Richard Hooker has long been viewed as the first systematic defender of Anglicanism, as a via media between Roman Catholicism and Reformed Protestantism. In the last twenty years, this traditional assumption has been increasingly challenged, and it has been argued that Hooker was a Reformed figure whose Anglican credentials are the invention of the Oxford Movement. Whilst the theological ambiguity of Hooker remains perplexing, this study makes clear that the 17th and not the 19th century was responsible for the creation of his reputation as a leading Anglican father. It is argued that Hooker’s ... More

Richard Hooker has long been viewed as the first systematic defender of Anglicanism, as a via media between Roman Catholicism and Reformed Protestantism. In the last twenty years, this traditional assumption has been increasingly challenged, and it has been argued that Hooker was a Reformed figure whose Anglican credentials are the invention of the Oxford Movement. Whilst the theological ambiguity of Hooker remains perplexing, this study makes clear that the 17th and not the 19th century was responsible for the creation of his reputation as a leading Anglican father. It is argued that Hooker’s position of authority was much disputed and only gradually fashioned, and that his variable significance was dependent on the interplay between the polemical and religious needs of those who used him, and the complexities and evasions of his own work. Hooker initially came to prominence due to a suspicion that he was insufficiently Reformed. This then encouraged Catholic polemicists to view him as being representative of the theological position of the English Church. Although there was a desire to retain him as a Reformed figure, he was eventually appropriated by the avant-garde churchmen who eventually triumphed at the Restoration and enthroned him as the epitome of the Anglican identity. Unsurprisingly, the unfolding of contemporary crises led to some reappraisal of his standing. Notably, the Glorious Revolution meant that Hooker’s previously marginalized belief in an original governmental compact came to the forefront, and he was increasingly recognized as a meaningful political writer. Whilst the boundaries of Hooker’s emblematic status continued to expand and contract, the developments of the 17th century ensured that his status as an important writer has remained constant ever since.