Abstract Not Provided. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

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This thesis discusses the contribution of Richard Hooker to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in his magisterial work, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. Hooker’s discussion of the Holy Spirit is unsystematic although his dependence on the Holy Spirit for his theology is extensive. The aim of the thesis is to assess the contribution of the Holy Spirit to Hooker’s theology as under-represented in current research. Hooker’s attitude to reform is explored in relation to contemporary and later Puritan writers, such as William Perkins, William Ames, Richard Baxter, and John Owen, and forms part of the overall evaluation of the importance of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit for his theology. Four areas are investigated concerning the role Hooker assigned to the Holy Spirit in Christian theology. 1. The role of the Holy Spirit in the interpretation of Scripture. 2. The nature and purpose of the sacraments in light of the Holy Spirit. 3. The place of the Holy Spirit in understanding Hooker’s view of the orders of ministry. 4. The centre of Hooker’s theology as the claim to "participation" in the life of God. The thesis concludes that Hooker remained generally consistent with Calvin’s understanding of the Holy Spirit, though he refined Calvin’s scriptural hermeneutic with special reference to the relationship between reason and the Holy Spirit. It is also contends that later Puritans such as Richard Baxter and John Owen, offered a perspective on the relationship between reason and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that was consistent with Calvin but also anticipated by Hooker. This suggests a strong measure of continuity between Hooker and Puritan thought that did not become apparent until after his death in 1600, and which contemporary scholarship has continued to debate. Hooker was an advocate of reform but with a characteristically independent grasp of what that entailed in the convergence of Thomistic and Calvinist thought. Hooker’s doctrine of the Holy Spirit was a consistent theme that was essential to his central motif of the believer’s participation in God. The final chapter shows that Hooker, in defending the Elizabethan Settlement, was able to avoid the entrapment of the Puritan charge of Pelagianism and sympathy towards Rome on the one hand, and the Roman charge of Scriptural insufficiency on the other, by positing a third pole in the debate. This required acceptance of the idea of foundational Christian truth whose goal was theosis, the union of the soul with God, whose agent was the secret operation of the Holy Spirit and instrumentality, the Scriptures and sacraments. As such, Hooker called for mature commitment to theological investigation that stood above partisan rancour. / May 2005

This thesis discusses the contribution of Richard Hooker to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in his magisterial work, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. Hooker’s discussion of the Holy Spirit is unsystematic although his dependence on the Holy Spirit for his theology is extensive. The aim of the thesis is to assess the contribution of the Holy Spirit to Hooker’s theology as under-represented in current research. Hooker’s attitude to reform is explored in relation to contemporary and later Puritan writers, such as William Perkins, William Ames, Richard Baxter, and John Owen, and forms part of the overall evaluation of the importance of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit for his theology. Four areas are investigated concerning the role Hooker assigned to the Holy Spirit in Christian theology. 1. The role of the Holy Spirit in the interpretation of Scripture. 2. The nature and purpose of the sacraments in light of the Holy Spirit. 3. The place of the Holy Spirit in understanding Hooker’s view of the orders of ministry. 4. The centre of Hooker’s theology as the claim to "participation" in the life of God. The thesis concludes that Hooker remained generally consistent with Calvin’s understanding of the Holy Spirit, though he refined Calvin’s scriptural hermeneutic with special reference to the relationship between reason and the Holy Spirit. It is also contends that later Puritans such as Richard Baxter and John Owen, offered a perspective on the relationship between reason and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that was consistent with Calvin but also anticipated by Hooker. This suggests a strong measure of continuity between Hooker and Puritan thought that did not become apparent until after his death in 1600, and which contemporary scholarship has continued to debate. Hooker was an advocate of reform but with a characteristically independent grasp of what that entailed in the convergence of Thomistic and Calvinist thought. Hooker’s doctrine of the Holy Spirit was a consistent theme that was essential to his central motif of the believer’s participation in God. The final chapter shows that Hooker, in defending the Elizabethan Settlement, was able to avoid the entrapment of the Puritan charge of Pelagianism and sympathy towards Rome on the one hand, and the Roman charge of Scriptural insufficiency on the other, by positing a third pole in the debate. This required acceptance of the idea of foundational Christian truth whose goal was theosis, the union of the soul with God, whose agent was the secret operation of the Holy Spirit and instrumentality, the Scriptures and sacraments. As such, Hooker called for mature commitment to theological investigation that stood above partisan rancour.

