In “Richard Hooker and the Vision of God,” Charles Millers suggests that a “fundamental coherence” may be better language than “system” when referring to Richard Hooker’s thought in “Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity.”

Instead of a formal system, Hooker works out a “constellation of fundamental ideas,” according to Olivier Loyer (cited by Miller). Working from this core, Hooker has a set of tools that help him explore a range of questions. These tools include rationality, hierarchy, and participation.

Drawing upon a vision of God’s creation as rooted in His divine order, Hooker sees the world as pervaded by “a sense of the rational character of law” and “the human mind’s rational capacity is fulfilled in apprehending and coordinating itself to such laws.”

Hooker’s understanding of hierarchy draws upon a medieval use rooted in Pseudo-Dionysius. Dionysius writes about a cosmos where angels and humans are centered in a vision of God. This particular vision of each person is rooted in God’s divine order (so it’s not about greater or lesser). According to God’s purposes, each person beholds his glory as a particular being and communicates his glory in a particular way, thus we are all made to behold and proclaim His glory to one another. This action binds us together in love and mutual learning.

This vision of hierarchy leads into Hooker’s third idea: participation. We are created to participate at some level in relation with God. Quoting Hooker, “[A]ll things in the world are said in some sort, to seek the highest, and to covet more or less the participation of God himself.”

I assume Miller plans to explores these ideas in more detail, but my first thoughts return to Torah and ordering the cosmos in love. God’s orders His world (which is one way to speak of Torah). Also, God instructs His people in living within His order (this is also Torah). The ordering of the cosmos and the instruction about living are aspects of Torah as told in the Old and New Testament.