I just bought this two-volume abridgment of the original 10-volume set by Francis J. Hall. I'll follow up on this post after I get the books and delve into them a bit. I consider this an experiment -- I'm not sure what to expect from a century-old Anglican systematic theology. I've written elsewhere that, while I enjoy studying systematic theologies, I'm skeptical of their value; this skepticism goes double for a work that claims to systematize Anglican doctrine and church practice. I will be using the recently-published Heritage of Anglican Theology by the late J. I. Packer as a companion text since I think it will provide some valuable historical insight into the era in which Hall was writing.
I have read a substantial amount of that set. Hall was very Anglo-Catholic in his outlook. He had a lot of good insights and interesting observations, but his perspective was also influenced to a significant degree by Tractarianism. Much of what he wrote comes across more as “Catholic-lite” than “historic Anglican”, and he probably would have agreed with that observation. All that being said, he was nevertheless a great scholar. Where he defends a classical Anglican position, few do it better; where he defends a more Catholic position, none state the argument in as much detail and provide as illuminating a contrast. I believe you will find him to be an excellent internal conversation partner.
Excerpts of Hall are a steady part of the diet in the Systematic Theology course at St. Andrew's Theological College & Seminary. I haven't taken it, I had systematic theology at Regent University (we got Wayne Grudem's book and a featherweight treatment of Pentecostalism by the Menzies) but I have talked to the instructor a number of times.
That was my sense as well, going by what other people have written about his work. In fact, that's one of the reasons I picked up the books -- I want to understand the distinctives between Anglo-Catholic and regular Roman Catholic theology. Coming from an evangelical and reformed background, I'm often a bit unclear on the difference between Anglican "high church" practice and Anglo-Catholic practice. The ACNA has Anglo-Catholic dioceses (the Fort Worth one comes to mind) so it behooves me to understand the range of theology in my own denomination.
That sounds very sensible indeed, and I think Hall will serve you well in that endeavor. Another author you might want to take a look at as well is C.B. Moss. His book The Christian Faith is also written from an Anglo-Catholic perspective, and it's in only one volume. I think if you take Moss on one side, and E.A. Litton's Introduction to Dogmatic Theology on the other (the two books are roughly the same length), you will have two very handy expositions of the Anglo-Catholic and Protestant-Reformed perspectives within Anglicanism, both written between 1850-1950, before the ecumenical and liturgical changes that more or less reached their conclusion with Vatican II and its immediate aftermath. In any case I'm very curious to see what you think of Hall's work. I was first introduced to it on the blog Pontifications, back in the early 00s.
A quick follow-up on my original post: I received both books in the mail, and I immediately have a complaint. I bought the two-volume set, which is a condensed and edited version of the original 10-volume work. I expected a certain amount of continuity problems in the text as a result of this -- lacunae and elisions where non-essential text (in the opinion of the editors) had been taken out. I also expected a sub-par index, given that it would have to be re-generated from the newly-condensed text and not the original. And indeed the new index is sub-par -- rather than referring to actual page numbers, the index refers to book and section; this makes finding references a chore. What I did not expect was that the index only appears in the last volume! Which is to say that if you purchase only the first volume, intending to buy the second volume at a later time, you don't have access to the index! This is a terrible defect that is unfortunately common in reprints of many multivolume classic works (I presume to save money), but it is a disappointment nonetheless. It'll take me some time to work my way through both prodigious volumes, so this isn't a judgement on the actual content.
Before you rush in and get this, for an extra $7 you get the dogmatics set plus 6 extra books. https://www.logos.com/product/8552/francis-j-hall-theology-collection It doesn't seem to say it but does this version come on a CD or DVD rather than a subscription to an online service?
They make apps for desktop or devices. All you buy is the books, i.e., no subscription fee. I've always just used the apps. Not sure about the CD/DVD part.