Richard Hooker and Universal Salvation

Every age has its wars, slaughters, exclusions, abuses, oppression, and persecutions. These occur for many reasons, including religion. Given that fact, it is only natural to seek a religious perspective that brings people together rather than pitting them against each other. For example, it could be said that all persons, regardless of race, religion, or nationality belong to one family, God's great family. Since we are all members of the same family, we should recognize our universal status as children of God and love each other accordingly.

This notion of the human race as a great family naturally allies itself with at least two other ideas. One is the idea that each religion is only valid for its adherents, and therefore, we should respect our religious differences rather than imposing them by force or persuasion. Secondly, if all persons are members of God's family, and with the further assumption that God is love, then it is reasonable to believe that God will save all members of his beloved family.

In this essay I will present Richard Hooker's views on universal salvation, the uniqueness of Christ, and whether or not all persons belong to God's family. I write as a Christian, an Anglican, and a citizen of the United States. Richard Hooker was one of the primary fathers of Anglicanism. He lived at the end of the 16th century, a time of deep religious differences. These divisions led to the 17th century wars of religion. Hooker addressed the issue of religious differences in the eight books of his Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. He was a man of great faith, an outstanding scholar, and passionate about Christian truth. I will discuss aspects of his thought, and then, in the final section of this paper, return to the issue of social conflict and its relation to religion. I will claim that Hooker believed in a holy, righteous God who holds us accountable, and that attempts to solve social problems by anything less will fail.

Hooker believed that all persons are accountable before God according to a truth that can be known by reason. He calls this truth natural law, the truths that Adam knew before he sinned. The Ten Commandments are an example of natural law. Natural law holds for all time and all persons. (I,x,7; I,xv,1) God is its author and it must be obeyed in order to be saved. Adam knew these truths, but he, and we in turn, disobey the natural law. Therefore, from Hooker's point of view, we all deserve eternal condemnation. God, however, has made a way of salvation apart from perfect obedience to the law, the way of faith in Jesus Christ. Here is Hooker:

Our natural means therefore unto blessedness are our works; nor is it possible that Nature should ever find any other way to salvation than only this. But examine the works that we do, and since the first foundation of the world what one can say, My ways are pure? Seeing then that all flesh is guilty of that for which God hath threatened eternally to punish, what possibility is there to be saved? (I,xi,5)

From salvation therefore and life all flesh being excluded this way, behold how the wisdom of God hath revealed a way mystical and supernatural, a way directing unto the same end of life by a course which groundeth itself upon the gultiness of sin, and through sin desert of condemnation of sin and death. For in this way the first thing is the tender compassion of God respecting us drowned and swallowed up in misery; the next is redemption out of the same by the precious death and merit of a mighty Saviour, which hath witnessed of himself, saying, 'I am the way," the way that leadeth us from misery into bliss. (I,xi,6)

We now have the following: Nature has a way of salvation, obedience to the natural law. No one follows that way, no one is pure. Therefore, all flesh is excluded from salvation and eternal life. But God, seeing our misery, has offered a way of salvation in Christ Jesus. Those who believe and persevere will be united with God, the risen Christ, and the company of the redeemed forever. Those who do not, who sin against the natural law or reject Christ, deserve the "condemnation of sin and death." I will now consider whether all people belong to God's family.
First, Hooker does not use the term "family" when discussing the fact that all persons were created by God. There is a society composed of all human beings, but it is not a family in which all are sons or daughters of God. Rather, for Hooker, there is the society of all persons, and then a smaller society, those who believe in Jesus Christ. The former he calls the sons of Adam, the latter he calls the sons of God, a title he reserves for the saved.

Let hereunto saving efficacy be added, and it bringeth forth a special offspring amongst men, containing them to whom God hath himself given the gracious and amiable name of sons. We are by nature the sons of Adam. When God created Adam he created us, and as many as are descended from Adam have in themselves the root out of which they spring. The sons of God we neither are all nor any one of us otherwise than only be grace and favour. The sons of God have God's own natural Son as a second Adam from heaven, whose race and progeny they are by spiritual and heavenly birth. (V,lvi,6)

When Hooker states that the "sons of God we neither are all," he is saying that not all will be saved. Only those who belong to the second Adam, Jesus Christ, those born from above, are those destined to be saved.

Nor did Hooker believe that Jesus Christ was one among many saviors. For him, following Scripture, Christ is the only savior. As the second quotation of this essay makes clear, God prepared a way through the "precious death and merit of a mighty Saviour" who claimed, and Hooker believed it literally, to be "the way."

