Sacramental Poetics in Richard Hooker and George Herbert

This book explores sacramental poetics through the lens of moderate realism in the thought and work of Anglican theologians Richard Hooker (c. 1554-1600) and George Herbert (1593-1648). It does this in relation to the Christian sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist and as a way of exploring the abundance of God. Brian Douglas begins in chapter 1 with a general discussion of a sacramental poetic and sacramentality in the Anglican tradition and proceeds to a more detailed examination of the writings of both Hooker (chapter 2) and Herbert (chapter 3). Each writer explores, in their own way, abundant life, found as participation in and relationship with Christ, and expressed as a sacramental poetic based on moderate realism. Douglas goes on in chapter 4 to explore the idea of conversation and dialogue as employed by Hooker and Herbert as part of a sacramental poetic. The book concludes in chapter 5 with a more general discussion on the abundance of God and living of the good and abundant life and some of the issues this involves in the modern world.