The Ecclesiology of Donald Robinson and D. Broughton Knox

Exposition, Analysis, and Theological Evaluation

Kuhn

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781498298155
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

For the past forty years the "Knox-Robinson Ecclesiology" has been the predominant ecclesiological model in the Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia, one that emerged out of a series of theological contributions over two decades. The impact of this ecclesiology can be seen today across four continents (Australia, Europe, North America, Africa). Though pervasive in influence, there has--to date--been no extended systematic articulation of this ecclesiology, nor a serious and sustained appraisal of it. Here, the ecclesiologies of Donald W. B. Robinson (Vice Principal of Moore College 1959-1973, Archbishop of Sydney 1983-1992) and D. Broughton Knox (Principal of Moore College 1959-1985) are presented systematically, then analyzed and evaluated. Here, finally, is a thorough theological engagement with their provocative doctrine of the church.

Section II

Donald William Bradley Robinson

5

The Ecclesiology of Donald Robinson

This chapter seeks to present the ecclesiology of Donald W. B. Robinson in an analytical and descriptive manner. As a presentation of his thought, and in an attempt to hear him in his own words, this chapter will present Robinson’s thought from his own pen where appropriate. This will entail longer quotes where necessary to capture the essence of his theology. The aim of this chapter is to draw ecclesiological threads together from the many pieces Robinson authored throughout his ministry. In order to properly understand his thought, some attention will be given to his life and his interlocutors. Evaluation will be reserved for chapter 6.

The presentation of Robinson’s ecclesiology will progress as follows: First, we will consider briefly those elements in his background that may have contributed to the development of his ecclesiology; second, we will attend to Robinson’s chief ecclesiological interlocutors; third, we will outline his methodology in ecclesiology, namely a particular construal of biblical theology; fourth, we will examine key areas in his ecclesiology related to the nature of the church; finally, we will draw conclusions from the analysis and anticipate issues for evaluation in the final chapter.

Donald W. B. Robinson135

Donald William Bradley Robinson was born on November 9, 1922. His father, the Reverend Richard Bradley Robinson, was rector of the Anglican parish of Lithgow on the outskirts of the Sydney Diocese, and was later to become archdeacon and honorary canon of the St Andrew’s Cathedral. Donald Robinson was raised in a home dedicated to evangelical ministry. As a young boy he participated in the Crusader Union at school and later participated in the Evangelical Union at the University of Sydney. It was this upbringing in his home, and these further influences in the student unions, which nurtured Robinson’s deep evangelical theological convictions.

Robinson’s higher education focused on the disciplines of linguistics and New Testament. He graduated from the University of Sydney with a BA in classics, having worked closely with G. P. Shipp, a philologist with a particular focus on semantic studies. After graduating from Sydney, Robinson travelled to the University of Cambridge to read for the Theological Tripos at Queens’ College. There he was supervised by C. F. D. Moule. It was Moule who taught him to value linguistic details in exegesis. Robinson was also instructed by others steeped in the Cambridge exegetical tradition. C. H. Dodd’s New Testament seminar taught Robinson to examine the biblical narrative in terms of the theme of “promise and fulfillment.”136

During his final year at Cambridge, C. H. Dodd taught the special New Testament doctrine, which for that year was “the church.” Robinson attended this seminar with several scholars whom he would later engage, including R. Newton Flew and J. Y. Campbell. Robinson admits that he was at first disappointed by the subject matter. He writes, “I had hoped for the opportunity to study a New Testament doctrine closer to the heart of my evangelical priorities. But ‘the church’ it was, and I began to read around the subject.”137 During the course of this seminar Robinson began to apply his linguistic skills to ecclesiology and to draw conclusions that were further explicated in his academic career at Moore College.

After completing his theological education at Cambridge in 1950, Donald Robinson returned to Australia where Archbishop Howard Mowll ordained him. He served two brief curacies before he was appointed as lecturer in Old Testament at Moore Theological College in 1952. Initially he lectured part time while continuing to serve as principal T. C. Hammond’s curate at St Philip’s, York Street. By 1954 he became a full-time lecturer in New Testament, as well as teaching Prayer Book and Liturgiology. His expertise was broad, as he had knowledge of both Greek and Hebrew, and he possessed a particular interest in the relationship of the Testaments, which allowed him a wide range of suitable teaching opportunities.

It was during his years of lecturing at Moore College that Robinson developed most of his ecclesiology.138 His first lectures in exegesis, on the book of Acts, largely focused on Luke’s use of the word ekklēsia. Later, he taught a special doctrine course on ecclesiology. This course examined the development of ecclesiology in the biblical canon, particularly examining how promise and fulfillment—even covenant—provided greater clarity to a biblical theology of the church. Though Robinson did not ultimately settle on a covenantal view of the church, his teaching explored how these covenantal themes applied to the church, recognizing the place of the church in the greater scheme of God’s purposes for redeeming the elect.139

In 1959, D. Broughton Knox was appointed principal of Moore College, succeeding Marcus Loane who had become an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Sydney. Knox appointed Robinson as his vice-principal. Robinson continued teaching full time at Moore until 1973 when he left to serve as bishop of Parramatta. He continued to teach part time during his years at Parramatta, but the ministry demanded much of his time and slowed his academic career significantly. In 1982, Robinson was elected archbishop of Sydney, a position he held until retirement in 1993.

Robinson encountered several ecclesial issues during his tenure at Moore College and his episcopal ministry that demanded practical ecclesiological assessment and evaluation. Chief among these ecclesial issues were the ecumenical movement and the need for a new constitution for the Church of England in Australia.140 Robinson comments on the significance of these events and their impact on the development of his ecclesiology:

What precipitated the attempt of some of us in Sydney not only to define “the church” more accurately in the 1950s but also to “go public” was not any sort of interest in promoting a polity of congregational independency, or a desire for particular congregations to develop their own characteristics, such as appeared in the wake of experimentation in liturgical revision in the mid-1960s. It was rather the challenge of two ecclesiastical activities: the ecumenical movement, and the movement for a new constitution for the Church of England in Australia. The nature of the church, and “the nature of the unity we seek,” dominated the establishment of the World Council of Churches in 1948 and the two subsequent General Assemblies at Evanston, 1954 and New Delhi, 1961. The first (and so far the only) National Conference of Australian Churches met in Melbourne in February 1960. . . . In all this ecumenical discussion claims were being made for “the church,” allegedly on the basis of biblical truth, which did not always stand up to exegetical scrutiny.141

As these two ecclesiastical activities unfolded, Robinson drew upon what he had learnt at Cambridge and forged a biblical theology of the church in conversation with others.

Influences and Interlocutors

Having examined the movements within Donald Robinson’s life that contributed to his scholarship, we now turn to examine the influences on his thinking from within the academy. Here as elsewhere, an important source is an autobiographical article that Robinson submitted to the Reformed Theological Review tracing his own recollection of the development of his ecclesiology.142 In this article he identi...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Section I: Historical and Theological Milieu
• Section II: Donald William Bradley Robinson
• Section III: David Broughton Knox
• Section IV: Conclusion
• Bibliography