Sacramental Causality in Hooker’s Eucharistic Theology
Richard Hooker’s eucharistic theology has been a cause for controversy, not in the least because of an apparent contradiction in his sacramental theology. On the one hand he called sacraments ‘instrumentes’ and on the other he said ‘they conteine in them selves no vitall force or efficacie’. Set aga...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
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| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2011
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| In: |
The journal of theological studies
Year: 2011, Volume: 62, Issue: 2, Pages: 607-648 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Richard Hooker’s eucharistic theology has been a cause for controversy, not in the least because of an apparent contradiction in his sacramental theology. On the one hand he called sacraments ‘instrumentes’ and on the other he said ‘they conteine in them selves no vitall force or efficacie’. Set against the backdrop of medieval sacramental causality, this essay examines Hooker’s eucharistic theology and endeavours to show that he employed moral causality throughout his sacramental theology as a way to understand how sacraments functioned and to explain the real presence. Moral causality was the thread that gave logical consistency to his sacramental and eucharistic theology in several ways. First, by using moral causality Hooker was able to think of sacraments as ‘morall instrumentes’ that caused but did not contain grace in the physical matter of the sacrament. This explains the apparent contradiction in his eucharistic theology. Second, moral causality allowed Hooker to hold that sacraments were ‘meanes conditionall’ or a means of salvation conditioned upon human cooperation with grace. Third, moral causality demonstrated the necessity of sacraments for salvation. And lastly, moral causality provided a way for Hooker to avoid the contentious question of Christ’s corporeal presence. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4607 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of theological studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jts/flr117 |