Those who accept Jesus Christ form the Church. Apart from the Church, there is no salvation. The Church is "like the ark of Noah, that for anything we know to the contrary, all without it are like lost sheep; ... " (V,lxviii,6) The Church takes two forms, the saints of Israel before Christ and those who believe in Christ. (I,xiv,4; III,1,3) (See also Article VII of the Anglican Articles of Religion.) Within the Church, Hooker distinguished between the invisible (or mystical) and the visible Church. The mystical Church is the society of the saved, those who truly hear the call of God and respond in faith. They will be with God forever in heaven. Only God knows who they are. (III,i,2) The visible church consists of those who outwardly profess Jesus Christ. There are, however, members of the visible church who do not believe in their hearts that Christ is Lord. They may attend church, take Christ's name upon their lips, but inwardly they are not of Christ and will not be saved. They belong to the visible church but not the invisible church.

Howbeit of the visible body and Church of Jesus Christ those may be and oftentimes are, ... most worthily both hateful in the sight of God himself, and in the eyes of the sounder parts of the visible Church most execrable. Our Saviour therefore compareth the kingdom of heaven to a net, whereunto all which cometh neither is nor seemeth fish; his Church he compareth unto a field, where tares manifestly known and seen by all men do grow intermingled with good corn, and even so shall continue till the final consummation of the world. (III,i,8)

In short, from Hooker's point of view, only Christians are saved, and only those Christians who hold true to Christ. This may seem harsh since many have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. It must be said, however, that Hooker had a very high regard for the majesty, power, and authority of God. He believed the divine justice to be a mystery, a mystery we should honor above our own conceptions of justice. Perhaps, in light of I Peter 3:18-22, more could be said, but I find nothing in Hooker that would claim salvation for those who never heard of Christ. Hooker did believe that God had a "general inclination" that all be saved, but God also held "a more private occasioned will that determineth the contrary." (V,xlix,3). It is utterly clear, however, that Hooker, on the basis of Scripture and the best teaching of the Church Universal, believed that Jesus Christ is the only Savior, that not all are saved, and that the Church must, for the sake of the lost, proclaim the gospel at once to every person on earth. Further, it must be said that Hooker humbled himself before Scripture as before God. He was obedient to Scripture, not his own inclinations. Now let me return to the theme of the opening paragraphs of this essay, religion and the ongoing conflicts that devastate our world

From all I can tell, and my thinking has recently been reinforced by the writings of N.T. Wright, especially his Jesus and the Victory of God, Jesus preached the gospel of the Kingdom. He forgave sinners, healed the sick, cast out demons, associated with the poor and outcast, practiced and advocated radical sharing and renunciation of possessions, advocated a program of turning the other cheek as a solution to the political problem of Roman domination, and finally, gave up his life for his enemies and the sins of the world.

His life is a program, an alternative to the endless lust for power, wealth, and status that afflicts the modern world. As is well known, many of his early followers followed his way. They repented and believed the gospel. They humbled themselves, shared their wealth, and did not advance Roman imperial power through military service. This was a response to the gospel, the gospel of a righteous God who expects and enables the highest forms of Christian love. That gospel is the only solution to the present disorders because it goes straight to the root of the problem, the endemic human lust for power and wealth. For that reason it is not only a gospel for eternal life, but life itself.
This, however, is not the gospel of those Christians who attempt to solve social problems through claims that all belong to God's family, or that God will save everyone, or that Jesus is not the only Lord and Savior. For Hooker, such messages are a denial of the Christian faith. They undermine the seriousness of the gospel. They diminish the proclamation of a righteous God who holds us accountable in every sphere of life, and they demean the terrible yet saving work of Christ's atoning death on the cross. The "liberal" theological vision will fail because God will not honor a "gospel" that diminishes the integrity of his holiness.

Further, Hooker believed in the rule of law and this includes laws governing the conduct of nations. (I,x,12; I,xvi,5). In my view, lawlessness has characterized the so-called Christian nations for centuries. "Christian" nations, especially Europe and the United States, have fought internal wars of extraordinary ferocity along with overrunning and exploiting major portions of the globe. The war in Iraq, prosecuted by the United States, is a recent example. The "liberals" decry these depredations, but they lack a gospel of power. The "conservatives" may believe in the divinity of Christ, they may think there is a hell, but they ignore the social and economic teaching of Scripture, the social teaching of the Church Universal, and the classical tradition of natural law. In spite of the example of Christ, their preaching does not counter the horrors of war and economic exploitation. Instead, they often add fuel to the fire of an on-going imperialism that confuses the cross of Christ and his Kingdom with the kingdoms of this world with their wars and predatory economic policies.

Hooker wrote to the Church, for its repentance, reform, and purity. Political and economic reform is essential, but even more fundamental is a repentant and purified Church. God redeems the world through the Church. We need a Church that proclaims and lives the unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ, a mighty Savior who conquers by the cross and not the sword.

The Rev. Robert J. Sanders, Ph.D.
July, 2006