Dear colleagues,

It fell on a Saturday this year so the November 3rd commemoration of Richard Hooker did not feature in our chapel life. But in this week in which a divisive election season comes to a conclusion in the United States, it’s worth pausing for a moment to remember Hooker.

If Anglicans have a “great” systematic theologian, it is probably Richard Hooker. In the late 16th century, Hooker wrote his mammoth Lawes of Ecclesiastical Polity to help explain, defend, and justify the existence and work of the Church of England. It is to Hooker that Anglicans owe—in one way or another—many of our defining concepts. This includes the three-legged stool of Scripture, tradition, and reason (though for Hooker Scripture was most important), and the idea of Anglicanism as a via media (middle way) between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.

If you want to learn more about Hooker, I’ll direct you to Prof. Torrance Kirby, who is one of the world’s acknowledged experts on the man. I want to draw your attention to the collect used for Hooker’s commemoration in the Episcopal Church:

“O God of truth and peace, you raised up your servant Richard Hooker in a day of bitter controversy to defend with sound reasoning and great charity the catholic and reformed religion: Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth.”

Reading the news, the phrase “day of bitter controversy” rings true. The need, therefore, is for both “sound reasoning” and “great charity.” In it all, Christians are called to play a bridging role, maintaining a middle way “not as a compromise…but as a comprehension.” This can be difficult to pray. All of us have strong views on many issues. This is good and welcome. I don’t think that Anglicans are called to water down our views any more than anyone else is. But in a polarizing political period, in which so much in our society urges us to choose one side or the other and in which every issue is politicized, the collect reminds us of Hooker’s assertion of a different path: strongly held views, yes, but an openness and a charity to all whom we encounter. It is that path that may offer a powerful witness to the world today.

Faithfully yours,
Jesse Zink

This reflection was written by College Principal Jesse Zink for this week’s Wingèd Ox, a community news digest named for our patron, St. Luke, and published weekly during the term on Monday (or Tuesday when Monday is holiday).