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From the Rector
After the excitement of the three big days (All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints, and All Souls/All the Faithful Departed) comes a day not to be missed: the feast day of Richard Hooker.
Richard Hooker is considered the great apologist of the Elizabethan Settlement of 1559 which truly established Anglicanism. His theology is displayed in his writings Treatise on the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, eight books of his doctrines, with his most famous, Book V, published in 1597. (The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, edited by F.L. Cross, 2nd edition 1974).
From Britannica Online:
In the Politie, Hooker defended the Elizabethan church against Roman Catholics and Puritans. He upheld the threefold authority of the Anglican tradition—Bible, church, and reason. Roman Catholics put Bible and tradition on a parity as the authorities for belief, while Puritans looked to Scripture as the sole authority. Hooker avoided both extremes, allowing to Scripture absolute authority when it spoke plainly and unequivocally; where it was silent or ambiguous, wisdom would consult the tradition of the church, but he insisted that a third element lay in human reason, which should be obeyed whenever both Scripture and tradition needed clarification or failed to cover some new circumstance. The core of Hooker’s thinking on the relations of church and state is unity. In his view, the Puritans adopted an impossible position: they claimed to be loyal to the queen while repudiating her church. By law and by reason, the people of England must be Anglican, pledged to serve Elizabeth as the supreme magistrate of the country and the supreme governor of the church.
When Episcopalians think of Hooker, we go instantly to the three-legged-stool of Anglicanism: Tradition, Scripture and Reason.
Tradition: not only what we have done in the past, but why we started doing so in the first place, and faithfully figure what actions rightly keep the spirit of that tradition.
Scripture: the vast library of the Bible, filled with understandings, history lenses, correspondence, commentary, theological reflection and narrative to tell the story for its time and shape the communities to come.
Reason: the gift of the human mind, individually and collectively, generations past, present and future, to discern, grow, and move further towards the hope God has for the created world.
Each leg of the stool must be equally strong to fully bear the weight and promise of the Church.
Faithfully,
Rev. Kurt
Email: rector@trinitymarblefalls.org Phone/Text: 737-251-3956
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