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Richard Hooker: A Companion to his Life and Work
Although by common consent the greatest theologian of the Anglican tradition, Richard Hooker is little known in Protestant circles more generally, and increasingly neglected within the Anglican Communion. Although scholarship on Hooker has witnessed a dramatic renaissance within the last generation, thus far this has tended to make Hooker less, not more accessible to general audiences, and interpreters have been sharply divided on the meaning of his theology. This book aims to draw upon recent research in order to offer a fresh portrait of Hooker in his original historical context, one in which it had not yet occurred to any Englishman to assume the label "Anglican," and to bring him to life for all branches of the contemporary church. Part One examines his life, writings, and reputation, puncturing several old myths along the way. Part Two seeks to establish Hooker's theological and pastoral vision, exploring why he wrote, how he wrote, whom he was seeking to persuade, and whom he was seeking to refute. Part Three analyzes key themes of Hooker's theology--Scripture, Law, Church, and Sacraments--and how they related to his late Reformation context. Finally, the concluding chapter proposes Hooker's method as a model for our confused contemporary age, combining fidelity to Scripture, historical awareness, and a pastorally sensitive pragmatism. "Richard Hooker is a name that many church people have heard of, but few have ever dipped into his works . . . Brad Littlejohn brings to bear an impressive range and depth of scholarship and critical insight to set Hooker in the context of the controversies of his time, and guides us through the maze of contemporary interpretations of Hooker's thought and significance." --Paul Avis, Professor of Theology, University of Leeds "Littlejohn's companion, Richard Hooker, offers a splendidly accessible introduction to the life and work of this eminent but popularly neglected early-modern English theologian and philosopher . . . This volume offers an excellent point of departure for both scholars and non-specialist readers." --Torrance Kirby, Professor of Ecclesiastical History, McGill University "Richard Hooker is the theologian of Anglicanism. But is he a theologian for Anglicans alone? Assuredly not! In this companion to Hooker, Littlejohn has produced a clearly written and accessible work that utilizes the recent resurgence of scholarly interest in Hooker to commend him to a wider audience. . . . It is sure to be a resource of choice for those seeking a way into the thought of this great post-Reformation divine." --Oliver D. Crisp, Fuller Theological Seminary W. Bradford Littlejohn (Ph.D, University of Edinburgh, 2013) is President of the Davenant Trust, an organization that supports historical research at the intersection of the church and academy. He also teaches philosophy at Moody Bible Institute. He is the author of several articles and book chapters on Richard Hooker and the Reformation period, and serves as editor of the Mercersburg Theology Study Series.
222 pages, Paperback
First published September 28, 2015
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December 1, 2015
If you were to try to sum up the significant contributions of Anglican theologian Richard Hooker in the words of a Broadway musical, you could do no better than to point to the lyrics of Gershwin’s It Ain’t Necessarily So — referring of course to the chorus and not the verses. Now I am not sure why you would want to do it that way, but if you were, that would be the way to do it. Hooker’s central contribution, in my view, was to answer “the precisionists” of his day with a learned retort that it is not really that simple.
This companion to Hooker’s life and work by Brad Littlejohn is fascinating, learned, straightforward, well-written, engaging, and balanced. The title is Richard Hooker: a Companion to His Life and Work. I really enjoyed it, and the point of this review is that you or someone you love should enjoy it as well. I understand Christmas is coming up.
Because of the historical importance that England came to occupy in the centuries after the Reformation, it became important for some later anachronistic Anglicans to project a “neither fish nor fowl” Anglicanism back on the period of the Reformation. But Littlejohn does a marvelous job showing how Hooker and company considered themselves, quite accurately, to be simply Reformed theologians within a broad Protestant consensus. The Reformation was not a denominational affair — it was an essential and huge part of the history of the culture of the West. The point of this book could be summarized as arguing that just as Luther belongs to more than the Lutherans, so Hooker belongs to more than the Anglicans. The Reformation was a huge river, not a consortium of mountain brooks.
The chapter on Hooker as polemicist was particularly good. Hooker had his own unique style of theological reasoning that governed the structure of his Laws as a whole, and even worked down into the syntax of his sentences. What you might have initially thought was a tedious run-on sentence turned out by the end to be the wind-up to a haymaker.
The first part of this book deals with Hooker as myth, Hooker as man, and Hooker as his book (Laws). The second analyzes Hooker as Protestant, as polemicist, as a philosopher, and as a pastor. The last third of this companion surveys certain key doctrines — Scripture, law, the Church, and liturgy and sacraments.
As a Puritan myself, I appreciated the distinctions that Littlejohn made among Hooker’s opponents, even though there are a number of points where I would agree with (some of) them over against Hooker. Not all the Presbyterians were “precisionists,” against whom Hooker easily carried the day. C.S. Lewis points out in his book English Literature in the 16th Century that it is in Thomas Cartwright that we first encounter the Puritan of common caricature, and Cartwright was one of Hooker’s main opponents.
While reading this book, I also noticed that many of the qualifications that the early Presbyterians needed to make were in fact made by the time of the Westminster Confession. In other words, if you were feeling impish, Hooker could be considered an honorary ex officio member of an early Westminster editorial committee, for which we should all thank him.
Littlejohn is fair-minded in his handling of all such disputes, and where the Puritans had a point he is not afraid to acknowledge it. Where they demanded too much, insisting on jure divino authorization for every detail of their whole project, down into the nooks and crannies, Littlejohn points out what Hooker pointed out, which is that such exegesis cutteth no ice.
The problem was that a number of the early English Presbyterians adopted a form of reasoning that shows up later in Baptist hermeneutics, or among the strict regulativists. That is, that unless something is expressly authorized by Scripture, then it is forbidden by Scripture. The problem is found in that pesky word expressly. We have no express warrant for infant baptism, for worship on Sunday, for women taking communion, for pianos in worship, for stated clerks, etc. If you insist on express warrant for everything, you either wind up doing hardly anything at all, or stretching multiple texts quite thin in order to get your “express” warrant. It was the latter approach that the precisionists adopted, and was a classic case of overreach.
But all Protestants must be regulativists of some stripe, and I much prefer the formulation of it provided by Hughes Oliphant Old, when he says that “worship must be according to Scripture.” That’s the way you do it.
This short book by Littlejohn is really valuable in all the issues related to this that it makes you think through. As a convinced (jure divino) Presbyterian and as someone who is also convinced by Hooker’s cautious and conservative approach to all reform, I commend the careful approach to ecclesiastical reform, with Hooker as one of our models. Reformation is not revolution. A friend recently pointed out that some radical elements of the Reformation had all the pastoral instincts of the Khmer Rouge, and standing against them was a necessity. You don’t want to turn anything over to those who are in the grip of an idea. But neither do you want to leave the ship of the church with the status quo johnnies, who never met a barnacle they didn’t love. So we should not just look at Hooker’s positions, but also at his process. In other words, for the Reformation in England to have allowed the precisionists to bulldoze everything in order to build a glorious New City would have been beyond destructive. The only thing we can be certain of is that there would have been no glorious new anything.
I let slip that I was a jure divino presbyterian, so I should say something briefly about that. In a debate with express warrant presbyterians, who were rummaging in the New Testament for their express justifications, someone of Hooker’s abilities could just roll their socks down and pull their kirtles over their heads. But if we are allowed to bring in the Old Testament (as we all must do with baptism), appealing to the government of the synagogues, the nature of the Sanhedrin, and so on, the picture changes dramatically. At the same time, my sympathies would still have been with Hooker over against the men with the bulldozers. But that’s all right — postmillennialists can afford to be patient. A time is coming when the whole church will gather in the general assembly (Heb. 12:23 [Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)] ). A little joke there. Well, mostly a joke.
It is also worth pointing out that a downstream Hookerian approach in our day will be profoundly conservative about different institutions, particularly for Americans. If we learn our lessons rightly, we can invoke Hooker while defending something he would never have defended. But to pursue that right now would take me too far afield.
Back to Littlejohn’s work. Well-written, well-done. The main value of the book is, I believe, in getting narrow and truncated Reformed Christians to see just how big their tradition actually is.
This companion to Hooker’s life and work by Brad Littlejohn is fascinating, learned, straightforward, well-written, engaging, and balanced. The title is Richard Hooker: a Companion to His Life and Work. I really enjoyed it, and the point of this review is that you or someone you love should enjoy it as well. I understand Christmas is coming up.
Because of the historical importance that England came to occupy in the centuries after the Reformation, it became important for some later anachronistic Anglicans to project a “neither fish nor fowl” Anglicanism back on the period of the Reformation. But Littlejohn does a marvelous job showing how Hooker and company considered themselves, quite accurately, to be simply Reformed theologians within a broad Protestant consensus. The Reformation was not a denominational affair — it was an essential and huge part of the history of the culture of the West. The point of this book could be summarized as arguing that just as Luther belongs to more than the Lutherans, so Hooker belongs to more than the Anglicans. The Reformation was a huge river, not a consortium of mountain brooks.
The chapter on Hooker as polemicist was particularly good. Hooker had his own unique style of theological reasoning that governed the structure of his Laws as a whole, and even worked down into the syntax of his sentences. What you might have initially thought was a tedious run-on sentence turned out by the end to be the wind-up to a haymaker.
The first part of this book deals with Hooker as myth, Hooker as man, and Hooker as his book (Laws). The second analyzes Hooker as Protestant, as polemicist, as a philosopher, and as a pastor. The last third of this companion surveys certain key doctrines — Scripture, law, the Church, and liturgy and sacraments.
