Church History: Anglican Identity introduces learners to the history and culture of churches that call themselves Anglican or Episcopal – our origins, our evolution, our contentions and our commonalities. Particularly, we will examine Anglican approaches to the church, mission, spirituality, worship, ordained ministry, human being, ecumenism and realignment. This course will equip you with a grasp of how an Anglican identity distinguishes us from and binds us to other forms of Christianity. The course will give you a head-start in other Episcopal Church-related courses.
Instructor: Dr. Bradley Peterson
Brad Peterson is a historian of Christianity with a special interest in the reformations and renewals of the Western church in the Early Modern Era. His doctoral research at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, focused on the vision of monastic life that survived among Protestants of the 16th Century. He has a growing interest in the history of the diaconate. He teaches for the Episcopal School for Deacons at Berkeley as well as for CALL. He has led workshops for the Episcopal Church in Minnesota, the Sierra Pacific Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and various local churches. He contributed the article on Luther and monasticism in Luther – A Christian between Reforms and Modernity (1517-2017), a project of the Foundation for Religious Sciences John XXIII, Bologna, Italy. Brad also serves on the Commission on Ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of California and on the board of the Association of Episcopal Deacons. He identifies himself as a “vocational layman.”