journal editor has given me permission to quote the review in its entirety. The other review, in the April 6, issue of Church Times is available online. See my posting of April 9.
Here is the entire review in Anglican and Episcopal History, Volume 87, Number 1 (March 2018), pages 83-85:
A History of the Episcopal Church Schism in South Carolina. By Ronald James Caldwell. (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2017. Pp. xvii, 527. $62.00, paper.)
A seemingly interminable storm hangs over the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina. Ronald James Caldwell sets out to explain why and how this came to be. Eschewing euphemisms of realignment, reorganization, and disassociation, Caldwell calls the 2012 event a schism. He argues this result was far from inevitable. Instead, he describes it as the painful culmination of thirty years of decisions.
Caldwell's book is indispensable for scholars of church history and social change. It offers a detailed examination of how contemporary ideas of theological purity effect broad church Anglicanism. The author effectively identifies underlying causes, direct causes, and initiating events. At the same time, he raises questions regarding the perils of ideological purity, authoritarian diocesan power structures, conspiracy, church property, and the quality of South Carolina circuit courts.
The author describes his three-part methodology of gathering all available information, constructing a chronological narrative, and drawing conclusions. His book includes several hundred sources, including many interviews, gathered during four years of research. Records from diocesan conventions and a state court trial in 2014 are especially prominent. However, Wikipedia also disappointingly appears among the footnotes. Lack of access to records from the bishop's search committee of 2005-2007 and email exchanges between Bishop Mark J. Lawrence and his lawyer render aspects of Caldwell's question more difficult to answer. In instances with only circumstantial evidence, Caldwell withholds judgment letting his reader decide.
The approach allows partisans of all stripes to find succor in the author's chronicle. Supporters of schism might criticize his sympathy with the Episcopal Church as demonstrated by his tribute to former Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori. This assessment would be unfairly incomplete. Despite his tribute, Caldwell describes the national church's initially slow and ineffective responses. He is also critical of Lawrence's penchant for military metaphors and rambling speeches while also praising his ability to build effective networks while retaining a highly capable lawyer. As a professor emeritus of history and former Charleston-based research librarian, Caldwell is true to the ideals of his academic discipline. He meticulously recounts the facts and relays his conclusions. However, recent events form only part of Caldwell's narrative.
Caldwell begins with Huguenots and the Church of England's establishment in colonial Carolina. He narrates relevant historical points leading to 2003 describing a colony that embodied "competing threads of tradition and separateness" (2). This is a theme he revisits frequently as he details multiple struggles including two previous schisms and a bishop's assassination. Yet, He pinpoints post-World War II as the beginning of significant divergence between the church and diocese because the Episcopal Church transformed from being "aloof, stodgy, conservative [and] socially indifferent" into a church that was "ready to right the wrongs of the community" (26). Caldwell credits Bishop Gray Temple with helping the diocese navigate its disagreements with the national church regarding race, women's ordination, prayer book revision, and initially homosexuality. However, he describes a more confrontational approach after 1982 under the leadership of bishops Christopher FitzSimons Allison, Edward L. Salmon Jr., and Lawrence. Lawrence's two elections and episcopate dominate four of the book's six chapters.
This book can be read cover-to-cover or as a reference volume. The table of contents and index make it useful without reading the entire narrative. When reading cover-to-cover, parts of the narrative repeat. Including a bibliography and illustrations, such as maps and photographs, would enhance the volume. The second edition can correct these shortcomings. After all, Caldwell's work remains incomplete. Events in the Low Country are the subject of ongoing legal proceedings. Caldwell seems well aware of this and remains hopeful that South Carolinians will one day look at this sad chapter with regret while stepping forward together to create a better world for all of God's children.
Samuel J. Richards Zurich, Switzerland
