Richard Hooker -- Priest, 1600 -- A Biographical Sketch
Today, November 3, the Church Calendar commemorates Richard Hooker, one of the "Anglican Divines" -- so named because their lives, work and ministries are at the headwaters of the grand stream of Anglican thought and piety.
Educated at Oxford College and a lifelong parish priest and scholar, Hooker exemplifies the quintessential Anglican theological mind at work. His magnum opus, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, was written as a comprehensive defense of the Reformation settlement, engineered by Elizabeth I, over and against Puritan detractors. Beginning from a strong Aristotelian philosophical base (and the emphasis on "natural law"), Hooker constructed an argument in which Scriptural revelation, ancient tradition and reason were foundational.
Book Five of the Laws is a massive defense of the Book of Common Prayer. While his arguments are supported by enormous amounts of patristic learning, Hooker draws effectively from his own twenty year experience of using the Book in the context of his ministry as a priest. The combination of intellectual depth, quality of style and moderate, patient character contributed to the formidable nature of Hooker's writings.
(Material for this sketch drawn from Lesser Feasts and Fasts and Glorious Companions)
Collect for the Commemoration of Richard Hooker
O God of truth and peace, you rasied up your servant Richard Hooker in a day of bitter controversy to defend with soud reasoning and great charity the catholic and reformed religion: Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Today, November 3, the Church Calendar commemorates Richard Hooker, one of the "Anglican Divines" -- so named because their lives, work and ministries are at the headwaters of the grand stream of Anglican thought and piety.
Educated at Oxford College and a lifelong parish priest and scholar, Hooker exemplifies the quintessential Anglican theological mind at work. His magnum opus, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, was written as a comprehensive defense of the Reformation settlement, engineered by Elizabeth I, over and against Puritan detractors. Beginning from a strong Aristotelian philosophical base (and the emphasis on "natural law"), Hooker constructed an argument in which Scriptural revelation, ancient tradition and reason were foundational.
Book Five of the Laws is a massive defense of the Book of Common Prayer. While his arguments are supported by enormous amounts of patristic learning, Hooker draws effectively from his own twenty year experience of using the Book in the context of his ministry as a priest. The combination of intellectual depth, quality of style and moderate, patient character contributed to the formidable nature of Hooker's writings.
(Material for this sketch drawn from Lesser Feasts and Fasts and Glorious Companions)
Collect for the Commemoration of Richard Hooker
O God of truth and peace, you rasied up your servant Richard Hooker in a day of bitter controversy to defend with soud reasoning and great charity the catholic and reformed religion: Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
posted by FrGaryB | 4:18 PM
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