Divine Law and Human Nature: Book I of Hooker's Laws: A Modernization

by Richard Hooker, W. Bradford Littlejohn (Editor), Brian Marr (Editor)

Richard Hooker’s Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity is one of the great landmarks of Protestant theological literature, and indeed of English literature generally. However, on account of its difficult and archaic style, it is scarcely read today. The time has come to translate it into modern English so that Hooker may teach a new generation of churchmen and Christian leaders about law, reason, Scripture, church, and politics. In this second volume of an ongoing translation project by the Davenant Trust, we present Book I of Hooker’s Laws, for which he is perhaps most famous. Here he offers a sweeping overview of his theology of law, law being that order and measure by which God governs the universe, and by which all creatures—and humans above all—conduct their lives and affairs. In an age when the idea of natural creation order is under wholesale attack, even within the church, Hooker’s luminous treatment of the relation of Scripture and nature, faith and reason is a priceless and urgently-needed gift to the church.

Genres: Theology, Philosophy

132 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 31, 2017

About the author

Richard Hooker (March 1554 – 3 November 1600) was an Anglican priest and an influential theologian. Hooker's emphases on reason, tolerance and the value of tradition considerably influenced the development of Anglicanism. He was the co-founder (with Thomas Cranmer and Matthew Parker) of Anglican theological thought. Hooker's great Elizabethan guide to Church Government and Discipline is both a masterpiece of English prose and one of the bulwarks of the Established Church in England. Hooker projected eight books for the great work. The first four books of Ecclesiastical Polity appeared in 1593, Book V in 1597. Hooker died in 1600 at the age of forty-six and the remaining three books were completed, though not revised, before his death. The manuscripts fell into careless or unscrupulous hands and were not published until long afterwards (1648 to 1662), and then only in mutilated form. Samuel Pepys makes mention of Hooker's Polity three times in his Diary, first in 1661, "Mr. Chetwind fell commending of 'Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity,' as the best book, and the only one that made him a Christian, which puts me upon the buying of it, which I will do shortly." In 1667 Pepys bought the new edition that had been printed in 1666, the first to include the life of Hooker by Izaak Walton.

Reviews

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Purpose for writing: Hooker sought to vindicate “the Laws of the Church which have guided us for so many years….which are now being called into question” (Hooker 2). In doing so Hooker gives us a brief defense of “natural law,” noting that even “The very being of God is a sort of law to His working, for the perfection that God is, gives perfection to what he does” (5).

Following Aristotle, Hooker notes that God “works towards a certain end and by a certain law which constrains the effects of his power” (7). Hooker understands that “natural law” can be a slippery term. Does it mean “rational principles” or “Newton’s physics” or something else? Therefore, he distinguishes the various laws that guide God’s creation. His main focus is on the “rational being [who] with a free will [is a] voluntary agent” (11-12).

His section on angelic law is somewhat unique in natural law treatments. He notes, correctly I think, that when we consider them “corporately, their law makes them an army, some in rank and degree above others” (19). Demons, moreover, “were dispersed, some in the air, some on the earth, some under the water, some among the minerals, dens, and caves under the earth” (20).

Concerning rational agents, Hooker notes that “Choice, however, means that whatever we do, we also could have left undone” and that the “two fountains of human action are knowledge and will, and when the will tends toward a particular end, we call it choice” (29). Hooker is clearly in line with the intellectualist tradition in that the mind guides the rest of the faculties (38).

Concerning human and divine laws, he makes the distinction between primary and secondary laws. A primary law deals with our original nature, the latter with our depraved nature The former includes embassies, good trade, etc. The latter concerns war (61).

A “good” is that which can make our nature more perfect (64).

Concerning Scripture, Hooker responds to the papist objection “Well how do you know from Scripture which books are Scripture?” He begins by noting that every field of study requires the prior knowledge of some things outside the field of study and takes for granted many things” (81). When Scripture says “all things necessary for salvation,” it cannot “be construed to mean all things absolutely, but all things of a certain kind, such as all things we could not know by our natural reason. Scripture does indeed contain all these things. However, it also presupposes that we first know and are persuaded of certain rational first principles, and building on that, Scripture teaches us the rest” (80-81). And that is the purpose of natural law.

[Brian]

So, another shameless self-plug. This book is not perhaps the funnest or the most polemical, but it is far and away the clearest and most methodical explanation of how Scripture "fits" with both natural law, and human law. Buy a copy for all your crazy theonomist friends or for anyone who gets a little too insistent about applying Scripture woodenly (or in a way that you happen to think is wooden; you might be wrong, and Hooker helps you figure that out). It is also a great picture of the medieval cosmos, reminiscent of many places in C.S. Lewis' writings. I myself am irritated by how slowly these are coming out, but Bradford says he wants to do it right.

