Richard Hooker amongst the Reformers - a two-day online symposium

The Richard Hooker Society is hosting a two-day Zoom symposium this fall on Saturday, September19th, and Saturday, November 21st, 2026 on the theme of our forthcoming publication Richard Hooker Amongst the Reformers (under contract with Brill). There is no cost to attend this event. If you would like to attend please email fr.daniel.graves@gmail.com for the Zoom link.

What relationship did Richard Hooker have to his fellow sixteenth century religious reformers? Recent scholarship has underscored that the sixteenth religious reforms of the English church happened in conversation with the Reformation on the Continent, and that while the English Reformation was unique in some respects, it cannot be viewed in isolation. More specifically, over the past several years, scholars of Richard Hooker have explored the relationship between Richard Hooker and a variety of Protestant reformers, both in England and on the Continent.

This project seeks to build on these existing bodies of work by situating and re-situating Hooker amongst the broad spectrum of theologians of the Protestant Reformation. Our goal is to bring together papers that not only trace the influence of particular reformers on Hooker’s thought but also explore how, as a second-generation reformer, he is in conversation with, adapts, critiques, and distinguishes himself from them. This symposium includes papers on Hooker’s relationship with and response to the various trajectories of the Reformation in England and on the Continent, including Reformed, Lutheran, radical, and even Counter-Reformation traditions.

Conference Schedule

September 19

Panel 1: Richard Hooker and the Continental Reformation (10 am - 12 pm EDT)

• Andreas Stegmann (Wittenberg Center for Reformation Studies/Humboldt University),The vernacularization of theological discourse in 16th century Germany and England

• Ranall Ingalls (University of King's College), ‘Drenched with deity’: Luther, Dionysius, and Richard Hooker’s Universe

• Jon Cleland (Heritage College and Seminary), Richard Hooker, Regeneration, and the Ordo Salutis in Sixteenth-Century Context

  
  

Panel 2: Richard Hooker and the Early English Reformation (2 pm - 4 pm EDT)

• Drew Keane (George Southern University), The Liturgical Projects of Cranmer and Hooker

• Andre Gazal (Montana Bible College), ‘A Mystical and Visible Society That is Dispersed’: Richard Hooker’s Use of John Jewel’s Doctrine of the Universal Church

• David Neelands (Trinity College, University of Toronto), The Single Wall of Doctrine that Divides the Reformed Church of England from Rome

November 21

Panel 3: Hooker Reaching Across Divides? Doctrine of the Word, Ecclesiology, Mariology (10 am - 12 pm EST)

• Ashley Null (Wittenberg Center for Reformation Studies), The Power of the Spoken Word in the English Reformation: Cranmer and Hooker Compared

• John Stafford (St. John's College, University of Manitoba), Richard Hooker: A Generous Defender of Reform

• Philip Hobday (Wakefield Cathedral), Richard Hooker and the Virgin Mary

Panel 4: Hooker on/and His Fellow Reformers (2 pm - 4 pm EST)

• Scott Kindred-Barnes (Port Williams United Baptist Church), Re-reading the "Radical Reformation" with Richard Hooker

• Dan Graves (Huron University College), Richard Hooker and Antonio del Corro

• Ben Crosby (McGill University), ‘As dead flies putrifie the oyntment of the Apoticarie’: Hooker on Luther, Calvin, and Intra-Protestant Division

  
  

We also have a panel and roundtable on the theme at Sixteenth Century Society in Chicago this year. SCSC has not yet produced a final schedule, but here is how they show up on the draft schedule:

The Richard Hooker Amongst the Reformers Project:

Research Roundtable (2967)

Thursday, 29 October 8:30 - 10 am, LaSalle 3

Sponsor: The Richard Hooker Society

Organizer: Rev. Daniel F. Graves, Huron University College

Chair: Benjamin Crosby, McGill University

Participants: 

Debora K. Shuger, University of California, Los Angeles 

Drew Keane, Georgia Southern University

Rev. Daniel F. Graves, Huron University College

Andre Gazal, Montana Bible College

David Neelands, Trinity College, University of Toronto

Torrance Kirby, McGill University

Richard Hooker amongst the Reformers (2966)

Saturday, 31 October, 3:30 - 5 pm, Clark 1

Sponsor: The Richard Hooker Society 

Organizer: Rev. Daniel F. Graves, Huron University College

Chair: Andrea Beth Wenz, Oakland University 

Participants:

Richard Hooker Against the Reformers... and Rome, as well

Debora K. Shuger, University of California, Los Angeles

Supper or Eucharist? John Knox and Richard Hooker Contrasted

Rudolph Almasy, West Virginia University

Which View of Satisfaction? Situating Richard Hooker’s Doctrine of the Atonement

Sarah Killam Crosby, McGill University

Please feel free to circulate information about the symposia as well as our SCSC presence to anyone interested! We are really looking forward to an exciting set of conversations about Richard Hooker both online and in person in the next months.