Fortress Press

"In Reading the Bible with Richard Hooker, Daniel Eppley has brought into current discussions a Reformation figure whose study has usually been left to the hands of experts. This is a book that will be of interest broadly, and that can help us out of the impasses interpretation of the Bible has left us with in the twenty-first century. It is clearly written and will be accessible to scholars and students at all levels."

"Daniel Eppley's imminently readable study lucidly brings together the past and the present: the past which reflects the challenges of Reformation biblical interpretation and the present which participates in a pluralistic and fragmented culture in search of peace. Eppley convincingly argues that the sixteenth-century theologian and churchman Richard Hooker speaks to our contemporary world as it strives for hermeneutical certainty, a balance between private and public rationality, and the important hope for community. All of this, Eppley argues, reflects Hooker's own efforts over four hundred years ago. The past, as Hooker struggled with his own anxieties over what he took to be radicalized religion, can indeed speak to the tensions and desires of an equally radicalized today."

"Who would have thought that a late-Elizabethan cleric would have anything constructive or intelligible to say to twenty-first century debates concerning the meaning or authority of the Holy Scriptures? Daniel Eppley's singular achievement in Reading the Bible with Richard Hooker is to demonstrate precisely this. This book ably and gently introduces the reader to the highly charged atmosphere of sixteenth-century controversies over biblical hermeneutics, compares Hooker with William Shakespeare on questions of doubt and certainty, and examines the tension between individual conscience and religion in the public sphere.  This book is highly recommended for its serious engagement with the history of Christian thought as a springboard to engaging with some of the pressing questions of the present."

"Through his helpful commentary, Eppley helps readers navigate the difficult, albeit formative, waters of early modern biblical interpretation. As Eppley shows, the stakes were very high indeed during this period when theological and political order was considered essential to the common good.  While the author wisely avoids pulling Hooker and his theological opponents from their historical context and loosely applying them to contemporary debates over the authority of Scripture, Eppley nonetheless demonstrates that Hooker’s theological legacy is relevant to modern Christians who interpret the Bible for church life."