Authority and the interpretation of scripture in Hooker's Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity

Journal of Religious History

Volumn 21, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 80-109

  Kaye, Bruce ^a  

^a Anglican Church of Australia ^*

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 61049428293     PISSN: 00224227     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1467-9809.00028     Document Type: Review

References (90)

1. W. G. Kümmel, The New Testament: The History of the Investigation of Its Problems, London 1973 (Eng. trans. of Das Neue Testament: Geschichte der Erforschung Seine Probleme, 1970), p. 13.
2. Kümmel, New Testament, p. 13.
3. See Reimarus: Fragments, C. H. Talbert (ed.), London 1971.
4. See Lessing's Theological Writings, H. Chadwick (ed.), London 1956.
5. For an account of Strauss's life see H. Harris, David Friedrich Strauss and His Theology, Cambridge 1973
6. and of his philosophical and political significance, see M. C. Massey, Christ Unmasked: The Meaning of the 'Life of Jesus' in German Politics, Chapel Hill, NC 1983
7. and David Friedrich Strauss, In Defense of My Life of Jesus Against the Hegelians, M. C. Massey (ed. and trans.).
8. See also, B. N. Kaye, 'D. F. Strauss and the European Theological Tradition: "Der Ischariotismus unsere Tag"?', Journal of Religious History, Vol. 17, 1992, pp. 172-93.
9. See P. C. Hodgson, The Formation of Historical Theology, New York 1966.
10. Beryl Smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, Notre Dame 1978, p. xi.
11. Smalley, Study, p. xx.
12. See C. Dawson, The Dividing of Christendom, London, London 1971.
13. P. Henry, New Directions in New Testament Study, London 1980;
14. and F. Mussner, Geschichte der Hermeneutik von Schleiermacher bis zur Gegenwart, in Handbuck der Dogmengeschichte, Band I, Fas. 3C (2 Teil), M. Schmans, A. Grillmeier and L. Scheffezyk (eds), Freiburg 1970.
15. D. Joh. Salomo Semler, Abkandlung von freier Unterseichung des Canon, Vols I-IV, Halle 1771-5.
16. Das Neue Testament Ah Kanon, E. Kasemann (ed.), Gottingen 1970, especially the essays in this volume by Herbert Braun and Willi Marxen.
17. See also W. Bauer, Rechtglaubigkeit und Ketzerei im altesten Christentum (Eng. trans., Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity, London 1972)
18. Tubingen 1934;
19. J. Dunn, Unity and Diversity in the New Testament, London 1977.
20. J. Barr, Explorations in Theology, 7, London 1980
21. and The Bible in the Modern World, London 1973.
22. D. H. Kelsey, The Uses of Scripture in Recent Theology, London 1975.
23. See J. D. M. Derrett, Jesus' Audience, London 1973.
24. M. Albertz, Die synoptischen Streitgespräche - Ein Beitrag zur Formengeschichte des Urchristentums, Berlin 1921.
25. G. Lessing, Gesamelte Werke, P. Rilla (ed.), 10 vols, Berlin 1966, Vol. 7, p. 814 (the text has been translated for quotation).
26. See note 18 above, and David Friedrich Strauss, The Life of Jesus Critically Examined, Peter C. Hodgson (ed.), George Eliot (trans.), London 1973.
27. presented}
28. At 3.8.17 Hooker makes the additional point that a non-reasonable interpretation of scripture will ultimately mean that scripture will not be able to assure us concerning the articles of the faith. He uses words in this section which John S. Marshall describes as a free translation of the words of Cajetan in commenting on the use of Psalm 116 by Peter in Acts 2.25-31 (quoted by Marshall p. 49), a point to which Hooker is referring in the context. See J. S. Marshall, Hooker and Anglican Tradition: An Historical and Theological Study of Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, London 1963, p. 53.
29. See R. Orr, 'Chillingworth versus Hooker: A Criticism of Natural Law Theory', Journal of Religious History, Vol. 2, 1962, pp. 120-32.
30. David Kelsey, Use of the Bible in Theology, p. 212.
