By Rev. William Danaher, Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Huron University College, London, Ontario, Canada.
This is the first in a new series of articles looking back at Rev. Dr. William Danaher’s published academic essays. Each article features a link to the original published work, a new introduction for a contemporary audience, the original abstract, and an excerpt from the piece.
Healing Broken Bodies: The Missional Ecclesiology Behind J. H. Oldham’s Middle Axioms
Originally published in 2010, William Danaher’s essay returns to a classic Anglican conviction: that the church should help Christians move from broad gospel principles to faithful action in the world, rather than stopping at general ideals or neat answers. Drawing on J. H. Oldham’s idea of “middle axioms,” it shows how worship, teaching, and common discernment can shape the way believers think about justice, economics, and human dignity. That makes it especially relevant now, when churches are still trying to speak and act with clarity in a time of division, economic pressure, and uncertainty.
Read the full original article.
Abstract
This essay explores J. H. Oldham’s development of the middle axiom approach, in particular the missional ecclesiology that framed it, found in the publications he developed for the Oxford Conference in 1937 on ‘Church, Community, and State.’ With this framing ecclesiology established, it becomes clear that Oldham’s approach better accommodates criticisms of middle axioms that have arisen in ecumenical and Anglican social ethics. Further, it becomes possible to distinguish Oldham’s middle axiom approach from that of later practitioners, in particular William Temple and Ronald Preston. Finally, the modifications required for a retrieval of Oldham’s approach in contemporary social ethics are considered.
“Life becomes real when we face our own responsibilities.” – J. H. Oldham
Excerpt
Originally published in 2010, this essay returns to a classic Anglican conviction: that the church should help Christians move from broad gospel principles to faithful action in the world, rather than stopping at general ideals or neat answers. Drawing on J. H. Oldham’s idea of “middle axioms,” it shows how worship, teaching, and common discernment can shape the way believers think about justice, economics, and human dignity. That makes it especially relevant now, when churches are still trying to speak and act with clarity in a time of division, economic pressure, and uncertainty.
Oldham’s distinctive understanding of middle axioms is what this essay seeks to retrieve.1 For Oldham, the middle axiom approach was not only a practical way of mediating between Christian ideals and particular social policies; it was also a way of understanding how the church lives in the world. He framed this approach within a missional ecclesiology, one in which the church’s worship and witness shape its public responsibility.
In this view, the church is not an ideal society that simply dictates values to the state or culture, nor is it a body that retreats from social questions. It is a gathered community that embodies the kingdom of God through worship and work, and that seeks to engage the world through reflection, consultation, and action.2 Middle axioms, then, are not just policy suggestions. They are part of the church’s own life and mission.
That point matters because it helps explain why Oldham’s approach is still worth revisiting. He believed the church had to respond to the crises of its own time with moral seriousness, theological clarity, and a willingness to take risks. In the late 1930s, he saw a church that was divided, perplexed, and relatively ineffective, even as the world around it was collapsing into conflict and chaos.3 His answer was not nostalgia and not abstraction. It was a renewed church, willing to think carefully, act concretely, and seek the common good.
For Oldham, worship stood at the center of that vision. The church is a worshipping community in which every political judgment is tested before God, and it is precisely through that common worship that Christians are formed for action in the world.4 Worship, in other words, is not an escape from public life; it is what gives public witness its shape. That is why Oldham’s sacramental view of the church connects spiritual life, social ethics, and ecumenical responsibility so closely together.5
This is also why the essay remains timely. In a church still navigating polarization, economic strain, and uncertainty about how to speak in the public square, Oldham’s approach offers a reminder that faithful action begins in a worshipping community shaped by discernment, humility, and hope.
Endnotes
1. John Howard Yoder, The Christian Witness to the State (Newton, Kan.: Faith and Life Press, 1963), 71–73.
2. Oldham, Church and Its Function in Society, 138, 131, 143.
3. Oldham, Church and Its Function in Society, 218–219.
4. Oldham, Church and Its Function in Society, 202.
5. Oldham, Church and Its Function in Society, 144–145; Karl Barth, “Christian Community and Civil Community,” in Community, State, and Church: Three Essays (Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1968), 150.