SOURCE: Booty, John E. “Richard Hooker.” In The Spirit of Anglicanism: Hooker, Maurice, Temple, edited by William J. Wolf, pp. 1-45. Wilton, Conn.: Morehouse-Barlow Co., Inc., 1979.

In the following essay, Booty considers the influences on Hooker's writing career and the critical reaction to his works.

Richard Hooker's importance for our day is suggested not so much by the work of modern Anglican theologians as by that of others who have contributed to a growing number of Hooker studies. Scholars of various nationalities, including a French Roman Catholic and a Swedish Lutheran, and various disciplines, including philosophers, historians and professors of English literature, have given years of their lives to study and write about Hooker and his thought.¹ Furthermore, a new, critical edition of his Works—sponsored by the prestigious Folger Shakespeare Library and financed by the American government's National Endowment for the Humanities—is in the process of...