As a Puritan myself, I appreciated the distinctions that Littlejohn made among Hooker’s opponents, even though there are a number of points where I would agree with (some of) them over against Hooker. Not all the Presbyterians were “precisionists,” against whom Hooker easily carried the day. C.S. Lewis points out in his book English Literature in the 16th Century that it is in Thomas Cartwright that we first encounter the Puritan of common caricature, and Cartwright was one of Hooker’s main opponents.
While reading this book, I also noticed that many of the qualifications that the early Presbyterians needed to make were in fact made by the time of the Westminster Confession. In other words, if you were feeling impish, Hooker could be considered an honorary ex officio member of an early Westminster editorial committee, for which we should all thank him.
Littlejohn is fair-minded in his handling of all such disputes, and where the Puritans had a point he is not afraid to acknowledge it. Where they demanded too much, insisting on jure divino authorization for every detail of their whole project, down into the nooks and crannies, Littlejohn points out what Hooker pointed out, which is that such exegesis cutteth no ice.
The problem was that a number of the early English Presbyterians adopted a form of reasoning that shows up later in Baptist hermeneutics, or among the strict regulativists. That is, that unless something is expressly authorized by Scripture, then it is forbidden by Scripture. The problem is found in that pesky word expressly. We have no express warrant for infant baptism, for worship on Sunday, for women taking communion, for pianos in worship, for stated clerks, etc. If you insist on express warrant for everything, you either wind up doing hardly anything at all, or stretching multiple texts quite thin in order to get your “express” warrant. It was the latter approach that the precisionists adopted, and was a classic case of overreach.
But all Protestants must be regulativists of some stripe, and I much prefer the formulation of it provided by Hughes Oliphant Old, when he says that “worship must be according to Scripture.” That’s the way you do it.
This short book by Littlejohn is really valuable in all the issues related to this that it makes you think through. As a convinced (jure divino) Presbyterian and as someone who is also convinced by Hooker’s cautious and conservative approach to all reform, I commend the careful approach to ecclesiastical reform, with Hooker as one of our models. Reformation is not revolution. A friend recently pointed out that some radical elements of the Reformation had all the pastoral instincts of the Khmer Rouge, and standing against them was a necessity. You don’t want to turn anything over to those who are in the grip of an idea. But neither do you want to leave the ship of the church with the status quo johnnies, who never met a barnacle they didn’t love. So we should not just look at Hooker’s positions, but also at his process. In other words, for the Reformation in England to have allowed the precisionists to bulldoze everything in order to build a glorious New City would have been beyond destructive. The only thing we can be certain of is that there would have been no glorious new anything.
I let slip that I was a jure divino presbyterian, so I should say something briefly about that. In a debate with express warrant presbyterians, who were rummaging in the New Testament for their express justifications, someone of Hooker’s abilities could just roll their socks down and pull their kirtles over their heads. But if we are allowed to bring in the Old Testament (as we all must do with baptism), appealing to the government of the synagogues, the nature of the Sanhedrin, and so on, the picture changes dramatically. At the same time, my sympathies would still have been with Hooker over against the men with the bulldozers. But that’s all right — postmillennialists can afford to be patient. A time is coming when the whole church will gather in the general assembly (Heb. 12:23 [Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)] ). A little joke there. Well, mostly a joke.
It is also worth pointing out that a downstream Hookerian approach in our day will be profoundly conservative about different institutions, particularly for Americans. If we learn our lessons rightly, we can invoke Hooker while defending something he would never have defended. But to pursue that right now would take me too far afield.
Back to Littlejohn’s work. Well-written, well-done. The main value of the book is, I believe, in getting narrow and truncated Reformed Christians to see just how big their tradition actually is.
October 14, 2015
Richard Hooker is the reason C.S. Lewis is a Protestant; get this book to find out why.
Let me put it like this: if Luther is the heart of Protestantism and Calvin the head, Hooker is the hands and limbs. Whereas Luther and Calvin's interlocutors were the Papists, and their work consisted largely of plucking up and building from scratch, Hooker's interlocutors were the Puritans. For Protestant Americans, the Puritans largely have a sanctifying glow around their names, thanks in large part to their extensive devotional works and extensive influence in America, and sadly not all the heritage is good and Hooker points out some of their excessive "plucking up and plating" right at its inception. What are these problems? A failure to distinguish between justification and sanctification with a weaker doctrine of assurance (Anglican J.I. Packer agrees with this), a failure to distinguish between things necessary to salvation and things necessary to life (and hence a Biblicism that leads to all sorts of nonsense, such as the strict Regulative Principle and Theonomy) and between visible and invisible church (which led to the excesses of Anabaptism and the halfway covenant). The Puritans essentially wanted to overturn the Episcopal system and replace it with Presbyterian government, because they thought the Bible demanded it, and they even sometimes insisted that a Church without this government was not truly a Church. Hooker does not argue against Presbyterianism per se, but insists that, regardless of which form of church government is best (and there's more to be said for Episcopacy), the Bible does not give us detailed instructions about such things. Scripture's basic purpose is to teach the way to salvation, which implies the restoration of all of life according to the Law, but the specifics are largely situation-determined and demand wisdom and prudence, not Scripture verses and attempts to duplicate the Israelite form of government.
