Richard Hooker (1554-1600): Hayatı ve Eserleri

Abstract

Richard Hooker Richard Hooker was born in Devon, near Exeter in April 1554; he died at Bishopsbourne, Kent on 2 November 1600. From 1579 to 1585 he was a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and read the Hebrew Lecture at the University during this period. In 1585 Queen Elizabeth I appointed him Master of the Temple Church at the Inns of Court where he engaged in a preaching struggle with his assistant, Walter Travers. Their disagreement over the theological and political assumptions of the reformed Church of England as defined by the Act of Uniformity of 1559 and the Book of Common Prayer led to Hooker's composition of his great work Of the Lawes of Ecclesiasticall Politie (1593). The treatise consists of a lengthy preface which frames the polemical context, followed by eight books. The first four books address what he terms "general meditations": (1) the nature of law in general, (2) the proper uses of the authorities of reason and revelation, (3) the application of the latter to the government of the church and (4) objections to practices inconsistent with the continental "reformed" example. The final four address the more "particular decisions" of the Church's constitution: (5) public religious duties as prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer (1559), (6) the power of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, (7) the authority of bishops and (8) the supreme authority of the Prince in both church and commonwealth, and hence their unity in the Christian state. Hooker grounds his apology in defence of the Elizabethan Settlement in his claim that God is law--'The being of God is a kind of law to his working.' (Lawes I.2.2) As 'first originall cause', this divine 'aeternal Law' contains within itself all derivative species of law; 'as ofspringe of god, they are in him as effects in their highest cause, he likewise actuallie is in them, thassistance and influence of his deitie is theire life.' (V.56.5) Hooker distinguishes, moreover, between a 'first' and a 'second' eternal law. The latter comprises all derivative species of law which participate the eternal law as discrete emanations ordered dispositively in hierarchical 'procession', while the former is the original, self-constituting divine source as it remains concomitantly and ineffably simple, at unity within itself--i.e. 'verie Onenesse'. Hooker's account of eternal law as simultaneously unity in simplicity and participation of that unity by a multiplicity of derivative forms of law recapitulates the account of causality set out by Proclus in his Elements of Theology whereby 'every effect remains in its cause, proceeds from it, and reverts upon it.' (prop. 35) Hooker anchors his elaborate defence of the Elizabethan religious settlement in a metaphysical theory of law which itself assumes a Neoplatonic ontology of 'participation' in the Proclean tradition.

Özet

Richard Hooker : Hayatı ve Eserleri Richard Hooker Exeter yakınlarındaki Devon'da Nisan 1554'te doğdu; Kent yakınlarındaki Bishopsbourne'da 2 Kasım 1600'de öldü. 1579'dan 1585'e kadar Oxford'da Corpus Christi College'da Fellow olarak bulundu ve bu sırada üniversitedeki İbranice derslerini verdi. Kraliçe 1. Elizabeth kendisini 1585'te Inss of Court'ta bulunan Temple Church'ün başı olarak atadı; Hooker burada yardımcısı Walter Travers ile birlikte vaaz mücadelesi verdi. İngiltere Reform Kilisesi'nin 1559 tarihli Act of Uniformity ve Book of Common Prayer'da tanımlanan teolojik ve politik kabulleri konusunda Travers ile ihtilafa düştüler. Bu nedenle Richard Hooker başyapıtı Of the Lawes of Ecclesiasticall Politie adlı eseri yazdı (1593). Bu eser, yazılmasına neden olan polemik bağlamını detaylıca açıklayan bir giriş ve ardından sekiz ciltten oluşur. Eserin ilk dört kitabı Hooker'ın "genel düşünceler" diye adlandırdığı bir muhtevadan oluşur: (1) genel olarak hukukun tabiatı, (2) akıl ve vahiy otoritelerinin yerinde kullanılması, (3) vahyin kilise idaresine tatbik edilmesi ve (4) kıta Avrupası "Reform" Hıristiyanlarının uygulamalarına uyumlu olmayan uygulamalara itirazlar. Son dört kitap ise Kilise'nin anayasasına ait daha özel kararlarla ilgilidir: (5) Book of Common Prayer (1559)'da vazedilen kamusal dini vazifeler, (6) Kilise yargısının gücü, (7) piskoposların otoritesi ve (8) kralın hem kilisede hem de devletteki mutlak otoritesi ve bu iki kurumun Hıristiyan devlette bir oluşları. Hooker, Elizabeth'in reformunu savunurken iddialarını Tanrı kanundur şeklinde ifade edilen argümanına dayandırır. "Tanrı'nın varlığı kendi işleri hakkında bir kanun hükmündedir (Lawes I.2.2). Bu ilahi "ezeli Kanun" kendi içinde tüm diğer yasa türlerini barındırır. Dahası Hooker "birincil" ve "ikincil" ezeli yasalar arasında bir ayrım yapar. Hooker Elizabeth'in gerçekleştirdiği dini reform adına yaptığı savunusunu bu şekilde bir metafizik kanun teorisine dayandırır. Bu teori ise Yeni Eflâtuncu bir ontolojiye dayanır