The contributors to the volume explore the relationship of the virtues to Richard Hooker's ontology, to questions of justification by faith, how righteousness is appropriated by the Christian, how the virtues relate to his polemical context, what he takes from both Scripture and his theological forbearers, and how he demonstrates the virtues in his own literary persona. Contributors include: Benjamin Crosby, Paul Dominiak, Daniel Eppley, André A. Gazal, Daniel F. Graves, Dan Kemp, Scott N. Kindred-Barnes, W.J. Torrance Kirby, W. Bradford Littlejohn, Arthur Stephen McGrade, W. David Neelands, and John K. Stafford.

Richard Hooker and his Early Doctrine of Justification explores the doctrine of justification, the doctrine of faith and grace, and the doctrine of Scripture and use of reason in the early theology of Richard Hooker. In order to prove that Hooker was a Protestant Reformed theologian, Simuþ concentrates on Hooker‘s doctrine of justification as reflected in his Learned Discourse of Justification, which is the most important work of his early theology. Unlike previous books on Hooker which use primarily the theology of Luther and Calvin to draw conclusions, this book brings together quotations and ideas from the works of Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, Bucer, Calvin and Beza to show that Hooker was a Protestant Reformed theologian. Simuþ also discusses the theological context of Hooker‘s career by offering an analysis of the doctrine of justification in the theology of John Jewel, John Whitgift (Hooker‘s patrons), and Thomas Cartwright and Walter Travers (Hooker‘s Puritan opponents).

"That posterity may know we have not loosely through silence permitted things to pass away as in a dream..." So opens Richard Hooker's Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, one of the great landmarks of Protestant theological literature, and indeed of English literature generally. Sadly, however, recent generations of church leaders and scholars have come perilously close to allowing his work to pass away as in a dream. Locked away in a rich and beautiful, but labyrinthine and archaic Elizabethan prose style, Hooker's writings are scarcely read-and for many, scarcely readable-today. This new edition of Hooker's Laws "translates" his prose into modern English for the first time, without sacrificing any of the theological depth or sparkling wit of the original. Although the Church of England and its "Puritan" critics have long since moved on from the specific controversy that gave rise to the Laws, the significance of this extraordinary work has not diminished-nor has the urgent need for the wisdom it has to offer, which is as relevant for 21st-century Christians as it was for those in the sixteenth. Addressing such timeless questions as the role of Scripture in the life of the Church, the relationship of conscience to authority, the appropriate use of reason and tradition in theology, and the meaning of Protestantism's protest against Rome, this first volume of Hooker's Laws in Modern English promises to challenge and equip a new generation of Christian readers.

This specialist work in historical theology deals with the doctrine of salvation in the early theology of Richard Hooker (1554-1600) from the perspective of the concept of faith and with Hooker’s connections to the early English Reformers (W. Tyndale, J. Frith, R. Barnes, T. Cranmer, J. Bradford and J. Foxe) in crucial teachings such as justification, sanctification, glorification, election, reprobation, the sovereignty of God, and salvation of Catholics. The study proves that Hooker’s theology is firstly Protestant (to counter the views which picture it as Catholic) and secondly Calvinist.