Richard Hooker's Lawes of the Ecclesiastical Polity consists of eight incomplete books. It's about two-thirds the length of the Institutes, and is written in more difficult, yet more beautiful and wittier prose, such that C.S. Lewis praised it as the most perfect English for its purpose. The average layman is not going to spend the years they might on the Institutes, though to do so would be eminently edifying. So this book gains importance for me because it covers many of the essential points.
If I had to complain, I wish that the implications had been drawn out. That the chapters had more time for practical application. It is especially interesting to compare this book to Dismissing Jesus, which was also published by Wipf and Stock and has the same hideous book-binding and handsome font. Whereas Jones' book is messy, lengthy, practical, unclear and imprecise, doctrinally unsafe, and thoroughly impassioned, this book is scholarly without being antiquarian, concise, clear, orthodox, and playfully devout. I heartily recommend it, and readers will probably not find a better summary the Reformed faith, and the famous "two kingdoms" theology stuff that is going around.
Let me put it like this: if Luther is the heart of Protestantism and Calvin the head, Hooker is the hands and limbs. Whereas Luther and Calvin's interlocutors were the Papists, and their work consisted largely of plucking up and building from scratch, Hooker's interlocutors were the Puritans. For Protestant Americans, the Puritans largely have a sanctifying glow around their names, thanks in large part to their extensive devotional works and extensive influence in America, and sadly not all the heritage is good and Hooker points out some of their excessive "plucking up and plating" right at its inception. What are these problems? A failure to distinguish between justification and sanctification with a weaker doctrine of assurance (Anglican J.I. Packer agrees with this), a failure to distinguish between things necessary to salvation and things necessary to life (and hence a Biblicism that leads to all sorts of nonsense, such as the strict Regulative Principle and Theonomy) and between visible and invisible church (which led to the excesses of Anabaptism and the halfway covenant). The Puritans essentially wanted to overturn the Episcopal system and replace it with Presbyterian government, because they thought the Bible demanded it, and they even sometimes insisted that a Church without this government was not truly a Church. Hooker does not argue against Presbyterianism per se, but insists that, regardless of which form of church government is best (and there's more to be said for Episcopacy), the Bible does not give us detailed instructions about such things. Scripture's basic purpose is to teach the way to salvation, which implies the restoration of all of life according to the Law, but the specifics are largely situation-determined and demand wisdom and prudence, not Scripture verses and attempts to duplicate the Israelite form of government.
Richard Hooker's Lawes of the Ecclesiastical Polity consists of eight incomplete books. It's about two-thirds the length of the Institutes, and is written in more difficult, yet more beautiful and wittier prose, such that C.S. Lewis praised it as the most perfect English for its purpose. The average layman is not going to spend the years they might on the Institutes, though to do so would be eminently edifying. So this book gains importance for me because it covers many of the essential points.
If I had to complain, I wish that the implications had been drawn out. That the chapters had more time for practical application. It is especially interesting to compare this book to Dismissing Jesus, which was also published by Wipf and Stock and has the same hideous book-binding and handsome font. Whereas Jones' book is messy, lengthy, practical, unclear and imprecise, doctrinally unsafe, and thoroughly impassioned, this book is scholarly without being antiquarian, concise, clear, orthodox, and playfully devout. I heartily recommend it, and readers will probably not find a better summary the Reformed faith, and the famous "two kingdoms" theology stuff that is going around.
May 29, 2025
Unknown to me before now, Richard Hooker is now near the top of my favorite theologians of the Reformation.
November 29, 2019
I wish I had something like this in 2008 when I was wrestling with claims of “what is the true church?” The conservative Protestant publishing world had lost giants like Hooker and Chemnitz. Turretin had been recently translated and published, but he still stayed on the periphery.
Richard Hooker gives us a cosmopolitan vision that is Protestant, yet unashamedly Anglican. I cannot go with him on some points (as I am Presbyterian), yet to interact with his thoughts improves the architecture of the mind. We thank Brad Littlejohn for this little text and for streamlining Richard Hooker for a new generation.
The Mythical Hooker
Myth 1: he was a serene philosopher who floated above controversy.
Myth 2: He is anti-Calvinist.
Myth 3: He retrieved Thomas Aquinas who had been rejected by the Reformation.
Myth 4:
Richard Hooker: The Book
In terms of skill and strategy, Littlejohn notes that “the Puritan position had been rendered desperate by the great flanking movements in Books I and II” (Littlejohn). Hooker was unique in that he renounced the standard process of polemics. Earlier polemicists, much like discernment bloggers today, stated the opponent’s position paragraph by paragraph and then refuted each line. This turned small pamphlets into unmanageable tomes. Hooker blessedly repudiated this method. By contrast he offered a text that logically flowed from its prior structural argument.
