High church
Wagner was an "old style High churchman" with "pre-Tractarian" rather than fully Tractarian views. The influence of his second wife's father Joshua Watson—"a leader of the High Church movement" in the mid-19th century—may have been significant. He never had the ritualist zeal of his son Arthur Douglas Wagner, though, and had concerns over his views and the way he ministered at St Paul's Church. Invited to preach there by Arthur, he chose as his text on one occasion "Lord, have mercy upon my son for he is lunatic and sore vexed". ()