SOURCE: Neelands, W. David. “Hooker on Scripture, Reason, and ‘Tradition.’” In Richard Hooker and the Construction of Christian Community, edited by Arthur Stephen McGrade, pp. 75-94. Tempe, Ariz.: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1997.

In the following essay, Neelands examines the commonly held belief that Hooker originated the concept of “the triple authority of Scripture, reason, and tradition.”

It is a commonplace of Anglican self-understanding to refer to the triple authority of Scripture, reason, and tradition. For at least one hundred years, Richard Hooker has been identified as a principal and original source of this position.¹ The purpose of this paper is to suggest first that Anglican theology could benefit from considering Hooker's account of the interrelationship of the first two elements of this triad,² Scripture and reason, since there has been no single definitive Anglican account of how these principles are related to each other, leaving the suggestion that...