The Challenges to Be Answered
Do the sign of the cross and the wearing of vestments constitute an erasure of the Reformation? To what degree does our appeal to Scripture determine worship? The next question is related to the first one: does anything beyond this jeopardize Christian liberty?
The presbyterians’ argument was thus: no bishop (or elder) is to have spiritual authority over the others; and royal supremacy was to be challenged. This meant that Good Queen Bess would actually be under clerics’ authority in some spheres.
Hooker, therefore, had to respond to a (a) strict biblicism, (b) presbyterian government, and (c) the challenge to civil unity.
A Tour of the Laws
Preface: people are quick to impute all the problems of a society to the established order, with the result that whatever then claims the strongest sanction receives the victor. Elsewhere Hooker makes a very perceptive point on subordinate, yet legitimate human laws. Human laws can teach (albeit, limited) wisdom. Or rather, these human laws are grounded in Wisdom, which participates in the Eternal Law of God. Therefore, we should honor these “manifold forms” in which Wisdom is revealed.
Book II: Considering Scripture as the only law. Scriptural warrant is good, but we must be honest, so Hooker argues, in how it is (and perhaps can be) applied.
Hooker as Protestant
Hooker as Polemicist
His famous Preface begins with a subtle attack on the discipline in Calvin’s Geneva, and it is the way in which Hooker crafts his argument that makes him so formidable. He knows that his opponents, the “precisianists,” are acting out of conscience. His concern is that they identify their own probably inferences as infallible truth.
Hooker as Philosopher
Nature and Grace. All created things strive towards a comprehensive final good (Laws 1.11.1). And since God is the highest good, all things seek participation in him.
Grace hath need of Nature. Even though faith is a gift from God, it takes root in our natural faculties.
Hooker as Pastor
Assurance
Hooker drew upon a distinction made by Thomas Aquinas between the object of our knowledge and the nature of our knowledge.
Key Themes: Law
Hooker will criticize the hyper-Puritans for not understanding the different kinds of laws. These kinds of laws do not bind the conscience. Rather, they have an intrinsic rationality “that elicits the morally attuned heart’s free response.”
While this sounds like an open attack on the liberty of conscience (and it probably is), it is little different from Samuel Rutherford’s attack on the Levellers. One can only attack in liberty if the conscience is in conformity to right reason.
Key Themes: Church
Initial premise--the church is perfectly righteous by virtue of its union with Christ, yet it is often hidden in history.
The problem: how false did a church’s preaching have to be before it was no longer a true church? This was initially applied to Rome, then to the Church of England, and then the separatists applied it to each other.
Visible and Invisible. This isn’t just the pure body of the elect vs. you sinners. It is also two planes on which even believers experienced their union with Christ. On one hand we rest entirely on Christ alone, yet on the other we commune with the visible body of the saints. According to Littlejohn, Hooker’s goal is more on how the church participates in the life of heaven than what is and isn’t a true church.
Key Themes: Liturgy and Sacraments
Doctrine of participation: First, we avoid saying the church is an extension of the Incarnation because this blurs the Creator/creature distinction (see Hooker V.56.4-5).
Richard Hooker gives us a cosmopolitan vision that is Protestant, yet unashamedly Anglican. I cannot go with him on some points (as I am Presbyterian), yet to interact with his thoughts improves the architecture of the mind. We thank Brad Littlejohn for this little text and for streamlining Richard Hooker for a new generation.
The Mythical Hooker
Myth 1: he was a serene philosopher who floated above controversy.
Myth 2: He is anti-Calvinist.
Myth 3: He retrieved Thomas Aquinas who had been rejected by the Reformation.
Myth 4:
Richard Hooker: The Book
In terms of skill and strategy, Littlejohn notes that “the Puritan position had been rendered desperate by the great flanking movements in Books I and II” (Littlejohn). Hooker was unique in that he renounced the standard process of polemics. Earlier polemicists, much like discernment bloggers today, stated the opponent’s position paragraph by paragraph and then refuted each line. This turned small pamphlets into unmanageable tomes. Hooker blessedly repudiated this method. By contrast he offered a text that logically flowed from its prior structural argument.
The Challenges to Be Answered
Do the sign of the cross and the wearing of vestments constitute an erasure of the Reformation? To what degree does our appeal to Scripture determine worship? The next question is related to the first one: does anything beyond this jeopardize Christian liberty?
The presbyterians’ argument was thus: no bishop (or elder) is to have spiritual authority over the others; and royal supremacy was to be challenged. This meant that Good Queen Bess would actually be under clerics’ authority in some spheres.
Hooker, therefore, had to respond to a (a) strict biblicism, (b) presbyterian government, and (c) the challenge to civil unity.
