Figuring large in Anglican history, theology, and spirituality is the spectre of what is called the Via Media or “the middle way”. Some consider Via Media to be a sort of “wobbling around” in territory between two arbitrary and conflicting extremes. It has even been said that Anglicanism is Via Media. But is it really? And is Via Media really just being in between whichever two extremes happen to be in fashion?
Consider the concept of what many would think about the 20th century dilemma of Christianity and secularism being dealt with in a Via Media fashion under this interpretation. If one man considers the historic tradition of the Church and accepts that Jesus is exactly who and what He said He was, and that He is the only way to the Father, while yet another believes that all roads lead to heaven, then what is Via Media to do? Shall only half the roads lead to heaven? Where shall the others go? Or rather, what if the second man does not accept that god even exists? Does Via Media demand that God only sometimes exist or that there is a finite creature in between the God of the Bible and a nothingness that is god? This would appear to be absurd, and yet it is where some liberal churches find themselves today, functionally worshiping themselves while attempting an impossible compromise between Christ and Belial where there can be no real compromise.
