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NORMAN DOE. Canon Law in the Anglican Communion: A Worldwide Perspective. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998. Pp. xxv + 409, introduction, bibliography, index. $115.
Anglican canon law is much like a wind, sometimes felt but never seen, sometimes gentle, and sometimes brutal. Is this wind a real force, or a remnant breeze from the Middle Ages? Norman Doe thinks it real unto itself, and his milestone synthesis Canon Law in the Anglican Communion goes far toward convincing the canon-skeptics.
Doe, a barrister, is the premiere Anglican canonist, and supervises the world's only post-Reformation degree program in his field, at Cardiff Law School in Wales. It is no small thing that he personally combines graduate degrees in theology, law, and medieval history, for all three streams of thought combine in canon law.
Yet on its own terms, Canon Law in the Anglican Communion is largely descriptive and not historical. Its point is a search for common ground...