A Tour of the Laws
Preface: people are quick to impute all the problems of a society to the established order, with the result that whatever then claims the strongest sanction receives the victor. Elsewhere Hooker makes a very perceptive point on subordinate, yet legitimate human laws. Human laws can teach (albeit, limited) wisdom. Or rather, these human laws are grounded in Wisdom, which participates in the Eternal Law of God. Therefore, we should honor these “manifold forms” in which Wisdom is revealed.
Book II: Considering Scripture as the only law. Scriptural warrant is good, but we must be honest, so Hooker argues, in how it is (and perhaps can be) applied.
Hooker as Protestant
Hooker as Polemicist
His famous Preface begins with a subtle attack on the discipline in Calvin’s Geneva, and it is the way in which Hooker crafts his argument that makes him so formidable. He knows that his opponents, the “precisianists,” are acting out of conscience. His concern is that they identify their own probably inferences as infallible truth.
Hooker as Philosopher
Nature and Grace. All created things strive towards a comprehensive final good (Laws 1.11.1). And since God is the highest good, all things seek participation in him.
Grace hath need of Nature. Even though faith is a gift from God, it takes root in our natural faculties.
Hooker as Pastor
Assurance
Hooker drew upon a distinction made by Thomas Aquinas between the object of our knowledge and the nature of our knowledge.
Key Themes: Law
Hooker will criticize the hyper-Puritans for not understanding the different kinds of laws. These kinds of laws do not bind the conscience. Rather, they have an intrinsic rationality “that elicits the morally attuned heart’s free response.”
While this sounds like an open attack on the liberty of conscience (and it probably is), it is little different from Samuel Rutherford’s attack on the Levellers. One can only attack in liberty if the conscience is in conformity to right reason.
Key Themes: Church
Initial premise--the church is perfectly righteous by virtue of its union with Christ, yet it is often hidden in history.
The problem: how false did a church’s preaching have to be before it was no longer a true church? This was initially applied to Rome, then to the Church of England, and then the separatists applied it to each other.
Visible and Invisible. This isn’t just the pure body of the elect vs. you sinners. It is also two planes on which even believers experienced their union with Christ. On one hand we rest entirely on Christ alone, yet on the other we commune with the visible body of the saints. According to Littlejohn, Hooker’s goal is more on how the church participates in the life of heaven than what is and isn’t a true church.
Key Themes: Liturgy and Sacraments
Doctrine of participation: First, we avoid saying the church is an extension of the Incarnation because this blurs the Creator/creature distinction (see Hooker V.56.4-5).
March 9, 2020
When becoming an Anglican a couple of years ago I asked my rector what writings + theologians would be the most helpful in laying a foundation for how the tradition engages with Scripture, worship, and public life. He recommended Hooker, specifically this introduction, and I’m so glad. Hooker himself was a beacon for not only discerning truth carefully, but also a model for the attitude and process in which one moves forward with. The author also provides much helpful historical and cultural context, making the runway into a survey like this easily navigable and inviting.
January 28, 2016
I've read a number of books recently which turned out to be disappointingly slight - longreads with generous margins and leading because apparently that's what publishers are into these days. This book, however, looked small but turned out to be appreciably substantial. Littlejohn covers not only Hooker's life and work, situating topics in their historical context, but also interacts with contemporary scholarship in a charitable but lively way. He writes with a clarity that makes topics that I would normally find esoteric engaging, and is an all-around capable guide. I'm looking forward to his forthcoming "Freedom of a Christian Commonwealth"
My favorite Hooker quote, from his "case for why the church should have significant freedom in developing and altering church ceremonies, rather than being strictly tied to some imagined biblical model":
My favorite Hooker quote, from his "case for why the church should have significant freedom in developing and altering church ceremonies, rather than being strictly tied to some imagined biblical model":
"Now men are edified when either their understanding is taught somewhat whereof in such actions it behooveth all men to consider, or when their hearts are moved with any affection suitable thereunto, when their minds are in any sort stirred up unto that reverence, devotion, attention and due regard, which in those cases seemeth requisite. Because therefore unto this purpose not only speech but sundry sensible means besides have always been thought necessary, and especially those means which being object to the eye, the liveliest and the most apprehensive sense of all other, have in that respect seemed the fittest to make a deep and a strong impression." (IV 1.3)
January 29, 2018
This is the best book-length introduction to the thought of Richard Hooker. Bradford Littlejohn offers a Reformed reading of Richard Hooker that owes much to the excellent scholarship of Torrance Kirby. But Littlejohn also draws on his own work on Hooker. This is an introductory book, sure, but the scholarship is excellent. One is presented in this book with a clear-thinking, irenically-reformed Richard Hooker, which is a wonderful break from the fuzzy-minded, broad-Catholic Hooker that we've been told about for a long time. A recommend book.
