Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity

by Richard Hooker, Arthur Stephen McGrade (Editor)

The great Elizabethan divine Richard Hooker has occupied a prominent place in the intellectual history of the Church of England and sixteenth-century Protestantism but his wider significance has often been neglected. In his introduction to this selection of books from Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Professor McGrade demonstrates clearly the continued relevance and importance of the particular politico-religious project Hooker undertook and shows that The Laws offer far more than simply an apologia for the Elizabethan religious settlement. The text of this version is based on the authoritative Folger edition and presents those sections of The Laws most important to an understanding of Hooker's wider aims and context.

Genres: Theology, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Religion, Politics, Christianity, Christian

284 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1593

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

[Fran]

me reading about drama that happened literally hundreds of years ago

[Etienne OMNES · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity est un livre de Richard Hooker qui est une réponse de l'évêque anglican Richard Hooker aux puritains de son époque au sujet des lois et de la liturgie légitime des église protestantes d'Angleterre. Il définit dans le livre I la métaphysique des lois, puis les justes limites des lois d'églises, puis il examine la légitimité des différentes pratiques liturgiques de l'Eglise d'Angleterre et défend la liturgie "haute" propre à l'Eglise anglicane.

Sans aucun doute, Richard Hooker est un auteur très convaincant et très érudit. Cependant, j'ai eu de grandes difficultés à lire l'ancien anglais. Ne pas hésiter à lire une version modernisée. Le livre I est intéressant pour tous les chrétiens intéressés par la Loi Naturelle, car le traitement est vraiment très bon. Surtout que c'est un traitement réformé. Les livres suivants sont intéressant pour les réformés qui s'intéressent à la liturgie et les règles liturgiques.

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The stateliness of houses, the godliness of trees, when we behold them delighteth the eye; but that foundation which bearereth up the one, that root which ministereth unto the other nourishment and life, is in the bosom of the earth concealed: and if there be at any time occasion to search unto it, such labour is then more necessary than pleasant both to them which undertake it, and for the lookers on. In like manner the use and benefit of good laws, all that life under them may enjoy with delight and comfort, albeit the grounds, and first original causes from whence they have sprung be unknown, as to the greatest part of men they are. But when they who withdraw their obedience pretend that the laws which they should obey are corrupts and vicious; for better examination of their quality, it behoveth the very foundation and root, the highest wellspring and foundation of them to be discovered.”

[Gareth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A classical defence of the Church of England position passing through an attack on Presbyterian methods into a Protestant CofE explanation of the order of the world into a defence of the Kings authority over the Church. highlights including a provocative discussion of the tension between the sovereignty of different communities and an exploration of the roots of authority.

[Sam Eccleston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rightly considered the foundation of a distinctly Anglican theological approach, what you see in these pages is not just that, but also a portrait of a man of supreme good sense, sound judgement, and a rare capacity for patient, one might even say dogged, exploration of an issue or set of interrelated issues which eschews the easy, and often false, dichotomies of common parlance and reaches instead for the kernel of the matter; finding it otherwise than has been popularly imagined.

[Aaron Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

“…laws apparently good, are (as it were) things copied out of the very tables of that high everlasting law, even as the book of that law hath said concerning itself, By me Kings reign, and by me Princes decree justice.”

[Rochelle]

See especially "Of the Certainty and Perpetuity" (A learned and comfortable sermon of the certainty and perpetuity of faith in the elect: especially of the prophet Habakkuk's faith)

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Massive. Hard to read. Books I and VIII were the best, but I am working on his political thought. The bits in between were fine, although his defence of episcopacy was tedious.