This thesis discusses the contribution of Richard Hooker to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in his magisterial work, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. Hooker’s discussion of the Holy Spirit is unsystematic although his dependence on the Holy Spirit for his theology is extensive. The aim of the thesis is to assess the contribution of the Holy Spirit to Hooker’s theology as under-represented in current research. Hooker’s attitude to reform is explored in relation to contemporary and later Puritan writers, such as William Perkins, William Ames, Richard Baxter, and John Owen, and forms part of the overall evaluation of the importance of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit for his theology. Four areas are investigated concerning the role Hooker assigned to the Holy Spirit in Christian theology. 1. The role of the Holy Spirit in the interpretation of Scripture. 2. The nature and purpose of the sacraments in light of the Holy Spirit. 3. The place of the Holy Spirit in understanding Hooker’s view of the orders of ministry. 4. The centre of Hooker’s theology as the claim to "participation" in the life of God. The thesis concludes that Hooker remained generally consistent with Calvin’s understanding of the Holy Spirit, though he refined Calvin’s scriptural hermeneutic with special reference to the relationship between reason and the Holy Spirit. It is also contends that later Puritans such as Richard Baxter and John Owen, offered a perspective on the relationship between reason and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that was consistent with Calvin but also anticipated by Hooker. This suggests a strong measure of continuity between Hooker and Puritan thought that did not become apparent until after his death in 1600, and which contemporary scholarship has continued to debate. Hooker was an advocate of reform but with a characteristically independent grasp of what that entailed in the convergence of Thomistic and Calvinist thought. Hooker’s doctrine of the Holy Spirit was a consistent theme that was essential to his central motif of the believer’s participation in God. The final chapter shows that Hooker, in defending the Elizabethan Settlement, was able to avoid the entrapment of the Puritan charge of Pelagianism and sympathy towards Rome on the one hand, and the Roman charge of Scriptural insufficiency on the other, by positing a third pole in the debate. This required acceptance of the idea of foundational Christian truth whose goal was theosis, the union of the soul with God, whose agent was the secret operation of the Holy Spirit and instrumentality, the Scriptures and sacraments. As such, Hooker called for mature commitment to theological investigation that stood above partisan rancour.

The Religious Census of 1851 revealed the registration district of Alresford in Hampshire to be a particular bastion of the Church of England. This study considers the basis of this Anglican strength and how the established Church managed to retain its dominance against the challenge from Nonconformity in the context of an apparent waning of religious commitment nationally. Starting from c.1780 to pick up the roots of any early signs of local dissent, the thesis considers the evolving relationship between church and community in this rural part of southern England which comprised a small but prosperous market town surrounded by a variety of agricultural parishes. The study is positioned in the national context of the major political, social and economic upheaval of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, concluding with the period between the two world wars. The research consists primarily, but not exclusively, of qualitative analysis, which draws on a rich variety of primary sources including clerical service registers, vestry minutes, churchwarden and overseer accounts, school, court and parish records, enclosure and tithe agreements, parish magazines, local and national newspapers and private correspondence. The general historiography to which the work contributes is around secularisation and denominational rivalry, and regular reference is made to this and more specific sub-themes throughout the thesis. I will argue that the enduring local dominance of the Church of England was due to its enormous financial strength, its central involvement in the provision of charity and welfare, a re-invigorated commitment to pastoral care and the absence of any senior local sponsorship for Nonconformity. Underpinning everything was the formation of a particularly tight nexus between church and parish elites which served to preserve effective Anglican hegemony well beyond the First World War. It was not until the 1920s and 1930s, when the church started to lose its social relevance in welfare and education nationally, that the cracks in the façade of local dominance became irrefutable.