January 13, 2020
Useful in many respects, but spoiled by the author's hero-worship of the subject. It should also be noted that not everyone who gets labelled as a "Puritan" would have fully gone along with some of the excessive hyper-regulativism attributed to Walter Travers and Thomas Cartwright. Indeed, this sort of thing was clearly not included in the Westminster Confession.
September 16, 2022
This is a really interesting and approachable book. Richard Hooker was one of C.S. Lewis’s favorite theologians. So fans of Lewis may find this book interesting and helpful in further understanding many aspects of CSL’s theology.
I’m not qualified to evaluate fully Littlejohn’s claims that Hooker was self-consciously as much a reformed theologian as he was an Anglican theologian but Littlejohn certainly makes a good case that he was.
As with all good introductions to the thought and writing of someone else Littlejohn made me want to read more of Hooker himself. The book thankfully contains many quotations from Hooker. Here are two or one long quote that show how Hooker applied his theology pastorally:
On a wavering faith:
“But are they not grieved with their unbelief?
They are. Do they not wish it might and also
strive that it may be otherwise? We know they do. Whence cometh this but from a secret love and liking which they have of those things that are believed? No man can love the things which in his own opinion are not. And if they think those things to be,
which they show that they love when they desire to believe then, then must it needs be that by desiring to believe they prove
themselves to be true believers.
On assurance of salvation and doubt thereof:
“I know in whom I have believed, I am not ig
norant whose precious blood hath been shed for me, I have a shepherd full of kindness, full of care, and full of power; unto him I commit myself; his own finger hath engravened this sentence in the tables of my heart, “Satan hath desired to winnow thee as wheat, but I have prayed that thy faith fail not." Therefore the assurance of
my hope I will labor to keep as a jewel unto the end and by labor through the gracious mediation of his prayer I shall keep it.”
I’m not qualified to evaluate fully Littlejohn’s claims that Hooker was self-consciously as much a reformed theologian as he was an Anglican theologian but Littlejohn certainly makes a good case that he was.
As with all good introductions to the thought and writing of someone else Littlejohn made me want to read more of Hooker himself. The book thankfully contains many quotations from Hooker. Here are two or one long quote that show how Hooker applied his theology pastorally:
On a wavering faith:
“But are they not grieved with their unbelief?
They are. Do they not wish it might and also
strive that it may be otherwise? We know they do. Whence cometh this but from a secret love and liking which they have of those things that are believed? No man can love the things which in his own opinion are not. And if they think those things to be,
which they show that they love when they desire to believe then, then must it needs be that by desiring to believe they prove
themselves to be true believers.
On assurance of salvation and doubt thereof:
“I know in whom I have believed, I am not ig
norant whose precious blood hath been shed for me, I have a shepherd full of kindness, full of care, and full of power; unto him I commit myself; his own finger hath engravened this sentence in the tables of my heart, “Satan hath desired to winnow thee as wheat, but I have prayed that thy faith fail not." Therefore the assurance of
my hope I will labor to keep as a jewel unto the end and by labor through the gracious mediation of his prayer I shall keep it.”
July 8, 2021
Good introduction and overview of a too-little known early Protestant theologian, who was a model of careful irenicism. Littlejohn writes very well, and the book also serves to illumine the history of the English church in the 16th century.
November 24, 2017
Ably accomplishes what it sets out to do: (1) to introduce readers to the distinctive method and thought of Hooker and (2) to leave readers with a strong desire to read Hooker himself.
March 14, 2019
Perspicacious. A fair, careful, masterfully edited introduction to an imposing thinker. Made me excited about the Reformation and its treasures for the first time in a long time.
October 29, 2023
Very good. Hooker is someone we should discuss more frequently and learn from his example.
March 8, 2021
Can't recommend this book highly enough. If people spent more time reading Hooker and less time reading theonomists the church would be in a far healthier place.
I thought this quote from Doug Wilson's review was bang on [minus the piece on paedobaptism]:
"The problem was that a number of the early English Presbyterians adopted a form of reasoning that shows up later in Baptist hermeneutics, or among the strict regulativists. That is, that unless something is expressly authorized by Scripture, then it is forbidden by Scripture. The problem is found in that pesky word expressly. We have no express warrant for infant baptism, for worship on Sunday, for women taking communion, for pianos in worship, for stated clerks, etc. If you insist on express warrant for everything, you either wind up doing hardly anything at all, or stretching multiple texts quite thin in order to get your “express” warrant. It was the latter approach that the precisionists adopted, and was a classic case of overreach."
