Editor's notes

Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were digged. Isaiah 51:1

You might call this a rock-and-quarry issue. All the major articles have to do with origins and with identity as derived from origins. They look to the first, formative period of Anglicanism, and especially to the author of that period who ranks first among the formative influences on Anglicanism's theological identity: Richard Hooker.

Hooker was a significant writer: no doubt about that. But there is lively discussion as to just what the significance of his writing has been and now is. Witness the six papers on Hooker in this issue. Four of them were presented at an ecumenical symposium sponsored by St. John's College, Winnipeg, Manitoba, in November 2000, the quatercentenary of Hooker's death. John Stafford, the dean of theology, was the organizer as well as one of the speakers, and William Haugaard, to whom thanks are due for the meticulous work of editing all the papers for publication, has added an introductory prelude. Taken as an ensemble, these essays display an attention to both contemporary relevance and historical questions that fulfills the goal expressed in the symposium's title, "Rediscovering Richard Hooker: His Thought for Our Time."

Here, then, is an excellent sampling of several dimensions of Hooker scholarship which confirms that his Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity continues to enjoy the status of a classic-a text from which there is always something new to learn. It is worth noting in this regard that what several of the authors discuss is not so much what Hooker said as what he was up to, what he was doing by saying it. His procedure, his reasoning, his criteria-these may be the features of Hooker's work which it would be most worthwhile to rediscover. Classic though it is, there is no reason to think that Hooker foresaw twentyfirst-century questions and answered them in advance. But there may be reason to think that his approach to the issues of his own day can be adapted and adopted four hundred years later. On the other hand, if anyone still imagines Hooker as a methodical carpenter assembling solid stools that stand on equal and independent legs, these essays will dispel the image. Hooker's way of working with received texts and inherited practices is very much more subtle.

The three-legged stool (or three-stranded cord) is one image commonly associated with Hooker. Another is the in-between road, the Anglican via media. Geographically, it is supposed to lie somewhere between Geneva and Rome-between the (Continental) Reformation and (Tridentine) Catholicism-and Hooker is supposed to have mapped it. Did he? And, if he did, how far does the route he charts bend toward one side rather than the other? Several of these essays, in different ways, address this issue and, by addressing it, contribute to the discussion of the Anglican Communion's identity at the present time. Robert Slocum takes a complementary approach in his review article, which locates Hooker in the context of a tradition for which participation in God is a central theme of theology.

It is no derogation of Hooker or of theology to say that neither his work nor that of any other theologian has, in Anglican Christianity, the authoritative status that other Christians sometimes ascribe to particular authors and texts. Certainly there was an acute need for the reformed English church to articulate its position in theological terms. Certainly Hooker gets most of the credit for articulating it. Still, his intellectual articulation had its place in a larger context. That it was less a theoretical than a practical context has been another commonplace of Anglican self-understanding-not necessarily less true on that account, but not immune from reexamination either. Spirituality, the practice of Christian living, is part of this larger question of origins. Philip Sheldrake's essay, with which the present issue opens, reexamines it from the standpoint (in his words) of an insider/outsider in relation to the Anglican tradition. The evidence he considers includes especially poetry, and most especially the poetry of George Herbert, whose short life began in the year the first books of Hooker's Laws were published. Another essay on Herbert, by Clifford Davidson, follows. This one too is concerned with a practical manifestation of spirituality, the architecture of worship.

Turning to the end of the issue, you will find one of the finest of Catherine Wallace's fine "Gleanings," which have been provoking the thought of readers, and evoking their praise, for the last two years. We hope that further "Gleanings" will grace the ATR from time to time, although Dr. Wallace has resigned from her position as book review editor. She leaves with the profound thanks of the ATR staff and with prayers for a blessing on her future work. The importance of the book review section is hard to exaggerate, and so is the amount of painstaking effort that putting it together requires. For the most part this work goes on invisibly, behind the pages as it were. So it is a happy coincidence that our new book review editor has also contributed to this issue in the visible form of an article. It is a joy to welcome William H. Harrison to the editorial staff. Hooker was the subject of his doctoral dissertation, completed in 2000, and he is currently a professor of theology and Anglican studies at the College of Emmanuel and St. Chad, one of the ATR's supporting institutions.