Richard Hooker
Exeter, Devon, England | |
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Died | 2 November 1600 Bishopsbourne, Kent, England | (aged 46)
Education | Corpus Christi College, Oxford |
Spouse | Jean Churchman |
Church | Church of England |
Ordained | 14 August 1579 |
Offices held | Subdean, rector |
Richard Hooker (25 March 1554 – 2 November 1600)
Scholars disagree regarding Hooker's relationship with what would later be called "
Youth (1554–1581)
Details of Hooker's life come chiefly from
Hooker's uncle was able to obtain for Richard the help of another Devon native,
London and marriage (1581–1595)
In 1581, Hooker was appointed to preach at St Paul's Cross and he became a public figure, more so because his sermon offended the Puritans by diverging from their theories of predestination. Some ten years before Hooker arrived in London, the Puritans had produced an "Admonition to Parliament" together with "A view of Popish Abuses" and initiated a long debate which would last beyond the end of the century. John Whitgift (soon to become Archbishop of Canterbury) produced a reply, and Thomas Cartwright a reaction to the reply. Hooker was drawn into the debate through the influence of Edwin Sandys and George Cranmer.[8]
He was also introduced to John Churchman, a distinguished London merchant who became Master of the
Hooker became
About this time, Hooker began to write his major work Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, a critique of the Puritans and their attacks on the Church of England and particularly the Book of Common Prayer.[11]
In 1591, Hooker left the Temple and was presented to the
Last years (1595–1600)
In 1595, Hooker became rector of the parishes of St. Mary the Virgin in
Works
Part of a series on the |
History of the Church of England |
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Apart from the Laws, Hooker's lesser writings, which are few in number, fall into three groups: those related to the Temple Controversy with Travers (including three sermons); those connected with the last writing of the last books of the Laws; and other miscellaneous sermons (four complete plus three fragments).[12]
Learned Discourse of Justification
This sermon from 1585 was one of those that triggered Travers' attack and appeal to the Privy Council. Travers accused Hooker of preaching doctrine favourable to the Church of Rome when in fact he had just described their differences, emphasising that Rome attributed to works "a power of satisfying God for sin". For Hooker, works were a necessary expression of thanksgiving for unmerited justification by a merciful God.
Hooker also expresses in this work the classic ordo salutis that recognises the distinction between justification and sanctification as two forms of righteousness while at the same time emphasising the role the sacraments have in justification. Hooker's approach to this topic is seen[who?] as a classic example of the Anglican via media.[citation needed]
Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity
Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (original spelling, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie) is Hooker's best-known work, with the first four books being published in 1594. The fifth book was published in 1597, while the final three were published posthumously,[3] and indeed may not all be his own work. Structurally, the work is a carefully worked out reply to the general principles of Puritanism as found in the "Admonition" and Thomas Cartwright's follow-up writings, more specifically:
- Scripture alone is the rule that should govern all human conduct;
- Scripture prescribes an unalterable form of Church government;
- The English Church is corrupted by Roman Catholic orders, rites, and ceremonies;
- The law is corrupt in not allowing lay elders;
- "There ought not to be in the Church Bishops".[14]
The Laws has been characterised as "probably the first great work of philosophy and theology to be written in English".[15] The book is far more than a negative rebuttal of the puritan claims: it is (here McAdoo quotes John S. Marshall) "a continuous and coherent whole presenting a philosophy and theology congenial to the Anglican Book of Common Prayer and the traditional aspects of the Elizabethan Settlement".[16]
Quoting C. S. Lewis,[17] Stephen Neill underlines its positive side in the following terms: hitherto, in England, "controversy had involved only tactics; Hooker added strategy. Long before the close fighting in Book III begins, the puritan position has been rendered desperate by the great flanking movements in Books I and II. ... Thus the refutation of the enemy comes in the end to seem a very small thing, a by-product."[18]
It is a massive work that deals mainly with the proper governance of the churches ("
In political philosophy, Hooker is best remembered for his account of law and the origins of government in Book One of the Laws. Drawing heavily on the legal thought of Thomas Aquinas, Hooker distinguishes seven forms of law: eternal law ("that which God hath eternally purposed himself in all his works to observe"), celestial law (God's law for the angels), nature's law (that part of God's eternal law that governs natural objects), the law of reason (dictates of Right Reason that normatively govern human conduct), human positive law (rules made by human lawmakers for the ordering of a civil society), divine law (rules laid down by God that can be known only by special revelation), and ecclesiastical law (rules for the governance of a church). Like Aristotle, whom he frequently quotes, Hooker believes that humans are naturally inclined to live in society. Governments, he claims, are based on both this natural social instinct and on the express or implied consent of the governed.
The Laws is remembered not only for its stature as a monumental work of Anglican thought, but also for its influence in the development of theology, political theory, and English prose.
Scholastic thought in a latitudinarian manner
Hooker worked largely from Thomas Aquinas, but he adapted scholastic thought in a latitudinarian manner. He argued that church organisation, like political organisation, is one of the "things indifferent" to God. He wrote that minor doctrinal issues were not issues that damned or saved the soul, but rather frameworks surrounding the moral and religious life of the believer. He contended there were good monarchies and bad ones, good democracies and bad ones, and good church hierarchies and bad ones: what mattered was the piety of the people. At the same time, Hooker argued that authority was commanded by the Bible and by the traditions of the early church, but authority was something that had to be based on piety and reason rather than automatic investiture. This was because authority had to be obeyed even if it were wrong and needed to be remedied by right reason and the Holy Spirit. Notably, Hooker affirmed that the power and propriety of bishops need not be in every case absolute.
Legacy
See also
References
- ^ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.479
- ISBN 90-04-08851-2.
- ^ a b c d e The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church by F. L. Cross (Editor), E. A. Livingstone (Editor) Oxford University Press, USA; 3 edition p.789 (13 March 1997)
- ^ a b Breward, Ian. "Hooker, Richard" in J. D. Douglas. The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church Exeter: The Paternoster Press (1974)
- ^ a b Brydon, Michael (2006). The Evolving Reputation of Richard Hooker: An Examination of Responses, 1600–1714. Oxford: Oxford University Press.(subscription required)
- ^ a b c d e Philip B., Secor. "Richard Hooker Prophet of Anglicanism". Exeter Cathedral. Archived from the original on 6 March 2001. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
- OCLC 1056108986.
- ^ a b c d e Booty, John E. (1982), "Richard Hooker", in Wolf, William J. (ed.), The Spirit of Anglicanism, Edinburgh: T&T Clark, pp. 3–8
- ^ Walton, Isaac. Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Rich'd Hooker, George Herbert, &c, Volume 2, p.13
- ^ a b "Introduction" to the Everyman edition of Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (London, Dent, 1907, 1958 reprint), pp v-vi.
- ^ Procter, Francis & Frere, Walter Howard. A New History of the Book of Common Prayer MacMillan (1902), p.111
- ^ Booty, John E. (1979), "Richard Hooker", in Wolf, William J. (ed.), The Spirit of Anglicanism, Edinburgh: T&T Clark, p. 13ff
- ^ Booty, John E. (1979), "Richard Hooker", in Wolf, William J. (ed.), The Spirit of Anglicanism, Edinburgh: T&T Clark, p. 14
- ^ McAdoo, Henry (1992), "Richard Hooker", in Rowell, Geoffrey (ed.), The English Religious Tradition and the Genius of Anglicanism, Wantage (UK): IKON, p. 111
- ^ Duncan B. Forrester, "Richard Hooker" in Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey, eds., History of Political Philosophy, 2nd ed. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1972, p. 332.
- ^ Marshall, John S. (1963), Hooker and the Anglican Tradition, London, p. 66
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Lewis, C. S. (1954), English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Excluding Drama, p. 459
- ^ Neill, Stephen (1960), Anglicanism, London: Pelican, p. 122
- ^ *Walton, Izaac, The Life of Mr Rich. Hooker. In Walton's Lives. Edited by George Saintsbury and reprinted in Oxford World's Classics, 1927.
- ^ Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy, vol. 3. Westminster, MD: Newman, 1962, p. 324.
- ^ "The Calendar". The Church of England. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
Further reading
- Atkinson, Nigel, Richard Hooker and the Authority of Scripture, Tradition and Reason (Regent, 2005)
- Brydon, Michael, The Evolving Reputation of Richard Hooker: An Examination of Responses, 1600–1714 (Oxford, 2006)
- Davies, E.T., The political ideas of Richard Hooker (London, 1946)
- Dominiak, Paul, Richard Hooker. The Architecture of Participation (T&T Clark, 2020)
- Faulkner, Robert K., Richard Hooker and the Politics of a Christian England (1981)
- Grislis, Egil, Richard Hooker: A Selected Bibliography (1971)
- Hooker, Richard, A Learned Discourse of Justification. 1612.
- Hooker, Richard, Works (Three volumes). Edited by John Keble, Oxford, 1836; Revised by R. W. Church and F. Paget, Oxford, 1888. Reprint by Burt Franklin, 1970 and by Via Media Publications.
- Hughes, Phillip Edgecumbe (1982), Faith and Works: Cranmer and Hooker on Justification (1982). ISBN 0-8192-1315-2
- Kirby, W.J.T. (1998). "Richard Hooker's Discourse on Natural Law in the Context of the Magisterial Reformation" (PDF). ISSN 1209-0689. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
- Littlejohn, W. Bradford, The Peril and Promise of Christian Liberty: Richard Hooker, the Puritans, and Protestant Political Theology (Eerdmans, 2017)
- A. C. McGrade, ed., Richard Hooker and the Construction of Christian community (1997)
- Munz, Peter, The Place of Hooker in the History of Thought (1952, repr. 1971).
- http://www.johnjayinstitute.org/resources/publications/three-things-conservatives-could-learn-from-richard-hooker/
External links
- Hooker's works online (in 10-page pdfs)
- Hooker's works online (in HTML, Kindle, facsimile PDF, including all 8 books of the Laws)
- Biography and articles about Hooker Archived 1 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine
- Entry on Hooker in Cambridge History of English and American Literature
- Works by Richard Hooker at Post-Reformation Digital Library
- Works by Richard Hooker at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Biographical sketch
- Archbishop Rowan Williams' lecture on The Laws
- Exeter cathedral page
- Hooker at the Temple Church
- Hooker at Bishopsbourne Church including summary of his dates and writings
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne, 1920. s. v. "Hooker, Richard" and "Ecclesiastical Polity, the Law of".
- Richard Hooker Modernization Project--The Davenant Institute
- Find-a-Grave: Richard Hooker
- Geni: Richard Hooker