Crown Under Law: Richard Hooker, John Locke, and the Ascent of Modern Constitutionalism

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Lexington Books, 2008 - History - 325 pages
Crown under Law is an account of how and why the constitutional idea arose in early modern England. The book focuses on two figures: Richard Hooker and John Locke. Alexander S. Rosenthal characterizes Hooker as a transitional figure who follows the medieval natural law tradition even while laying the groundwork for Locke's political thought. The book challenges the influential interpretation of Locke by Leo Strauss (who saw Locke as a radical modernist) by illustrating the lines of continuity between Locke's argument in Two Treatises of Government and the earlier political tradition represented by Hooker. In the course of this intellectual history, Rosenthal explores the perennial themes of political philosophy: what is the origin of political authority, and what conditions render it legitimate? What is the nature of consent and representation? Who holds sovereignty within the state? What laws, if any, ought to bind the exercise of rule? By illustrating the often distinctive manner in which Hooker addresses the great questions, and how he powerfully affects later developments such as Locke's conception of the state, Rosenthal's Crown under Law establishes the important place of Richard Hooker in the history of political thought. Book jacket.
 

Contents

The Historical and Theological Context of Richard Hookers Laws
3
Hookers Politics of Divine Law
47
Hookers Theory of Political Dominion
83
The Tory Hooker and the Whig Hooker Divergent Readings of the Laws in Stuart England
143
The Judicious Hooker The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity in the Political Writing of John Locke
203
Conclusion
245
Straussianism and its Discontents
267
The Question of Intellectualism and Voluntarism in Lockes Natural Law Theory
289
Bibliography
307
Index
317
About the Author
Copyright

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About the author (2008)

Alexander S. Rosenthal is a lecturer on political theory at Johns Hopkins University's Advanced Academic Programs in Government.

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