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Richard Hooker's Doctrine of the Holy Spirit by John K RICHARD HOOKER’S DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT BY JOHN K. STAFFORD A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Religion University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Manitoba © John K. Stafford, January 2005 CONTENTS Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. iii Note on Citation Style ......................................................................................................... v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: ....................................................................................... 1 Preamble ..................................................................................................................... 1 Theology and Purpose in The Lawes .......................................................................... 3 Situating Richard Hooker ......................................................................................... 11 The Purpose of the Thesis ........................................................................................ 18 A Brief Evaluation of Some Key Secondary Texts .................................................. 23 Scope, Method, and Structure .................................................................................. 30 Summary .................................................................................................................. 34 Excursus on Hooker’s use of the terms “secret” and “mysticall” ............................ 36 CHAPTER 2: RICHARD HOOKER AND THE PURITAN CONTEXT: ....................... 41 The Challenge of Puritan Piety ................................................................................. 41 Characteristics of the Puritan Reformation .............................................................. 42 Assessing Richard Hooker in the Midst of Reform ................................................. 48 Hooker as Defender of the Elizabethan Settlement .................................................. 49 Richard Hooker as Reformer .................................................................................... 59 CHAPTER 3: PURITAN EPISTEMOLOGY: .................................................................. 76 The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit in John Calvin ....................................................... 81 Calvin and the Scriptures ......................................................................................... 86 Calvin and the Sacraments ....................................................................................... 98 CHAPTER 4: HOOKER’S PNEUMATOLOGIA: ......................................................... 109 Spirit and Scripture ................................................................................................. 113 The Holy Spirit and the Orders of Ministry ........................................................... 123 The Idea of "Participation" in Hooker .................................................................... 128 Spirit and Sacrament .............................................................................................. 140 CHAPTER 5: HOOKER ON THE HOLY SPIRIT—HIS PRINCIPLE OF THEOLOGICAL COHESION: ........................................................................... 148 Hooker's Interpretive Framework ........................................................................... 152 Hooker's Hermeneutical Community ..................................................................... 154 Hooker on the Sacraments ...................................................................................... 161 Hooker on Baptism ................................................................................................. 166 Hooker and the Baptism of Infants ......................................................................... 172 Hooker's Source of Faith ........................................................................................ 183 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS: ..................................................................................... 187 Hooker's Third Way ............................................................................................... 195 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................ 210 i Abstract This thesis discusses the contribution of Richard Hooker to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in his magisterial work, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. Hooker’s discussion of the Holy Spirit is unsystematic although his dependence on the Holy Spirit for his theology is extensive. The aim of the thesis is to assess the contribution of the Holy Spirit to Hooker’s theology as under-represented in current research. The method adopted is the identification of those texts where Hooker specifically discusses the Holy Spirit, analysis of such texts in their immediate context, and links to Hooker’s use of John Calvin. In particular, the view that Hooker wrote the Laws primarily to refute Puritan claims that the Elizabethan church had failed to embrace the fullness of Genevan reform, is assessed. The heart of this criticism is especially notable in the Christian Letter, and is something Hooker anticipated in the body of the Laws. In light of this concern, Hooker’s attitude to reform is explored in relation to contemporary and later Puritan writers, such as William Perkins, William Ames, Richard Baxter, and John Owen, and forms part of the overall evaluation of the importance of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit for his theology. Four areas are investigated in the thesis concerning the role Hooker assigned to the Holy Spirit in Christian theology. 1. The role of the Holy Spirit in the interpretation of Scripture. 2. The nature and purpose of the sacraments in light of the Holy Spirit. 3. The place of the Holy Spirit in understanding Hooker’s view of the orders of ministry. 4. The centre of Hooker’s theology as the claim to “participation” in the life of God. The thesis concludes that Hooker remained generally consistent with Calvin’s understanding of the Holy Spirit, though he refined Calvin’s scriptural hermeneutic with special reference to the relationship between reason and the Holy Spirit. It is also concludes that later Puritans such as Richard Baxter and John Owen, offered a perspective on the relationship between reason and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that was in line with Calvin but also anticipated by Richard Hooker. This suggests a strong measure of continuity between Hooker and Puritan thought that did not become apparent until after his death in 1600, and which contemporary scholarship has continued to debate. The thesis contends that Hooker was indeed an advocate of reform but with a characteristically independent grasp of what that entailed in the convergence of Thomistic and Calvinist thought. Hooker’s doctrine of the Holy Spirit was a consistent theme that was essential to his central motif of the believer’s participation in God. The final chapter shows that Hooker, in defending the Elizabethan Settlement, was able to avoid the entrapment of the Puritan charge of Pelagianism and sympathy towards Rome on the one hand, and the Roman charge of Scriptural insufficiency on the other, by positing a third pole in the debate. This required acceptance of the idea of foundational Christian truth whose goal was theosis, the union of the soul with God, whose agent was the secret operation of the Holy Spirit and instrumentality, the Scriptures and sacraments. As such, Hooker called for mature commitment to theological investigation that stood above partisan rancour. ii Acknowledgements I wish to express my profound gratitude to the members of my doctoral committee: Prof. Dawne McCance, Head of the Department of Religion at the University of Manitoba for her guidance, my supervisor, the Rev. Prof. Egil Grislis, for his constant support, encouragement, and confidence in this present study, and Prof. Francis Carroll who offered many useful insights. Each has given me wise counsel and direction, and stimulated this neglected area in Richard Hooker studies which revealed for me an aspect of Anglican theology that I knew existed, but remained unexplored. At St John’s College, University of Manitoba, I gladly acknowledge the generosity and interest of the College, its Fellowship, and administration in seeing the project to its completion. In particular I want to thank Dr. Janet Hoskins who encouraged me, and was willing to spend much time in discussion over the “judicious Mr. Hooker.” I also wish to acknowledge many useful conversations and discussions with Prof. Torrrance Kirby of McGill University and the fellowship of the Hooker Studies Group at successive meetings of the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference. During the writing of this thesis, my wife Jilleen has born the burden of a husband who was absent more often than should be allowed, and it is to her that I owe the greatest debt. Naturally, a thesis can never be the final statement about the subject at hand. At its completion, I was more than ever aware of the sophistication of Hooker’s thought. It was also plain that he did not believe theology to be an end point, but part of the movement of the soul to union with God, as food for the journey. Therefore, I pay humble tribute to him
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