'By the goodness of Almighty God and his servant Elizabeth we are': Hooker, Elizabeth, and New Elizabethan Anglicans
To style Richard Hooker as an Elizabethan divine is, of course, an entirely unremarkable description. Even then, the description requires some qualification. As Diarmaid MacCulloch notes in 'Richard Hooker's Reputation', the Lawes was something of "a damp squib" in late 16th century England, with the book having to be reduced in price to aid its underwhelming sales. As MacCulloch notes, Hooker's work lacked the "satisfyingly direct insults" of his Disciplinarian opponents: "Puritanism ... was more fun".
What Hooker did do, however, was something much more significant than populist insults or topping the religious best-seller list. The Lawes - in the artistry of its words, its moderation, and its rationale - captured the very heart of the Elizabethan Settlement: this is what the Elizabethan Settlement was meant to be because this was Elizabeth's desire for her Church. Again we turn to MacCulloch:
Yet one person would have been pleased if she had read the Ecclesiastical Polity - Queen Elizabeth I ... the accumulated vision of Hooker's work is uncannily close to what we can glean of the idiosyncratic private religious opinions of this very private woman. She too defied contemporary wisdom in her reluctance to characterise Rome as Antichrist; she too was sceptical about excessive claims for episcopacy; she too had an ambiguous attitude towards preaching, and valued prayer more than sermons; and she too love dignified church ceremonial. Even her views on the Eucharist had veered towards Reformed formulations because of her growing irritation with German Lutheran dogmatism, and so she would have sympathised with Hooker's Calvin-like talk of mystical participation.
Contemporary Anglican and Episcopalian embarrassment about the Elizabethan Settlement, often preferring the more 'mature' and 'developed' post-1833 Anglicanism, obscures the wisdom, riches, moderation, and goodness of the order which Elizabeth sought and Hooker celebrated.
What are the wisdom, riches, moderation, and goodness of that order?
An eirenic hesitation about easily and harshly condemning those with whom we theologically disagree; affirming episcopacy as a good and apostolic order for the Church, but respecting non-episcopal churches and their place with us in the Church catholic; valuing decent preaching, but not over-stating its place in the Christian life; recognising the gift of the Book of Common Prayer in shaping what Hooker termed "affection of harte"; having an affection for the decent, modest ceremonies of the Prayer Book (knowing that the ceremonies of the small parish church will be plainer than those of cathedrals and larger churches), while seeing no need for either going beyond or not accepting these; knowing that we spiritually feed upon Christ in the Holy Communion, rejoicing in this mystical participation and the reserved sacramental piety which flows from it, but - with Hooker - knowing this suffices and that quiet, prayerful, faithful reception of the holy Sacrament matters more than dogmatics.
... curious and intricate speculations doe hinder, they abate, they quench such inflamed motions of delight and joy ... this heavenlie food is given for the satisfyinge of our emptie soules, and not for the exercisinge of our curious and suttle wittes (LEP V.67.3 & 5).
In an age when interminable intra-Anglican disputes too often dominate and suffocate ecclesiastical life, and when many contemporary Anglican responses to cultural challenges and decline are both unconvincing and unattractive, some of us might desire a New Elizabethan Anglicanism, centred on those gifts bequeathed by Elizabeth and Hooker, to sustain us in a goodly, nourishing, wise form of Christian life and witness.
Comments
Post a Comment