A House for the Word: A Treatise on Public Worship from Hooker's Laws

by Richard Hooker, Patrick Timmis (Editor), Brad Littlejohn (Editor)

Genres: Theology

247 pages, Paperback

Published September 24, 2025

About the author

Richard Hooker is the pseudonym of Hiester Richard Hornberger Jr. who was born February 1, 1924 and died November 4, 1997. He was an American writer and surgeon. His most famous work was his novel MASH (1968). The novel was based on his own personal experiences during the Korean War at the 8055th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. It was written in collaboration with W. C. Heinz. The novel took 11 years to write. In 1970, and then again from 1972-1983 it was used as the basis for a critically and commercially successful movie and television series of the same name.

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Reviews

[Samuel G. Parkison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great reflection. Hooker raises some great points about the fittingness of consecrated church buildings and the importance of solemn worship. I loved his emphasis on the gracious utility of simply reading Holy Scripture publicly.

I don’t buy his case for utilizing apocryphal writings of liturgical purposes. I also think Hooker overreacts with too much disdain for extemporaneous prayer, even he’s right that common and pre-written prayers are good and fitting in corporate worship.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's really great that Davenant is putting sections of book V into manageable bite-sized versions, though a full modernization of books V-VIII is currently in the works.

This section is fun because it's a defense of a religiously Christian political settlement, as well as parts of the traditional Anglican liturgy. If you want to contrast Hooker to modern secular thinkers, this one had lots of grist for the mill. What is always intriguing to me is that the Reformers talk so much about atheism (Hooker reminds me of Calvin here).

Hooker then lays out legitimate principles of what should be public worship:
1. Ceremonies of worship must be fit for the use that they serve, even if they're not the best conceivable ones.
2. The church should not casually disregard what the judgment of antiquity and the continuous practice of the whole church has considered fitting.
3. The church's authority should be respected more than any private opinion, unless there is a weighty argument from Scripture or reason against it.
4. There are ancient ordinances (including apostolic ones) that truly are just and good, which at times the church can dispense with if necessary.

Richard Hooker defends church dedications, the reading of Scripture passages in the service, and public prayers. I really like this because in many ways it gets into worship and the particulars of it in a way I have not seen in other Reformed theologians, simply because their systematics or ethics get a lot more attention. Really good, and nice and short.