This dissertation examines how leaders in the Church of England sought to reorganize the colonial church at critical moments, in the late 1740s, the early 1760s and the mid 1770s, by installing one or two resident bishops when the British government moved to bring the colonies into closer economic and political alignment with England. Examining Anglican attempts to bring bishops to the American colonies within the context of the Anglo-American world moves beyond the current literature and provides insight into the difficulties British political and ecclesiastical authorities had managing the colonies more efficiently. Even though the Church of England sustained wide influence over the population, the failure of the Anglicans’ proposal to install bishops into the colonies was symptomatic of the declining influence of the Church on politics in the eighteenth century. Differing views over political and ecclesiastical authority between the colonists and the Anglicans, and the possibility religious conflict might have on elections, concerned British authorities enough to reject Anglicans’ proposals for resident bishops for the colonies. The failure also highlights how the British government in the eighteenth century increasingly focused on the political and economic administration of the expanded more diverse British Empire than it did on religious administration.

The thesis addresses controversies within Anglicanism over overlapping identities and whose differences are included or excluded as Anglicans. Overlapping identities have been perceived as challenges to ecclesial identity coherence, but the thesis asks if these might alternatively be viewed as an unrecognized manifestation of postcolonial hybrid ecclesiologies. The thesis engages Stephen Sykes' search for a systematic, ontological question as to the way the Anglican Communion is a "part" of the universal church of Christ. The thesis demonstrates the shift of whole-parts from an ontological foundation in medieval ecclesiology to a manipulation of power in contemporary ecclesiologies to exclude offensive parts and maintain coherence in identity.

This dissertation analyzes the theology and politics of Michael Ramsey between his ordination in 1928 and his retirement in 1974. Ramsey entered the priesthood after a burgeoning career in law and Liberal politics. I argue that Ramsey's later political activism as Archbishop of Canterbury was a continuation of his early political engagement at Cambridge. However, the Anglican Incarnational theological tradition exemplified in the writings of F. D. Maurice, Charles Gore, and William Temple exerted a powerful influence on Ramsey's politics after he entered the priesthood. This dissertation locates Ramsey within that Incarnational tradition, and I argue that the Incarnation was the locus not only of his theological writings and his historical writings on Anglican theology, but also of his political activism in the 1960s and early 1970s. I draw heavily on unpublished letters and autobiographical essays from the Ramsey Papers at Lambeth Palace, as well as on his speeches to ordinands and in House of Lords. Two chapters contain analyses of nearly all of Ramsey's published corpus, with one devoted to his historical writings and the other to his social theological writings. A third chapter analyzes three examples of Ramsey's activism at Canterbury (on legal reform for homosexual acts, the Rhodesian crisis of 1965, and Commonwealth immigration) within the context of his Incarnational social theology. I argue that the primary issue for Ramsey in each example was the affirmation of human dignity and conscience, regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation, and that his belief in the post-Incarnational sanctification of humankind led him to emphasize the social values that he did.

This thesis focuses specifically on the gentry of North-East Wales. It addresses the question of the uniqueness of the region's gentry in relation to societal organisation, authority, identity, religion, and political culture. The thesis examines the impact of the events of 1640 to 1688 on the conservative culture of the region. It assesses the extent to which the seventeenth-century crises changed that culture. Additionally, it discusses the distinctiveness of the Welsh response to those events. This thesis offers new arguments, or breaks new ground, in relation to three principal areas of historiography: the questions of Welsh identity, religion, and political culture. Within Welsh historiography this thesis argues for a continuation of Welsh identity and ideals. It uncovers a royalist, loyalist, and Anglican culture that operated using ancient ideals of territorial power and patronage to achieve its ends. In doing so it overturns a lingering idea that the Welsh gentry were anglicised and alienated from the populace. The thesis also interacts with English debates on the same themes. In exploring the unique aspects of the culture of North-East Wales, the assertion of an anglicised monoculture across England and Wales can be disproven. This allows for a more complex picture of British identity, religion, and politics to emerge. This thesis musters correspondence, material objects, diaries, notebooks, accounts, official documents, and architectural features to aid in its analysis. This breadth of evidence allows for a broad analysis of regional patterns while allowing for depth when required. The first three chapters of the thesis examine the North-East Welsh gentry in relation to the themes of Welsh society and identity; religion; and finally political culture. The final chapter comprises three case studies that explore aspects of the aforementioned themes in further depth.