Book: A Learned Discourse of Justification, Works, and How the Foundation of Faith is Overthrown

Overview
Richard Hooker’s A Learned Discourse of Justification, Works, and How the Foundation of Faith is Overthrown (published posthumously in 1612) addresses the fiercest doctrinal quarrel of his age: how sinners are made right with God, what role human works play, and what errors truly destroy Christian faith. Writing as a Reformed yet irenic Anglican, Hooker seeks precision without partisanship. He argues that the heart of the gospel is the saving work of Jesus Christ received by faith, while also defending the moral necessity of good works and the possibility of salvation for believers within erring communions. The discourse mediates between Protestant zeal to guard grace and pastoral charity toward those entangled in imperfect doctrine.

Justification and the Place of Works
Hooker’s central claim is that the righteousness by which we stand accepted before God is Christ’s righteousness imputed to the ungodly and received by faith as its sole instrument. God’s free mercy is the moving cause; Christ’s obedience and sacrifice are the meritorious cause; faith unites the sinner to Christ. Works, however excellent, are excluded as causes of justification lest any man should boast. Yet Hooker refuses antinomian license. He sharply distinguishes the righteousness that justifies from the righteousness that sanctifies. The Church possesses both: an imputed righteousness before God that absolves, and an inherent righteousness wrought by the Spirit that renews life. Good works are the necessary fruits and evidences of a living faith, the way of grateful obedience, and the matter of divine reward by promise, but never the ground on which God accepts sinners. Thus he keeps together what polemics often tear apart: the freeness of grace and the obligation to holiness.

The Foundation of Faith
Hooker defines the foundation of faith as Jesus Christ himself, his person, passion, and sufficiency as the only Savior. To overthrow this foundation is not merely to err in some point of theology but to displace trust in Christ with confidence in something else. He distinguishes between errors that directly deny the foundation and errors that only by consequence tend to weaken it. The former destroy; the latter endanger. A building may stand despite many faults if its foundation remains. Likewise, many doctrinal mistakes do not necessarily unchurch or damn, provided the soul’s ultimate reliance rests on Christ’s mercy.

Rome, Puritans, and Charity
With this measure Hooker evaluates the Roman Church and zealous Protestants. He rejects Rome’s teaching of condign merit and inherent righteousness as the formal cause of justification, judging such doctrines unscriptural and perilous. Yet he refuses to pronounce all Roman believers lost, since many may truly hold Christ as the only hope of salvation while being misled in schools and catechisms. Charity obliges Protestants to acknowledge this possibility and to distinguish between a church’s erroneous doctrines and the heart’s true reliance on Christ. Conversely, Hooker rebukes those among the Reformed who make every controversy fundamental, who deny salvation to all outside their precise platform, or who identify the essence of the gospel with matters of polity and ceremony. Such rigor, he argues, endangers peace and fails the rule of love.

Pastoral Aim and Legacy
Pastorally, Hooker counsels humility, repentance, and perseverance in obedience, while grounding assurance not in the perfection of our faith but in the sufficiency of Christ’s promise. A believer may be weak, doubting, and yet truly justified if he leans on Christ. The discourse helped shape Anglican theology’s characteristic balance: justification by faith alone, the moral seriousness of sanctification, and a capacious charity that refuses to unchurch every error. Its enduring power lies in keeping the center firm, Christ alone, while treating all else with measured judgment and hopeful love.