This collection of seventeen essays addresses the substance of Richard Hooker's achievement as a theologian and philosopher in the context of principal themes of English Reformation thought. Hooker has been variously described as a Protestant scholastic, Renaissance Aristotelian, Erasmian humanist, Thomist, moderate Calvinist, and founder of a distinctive new theological method. The main thrust of these essays is to weigh such protean claims against careful readings of his oeuvre. Five principal loci of Reformation discourse are addressed: 1) the relation between the "orders" of Grace and Nature, 2) the doctrines of Providence and Predestination, 3) the Church and the liturgy, 4) sacramental theology, and 5) the polemical cut-and-thrust of the late-Elizabethan context. Scholars, seminarians, and students alike will find that this volume offers a fresh, critical illumination of Hooker's distinctive contribution to sixteenth-century religious reform. TOC:From the Contents: List of Contributors.- Abbreviations and Acronyms.- Foreword- I: The Orders Of Grace And Nature.- II: Providence And Predestination.- III: The Church And Common Prayer.- IV: Grace And The Sacraments.- V: Polemics Of Reform.- Bibliography.- Index.- Index of Subjects and Names.- Index of Hooker's Works.