Richard Hooker (1554-1600) is widely regarded not only as the leading apologist of the Elizabethan age, but one of Anglicanism's most accomplished and influential thinkers of all time. Much of Anglicanism as we know it today owes its character to the course Hooker deftly charted between Catholic and Protestant claims.

His Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, published in seven volumes, set out the constitution of the Church of England, and enshrine a philosophical and theological outlook that is characteristic of Anglicanism to this day. He opposed a literal and absolute interpretation of Scripture and instead advocated an appeal that incorporated reason - which remains the response of mainstream Anglicanism to complex ethical and moral questions today.

This volume sets Richard Hooker's life in the context of contemporary parties and opinions within the Elizabethan Church and provides an extensive reader of his original work in the fields of Scripture, reason, tradition, doctrines and the governance of the Church.