I thought this quote from Doug Wilson's review was bang on [minus the piece on paedobaptism]:
"The problem was that a number of the early English Presbyterians adopted a form of reasoning that shows up later in Baptist hermeneutics, or among the strict regulativists. That is, that unless something is expressly authorized by Scripture, then it is forbidden by Scripture. The problem is found in that pesky word expressly. We have no express warrant for infant baptism, for worship on Sunday, for women taking communion, for pianos in worship, for stated clerks, etc. If you insist on express warrant for everything, you either wind up doing hardly anything at all, or stretching multiple texts quite thin in order to get your “express” warrant. It was the latter approach that the precisionists adopted, and was a classic case of overreach."
March 7, 2021
I found this book informative and well-structured as a personal introduction. It's up to the the Hooker scholars and readers to determine if the author's judgments are just, but I cannot find much that is objectionable here at all. Hopefully it will provide a good spot to return to in places after giving a go at Hooker myself one day.
Takeaways: Nature has need of grace while grace has use for nature, Hooker's style is ponderous but well-suited for his purposes of providing an architectonic defense of the structure and practices of of the Church of England
Takeaways: Nature has need of grace while grace has use for nature, Hooker's style is ponderous but well-suited for his purposes of providing an architectonic defense of the structure and practices of of the Church of England
June 4, 2020
We could learn a lot from Hooker!
Firstly, Littlejohn is an exceptional writer. Clear prose throughout mixed with great illustrations.
Secondly, Hooker is worthy of study for all in modern theological and ministerial circles. Littlejohn's introduction to his life and thought shows how far we've taken from careful and generous theological discourse.
Firstly, Littlejohn is an exceptional writer. Clear prose throughout mixed with great illustrations.
Secondly, Hooker is worthy of study for all in modern theological and ministerial circles. Littlejohn's introduction to his life and thought shows how far we've taken from careful and generous theological discourse.
February 12, 2022
An excellent introduction to a neglected theologian and philosopher.
March 8, 2016
This fantastic little book is exactly what it should be. Littlejohn successfully situates Hooker in time, summarizes his Laws, explains his thinking, and briefly concludes with why modern Christians should care. Probably the highest praise I can give is to say that I now feel the need to read Hooker.
April 5, 2016
This book combined deep learning and mastery of the subject with practical application to the present and winsome commentary on a number of theological, philosophical, and cultural themes. Well worth the read.
January 1, 2016
Great book! Understanding Hooker's contribution to theology would provide much needed balance, especially in Reformed and Presbyterian circles.
December 14, 2015
Really good. An excellent introduction to a neglected figure.
http://australia.thegospelcoalition.o...
http://australia.thegospelcoalition.o...
August 17, 2018
This is an excellent introduction to Richard Hooker and his thought and work. Littlejohn takes issue with several caricatures of Hooker as a via media between Rome and Protestantism and plants him firmly within the Reformed Protestant camp (building on the work of others such as Torrance Kirby yet taking it further also). Yet even while boldly and, it certainly seems, quite rightly challenging much of the scholarly consensus, Littlejohn does justice to Hookers irenic voice, nuanced reasoning, and his ecumenical impulses which are of enduring value for today. The book is logically organized with chapters progressing thus: Richard Hooker: 1) The Myth, 2) The Man, 3) The Book (referring to his Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity); then 4) Hooker as Protestant, 5) Hooker as Polemicist, 6) Hooker as Philosopher, 7) Hooker as Pastor; followed by Key Themes of 8) Scripture, 9) Law, 10) Church, 11) Liturgy and Sacraments; concluding with a chapter 12) Richard Hooker: Contemporary, reflecting on Hooker's enduring value. This is a short book but behind it stands much study. Littlejohn helpfully distills his study in a way that serves to orient anyone who wants to approach Hooker and the schools of Hooker-interpretation for the first time. There are also places where Littlejohn advances the understanding of Hooker as he is considerably more familiar with the broader Reformation world and theology than many who approach Hooker from an exclusively Anglican perspective.
I have only a couple little beefs with this book. A few places I wish the footnotes had been more specific as there were places where the author could have pointed to specific sections of secondary sources rather than simply noting the entire book. Even if the whole work footnoted was actually applicable to the topic of discussion, it would have been nice to have the author note specific sections that were of particular note in order to begin such a search. A decent footnote can communicate all that. Also, there was at least a dozen places where the book had minor editing errors and oversights (doubled words, wrong word, missing words, etc.). However, these really are minor quibbles and don't ever take away from the value of this work.
I will continue to use this as a helpful orientation for continued Hooker studies. Highly recommended.
I have only a couple little beefs with this book. A few places I wish the footnotes had been more specific as there were places where the author could have pointed to specific sections of secondary sources rather than simply noting the entire book. Even if the whole work footnoted was actually applicable to the topic of discussion, it would have been nice to have the author note specific sections that were of particular note in order to begin such a search. A decent footnote can communicate all that. Also, there was at least a dozen places where the book had minor editing errors and oversights (doubled words, wrong word, missing words, etc.). However, these really are minor quibbles and don't ever take away from the value of this work.
I will continue to use this as a helpful orientation for continued Hooker studies. Highly recommended.
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