31. Kelsey, Bible in Theology, p. 205.
32. Kelsey, p. 159.
33. See particularly D. E. Nineham, The Use and Abuse of The Bible, London 1976.
34. Bultmann's most famous statement of this point is the essay, 'New Testament and Mythology', in Kerygma and Myth, H. W. Bartsch (ed.), London 1953.
35. R. Bultmann, 'Is Exegesis Without Presuppositions Possible?', in Existence and Faith, London 1961, (Eng. trans. of 'Ist voraussetzungslose Exegesis Moglich?', in Theologische Zeitschrift, Vol. xiii, 1957), pp. 409-17.
36. See A. C. Thiselton, The Two Horizons, Exeter 1980
37. and his later work, New Horizons in Hermeneutics, Michigan 1992.
38. For a summary account see J. Rohde, Rediscovering the Teaching of the Evangelists, London 1968 (Eng. trans. of Die Redaktionsgeschliche Methode, Hamburg 1966).
39. J. Pelikan, The Vindication of Tradition, New Haven and London, 1984.
40. Studies in Richard Hooker: Essay Preliminary to an Edition of his Works, W. Speed Hill (ed.), Cleveland 1972, pp. xxiv f.
41. Munz, Place of Hooker, p. 195.
42. For an elaboration of Hooker's theological conception of change applied to the proposal to ordain women as priests see S. Sykes, 'Richard Hooker and the Ordination of Women to the Priesthood', Sewanee Theological Review, Vol. 36, 1993, pp. 200-14.
43. W. D. J. Cargill Thompson, The Philosopher of the Politic Society, in Studies in Richard Hooker, Speed Hill (ed.), p. 14.
44. P. D. L. Avis, 'Richard Hooker and John Calvin', Church History, Vol. 50, 1981, p. 9.
45. Richard Bauckham, 'Richard Hooker and John Calvin: A Comment', Church History, Vol. 50, 1981, pp. 29-33.
46. Bauckham, 'Hooker and Calvin', p. 29.
47. See T. H. L. Parker, Calvin's New Testament Commentaries, London 1971, pp. 77-8: 'For him the Old Testament proclaimed Christ in an obscure manner, but in the New Testament Christ had appeared in complete clearness. It was like the difference between twilight and noontide. . . . But just as allegory was out of place in interpreting the Gospels, so apocalyptic is foreign to the New Testament's complete revelation of Christ.' Parker suggests that it is for this reason that Calvin did not write a commentary on the Revelation to St John.
48. J. Luoma, 'Who Owns the Fathers? Hooker and Cartwright on the Authority of the Primitive Church', Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 8, 1977, p. 59.
49. See also W. Haugaard, 'Renaissance Patristic Scholarship and Theology in Sixteenth-Century England', Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 10, 1979, pp. 36-60
50. and "The Scriptural Hermeneutics of Richard Hooker: Historical Contextualisation and Teleology', in This Sacred History: Anglican Reflections for John Booty, D. Armentrout (ed.), Cambridge, Mass. 1990, pp. 161-74.
51. J. S. Marshall, Hooker and Anglican Tradition, p. 122: 'Hooker's is an Incarnational theology'.
52. For example, in English theology see Christ, Faith and History, S. W. Sykes and J. P. Clayton (eds), Cambridge 1972;
53. The Myth of God Incarnate, J. Hick (ed.), London 1977;
54. Incarnation and Myth: The Debate Continued, M. Goulder (ed.), London 1979.
55. Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, London 1910 (Eng. trans. of Von Reimarus zu Wrede, Tubingen 1906).
56. See E. Käsemann, 'The Problem of the Historical Jesus', in Essays on New Testament Themes, London 1964, pp. 15-47.
57. See R. H. Fuller, The Foundations of New Testament Christology, London 1965
58. and J. D. G. Dunn, Christology in the Making, London 1980.
59. See the recent survey by Scott Cowdell, Is Jesus Unique? A Study of Recent Christology, New York 1996.
60. See L. Gibbs, 'Richard Hooker's Via Media Doctrine of Justification', Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 74, 1981, pp. 211-20
61. and P. E. Hughes, Faith and Works: Cranmer and Hooker on Justification, Wilton 1982.
62. The point is put quite crisply by A. McGrath, Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification, Cambridge 1986, Vol. 2: 'The strength of Calvin's understanding of justification thus becomes apparent, in that it is evident that justification is now conceived Christologically, thus permitting the essentially moral conception of justification associated with Zwingli and Bucer to be discarded' (p. 37); 'It will thus be clear that Hooker's understanding of the nature of justification is similar to that of Calvin. Man is justified per fidem propter Christum' (p. 105).
63. Marshall, Hooker and Anglican Tradition, p. 122.
64. For a discussion of the character of traditional Anglican theology according to this theme see A. M. Ramsey, From Gore to Temple, London 1960
65. and for a critical discussion see S. W. Sykes, The Integrity of Anglicanism, London 1978.
66. See S. W. Sykes, Integrity, Ch. 6.
67. Biblical Interpretation in Crisis, R. J. Neuhaus (ed.), Grand Rapids 1989.
68. Kelsey, Use of the Bible in Theology, p. 208.
69. J. Coolidge, The Pauline Renaissance in England: Puritanism and the Bible, Oxford 1970, p. 2.
70. Quoted by Coolidge, Pauline Renaissance, p. 4.
71. Coolidge, p. 10.
72. For a recent discussion of the general theme see M. Hengel, Judentum und Hellenismus, Tübingen 1973 (Eng. trans., Judaism and Hellenism, London 1974).
73. See E. Kasemann, An die Römer, Tübingen 1974
74. and The Romans Debate, K. P. Donfried (ed.), Minneapolis 1977.
75. See S. K. Stowers, The Diatribe and Paul's Letter to the Romans, Chico, Calif. 1981
76. Hans-Jürgen van der Minde, Schrift und Tradition bei Paulus, Munich 1976
77. and B. N. Kaye, The Thought Structure of Romans with Special Reference to Chapter 6, Austin, Texas 1979
78. and '"To the Romans and Others" - Revisited', Novum Testamentum, Vol. 18, 1976, pp. 37-77.
79. See, e.g., J. Munck, Paul and the Salvation of Mankind, Eng. trans., London 1959
80. J. Ritches, Jesus and the Transformation of Judaism, London 1980
81. W. D. Davies, The Gospel and the Land, Berkeley, Calif. 1974
82. and B. N. Kaye, Using the Bible in Ethics, Bramcote, Notts. 1976
83. but especially the recent and significant analysis by J. D. G. Dunn, The Parting of the Ways, London 1991
84. An interesting sidelight from a different ecclesial tradition is the experience of the Tagung der deutschsprachigen katholischen Neutestamentler in 1969 and 1971. The topic for these two meetings was church and office in the New Testament. The meeting in 1971 formulated four theses, the first and last of which were as follows - 1: The New Testament does not yet speak of church office in the later sense of permanent and legal. The office appears more as a 'service function' of the church. 4: From a purely historical point of view the New Testament shows a gap in the succession of the office of apostle, which does not allow a view of a direct succession. However, it is not possible to exclude an actual context between the later office and the original apostolic office. See Bruce Kaye, 'Recent German Roman Catholic New Testament Research', The Churchman, Vol. 89, 1975, pp. 246-56.
85. H. C. Kee, Christian Origins in Sociological Perspective, Philadelphia 1980;
86. U. Brockhaus, Charisma und Amt, Wuppertal 1972.
87. E. Grislis, 'The Hermeneutical Problem in Richard Hooker', in Studies in Richard Hooker, Speed Hill (ed.), p. 179.
88. See B. N. Kaye, 'Lightfoot and Baur on Early Christianity', Novum Testamentum, Vol. 26, 1984, pp. 193-224.
89. See A. S. McGrade, 'The Public and the Religious in Hooker's Polity', Church History, Vol. 37, 1968, pp. 404-22 for a defence of the coherence of the Laws, and the particular place of Book 5 in this.
90. This article follows an earlier contribution by McGrade, 'The Coherence of Hooker's Polity: The Books on Power', Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 24, 1963, pp. 163-82.