[Ian Clary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely fantastic, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I hate to admit this, but this is the first time I've read anything by Hooker in a sustained way. I've read a number of secondary sources on him, and snippets from the Everyman's edition of the 'Laws.' I also have as a topic option for the major paper in my upper level historical theology class Book V of the 'Laws,' which a number of students have opted to write on. So when I picked up 'Divine Law and Human Nature,' quite literally on a whim, I was surprised at how much was in it that I didn't expect.
There are a couple of reasons for this, besides just my failure to have given a more thorough read to Hooker. One is that I've been reading a lot of Thomist philosophical theology for the past number of years, and I've imbibed a lot of that approach to metaphyics. There is a lot of classical Christian thought in Hooker and this book hits at all the good stuff like causality, the distinctions in kinds of law, the nature of the human person (i.e., soul and body), the natural law, etc. So in a sense, I'd been primed for what was coming to me.
Another reason has to do with the clarity of style in this modernised edition. Brad Littlejohn, who is a friend,* along with Brad Belschner and Brian Marr, did a fantastic job at making Hooker readable. I've tried to get into Hooker in the past, but the Everyman's edition is difficult. I must say that I'm quite impressed with the balance that the 'translators' had in rendering Hooker more accessible without compromising his voice as an author. I literally read this book (yes, I know it's short) in two days. There was a lot of information contained in the book's pages, but it never felt daunting or overwhelming to read.
So all of this is to say that I'm going to keep reading the rest of the Laws and I'm feeling pretty convinced that I'm a Hookerian, if it's okay for a Baptist to say that.

* I emailed Brad to say how much I enjoyed the book and how surprised I was by it, and he was like, 'Well, yeah.' :)

[Jack W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Third time through. First time I was a senior in High School at the beach for spring break, second time through I read this alongside the unedited text as a helpful summary for the AmRef Cotton Mather Fellows discussions, and today I read it a third time for my M.Div. Hooker is obviously brilliant, and he understands human nature very well. His knowledge of the medieval tradition is impressive, and his rhetoric is unmatched. His entire schema regarding kinds of law is quite [i]plausible[/i], but I do not know whether it is true, in part because few believe the world works the same way anymore in terms of natural causes, and no good biblical scholar would let him get away with how he interprets the OT text, at least much of the time.

All that to say, I do not quite know how to take him. I do not find him quite so authoritative as some of my peers in the retrievalist space, yet I would probably side with him over most men who do have a greater scientific knowledge of nature and the Scriptures as we understand it today.

[Zach Waldis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very useful, accesible translation of Hooker.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to understand how nature, reason and special revelation co-ordinate, then here is a great place to begin : the 16th century's English Reformer , Richard Hooker ( 1554 – 1600).

[John Damon Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bishop Hooker is the best. Why other people have attempted to do political philosophy after him is beyond me.

[Ben Lansing]

There’s a reason C.S. Lewis exhorted many to read Richard Hooker. Even in this modernized language format of this edition, Hooker’s reasoning is rich. His themes address logic that is now too often assumed or taken for granted by modern Christians, but rarely examined and chewed on.

“Along with all the most necessary laws of God, Scripture includes many other diverse things, which we could be ignorant of and yet be saved. But shall we think them superfluous? Shall we consider them as wayward shoots obscuring more pleasant and fruitful vines? No more so should we consider our hands and our eyes, without which we would still remain completely human.”

[Jacob Rush · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really helpful stuff. Hooker roots all law in God and seeks to discern the different ways that God’s eternal law particularizes itself among his created things. Important grace and nature distinctions here. Nature can tell us we strive to immortality and have a divine end, but only gives us the way there by works and reward. It can also tell us we /need/ grace but does not tell us what that grace is. Supernatural revelation in the Scriptures is the grace of God in Jesus Christ that restores us back to nature.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hooker should be mandatory reading for Christians interested in the relationship between divine and natural law, or the relationship between Scripture, reason, and tradition, or principles of church government. This modernization retains the flow and improves comprehension by the 21st-century reader. If you consider yourself spiritual and a thinker, or any kind of church leader, pick this up now.

[Jeremy Counts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on Natural Law. It's helped me think through the subject more succinctly. I disagree with some of the conclusions he makes, especially his remarks that in order for humans to truly have a free will they must have the ability to choose contrary to their greatest desire (which is impossible). All that said, this is a phenomenal work that deserves a widespread audience.

[Kenny Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A helpful guide to thinking through the use of natural law, and creating categories that help us put each type of law in the proper place it belongs.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Do we not see plainly that the obedience of all things to the law of nature is the foundation of the world?"
"This is why all things have desire... to change into what they may become..."

[Wyatt Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

read it.

[John Rakshith Prabhakar · Rating 5 out of 5]

A common sense approach to law

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hooker is quite good. I'm not sure the modernization was as modern as it could be, but I'm grateful to Davenant for making Hooker accessible and affordable to far more people than before.

[Alessandro Cartagena · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you need a quick recap on the principles gained Republic, Nichomachean Ethics and Politics, City of God, and Summa Theologica, then read this. Good summary.