The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity In Modern English, Vol. 1

“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 volume of Hooker’s Laws in Modern English promises to challenge and equip a new generation of Christian readers. This volume contains of the material found in all four shorter volumes of the Laws published by The Davenant Press.

"The post Reformation English scholar Richard Hooker has been called the greatest Chalcedonian theologian of the Church. His profound way of using the Biblical insights of early ecumenical councils to address doctrinal controversy of his day shaped a way of thinking that is both patristic and reformed. Those issues about which he was concerned still confront the Church today, and beckon the need for his illuminating approach. Dr. Littlejohn has brought such an important voice from the past into the present with his modern translation of Richard Hooker's classic work."--The Most Rev. Dr. Ray R. Sutton, Presiding Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church 

"Richard Hooker was undoubtedly Anglicanism's greatest theologian in its most embattled century, the sixteenth. His way of charting a via media between Rome and Geneva continues to be the most careful guide to Anglican method and sensibility. Three cheers for this new translation that makes this great English mind accessible to later generations.  It is akin to a clear and melodious new translation of Aquinas' Summa Theologica."--Rev. Dr. Gerald McDermott, Professor of Anglican Studies, Beeson Divinity School

"This is a reliable and readable rendition of a classic work of Anglican theology, which deserves a wide readership in today's church. Richard Hooker is no longer consigned to obscurity with ancient tomes on dusty shelves, but lives again to speak his provocative words of wisdom in 21st century idiom."  -- Revd Dr Lee Gatiss, Director of Church Society and author of Light After Darkness: How the Protestant Reformers Regained, Retold, and Relied On the Gospel of Grace.

"This modernization is an incomparable resource for those of us trying to help new readers understand Richard Hooker and the English Reformation as it really happened. Here we have an accessible, quickly graspable text, which is at the same time an elevated text, informed by considerable research, that makes us all want to read on. Words that have changed their meaning, and rhetorical devices that have lost their currency are undated in a seamless and readable version.  Others have tried to do this, but without the success we can enjoy here." --Rev. Dr. David Neelands, Dean Emeritus of Divinity at Trinity College, University of Toronto

"Richard Hooker wrote his Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity in order to preserve and pass on wisdom to posterity, that this wisdom might not 'pass away as in a dream.' Sadly, his wisdom is hardly remembered by the present church. This amnesia in theology is deadly, because when we cannot recall lessons learned in the past, we inevitably act like fools. Hooker's wisdom is one much-needed antidote to our current follies. Although his original language is elegant, it is arduous for the contemporary reader; these modernizations deliver his wisdom whole and hearable. Take it and read it, and recall a wisdom worth remembering." --Rev. Dr. James Salladin, Rector of Emmanuel Anglican Church, New York City

"The retrieval of Richard Hooker as a leading interlocutor for reformed theology is well and truly in full swing. With this excellent new 'translation,' readers are given an impressive and accessible entrée to a figure whose thought has oftentimes been enlisted to prove and defend a whole host of differing positions. This new volume invites the reader to analyze Hooker's hermeneutic for themselves, to trace his thinking on key topics that touch down directly on current theological debates, and to engage one of the most significant theologians of Protestant theology." --Rev. Dr. Mark McDowell, Executive Director of RTS-Dallas and Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology