A Companion to Richard Hooker

Richard Hooker was a learned philosophical theologian and engaged polemicist of the later sixteenth century who explained and defended the Elizabethan religious and political settlement, and shaped definitively the self-understanding of the English ecclesiastical establishment for centuries to come. This Companion to Richard Hooker brings together a representative body of contributors with a view to offering a summary of the current state of scholarly debate and a synthesis of emerging trends in criticism. Contributions to this volume reflect the major current trends of scholarly opinion on Hooker's place within the mainstream of Protestant reform. This Companion aims to provide a comprehensive and systematic introduction to Richard Hooker's life, works, thought, reputation, and influence. Contributors are: Rudolph P. Almasy, Daniel Eppley, Lee W. Gibbs, Egil Grislis, William Harrison, W. Speed Hill, Ranall Ingalls, Dean Kernan, Torrance Kirby, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A. S. McGrade, W. David Neelands, W. Brown Patterson, Debora K. Shuger, Corneliu C. Simut, John K. Stafford, Paul Stanwood, James F. Turrell, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams.

Review:

A finely accomplished project, a considerable editorial achievement, and a useful addition to Hooker studies. Libraries that cover sixteenth-century English theology, literature and politics will need to invest in this book. Teachers as well as students of Hooker will want to have it to hand. - Paul Avis, University of Exeter, in: Ecclesiology 8/3 (2012), pp. 416- 420 This Companion is an excellent introduction to a complex and often verbose theologian, and in places it is clearer on Hooker's thought than he was himself . - Bryan Spinks, Yale University, in: Church History and Religious Culture 90/2-3 (2010) Hooker, sein Werk und dessen Wirkungsgeschichte werden mit ansteckender Liebe zum Detail in ihre ursprunglichen geschichtlichen Bezuge eingeordnet . - Martin Ohst, Bergische Universitat Wuppertal, in: Sehepunkte, 10/3 (2010)