Richard Hooker, Reformer and Platonist

by W.J. Torrance Kirby

This book explores key aspects of Richard Hooker's philosophical and theological discourse in the context of currents of thought prevalent in the 'Magisterial Reformation' of the sixteenth century. Hooker's treatment of natural law, his dependence upon the philosophical discourse and traditional cosmology of Christian Neoplatonism, and his appeal to the authority of patristic sources, are all closely examined. Challenging the received 'exceptionalist' model of much of the twentieth-century interpretation of Hooker, in particular the concept of his supposed defence of the English Reformation as striking a 'via media' between Rome and mainstream Protestant reform, W.J. Torrance Kirby argues that Hooker adheres to principles of 'magisterial' reform while building upon the assumptions of a distinctively Protestant version of Platonism.

Genres: Theology, Philosophy, History, Biography

150 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2005

About the author

Professor of Ecclesiastical History & Director, Centre for Research on Religion (CREOR)at McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

"In 1988 I received a DPhil degree in Modern History from Oxford University for a thesis on the political theology of Richard Hooker. Previously I received BA and MA degrees in Classics (Greek Philosophy and Literature) from King's College and Dalhousie University. Currently I am Professor of Ecclesiastical History at McGill where I have been a member of the Faculty of Religious Studies since 1997. Since 1996 I have been a member of the Centre of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, and since 2005 of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

My principal field of research is Reformation thought, especially of Richard Hooker, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Heinrich Bullinger, and other 16th-century Protestant thinkers; my most recent publications examine theological links between England and the continent in the sixteenth century (my work here concentrates on the influence in England of the Italian, Swiss and French reformers). My research also focuses on the history of Christian Platonism, in the Patristic as well as in the late-medieval and early-modern periods. Currently I am investigating the emergence of the public sphere in early-modern England in the context of preaching at the outdoor pulpit at Paul's Cross in the City of London."

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found these essays very helpful in that they should Hookers proximity to the magisterial reformers.