Includes bibliographical references and index

"Different kings and different laws" : Christian liberty and the conflict of loyalties since the Reformation -- Freedom for the neighbor : Christian liberty and the demand for edification -- "Exact precise severity" : the Puritan challenge to prince and conscience -- Richard Hooker and the freedom of a 'politic society" : between legalism and libertinism -- Harmonized loyalties : conscience, reason, and corporate moral agency -- The soul of a Christian commonwealth : politics in submission to the Word -- "The truth will set you free" : the peril and promise of Christian liberty

How do Christians determine when to obey God even if that means disobeying other people? In this book W. Bradford Littlejohn addresses that question as he unpacks the magisterial political-theological work of Richard Hooker, a leading figure in the sixteenth-century English Reformation. Littlejohn shows how Martin Luther and other Reformers considered Christian liberty to be compatible with considerable civil authority over the church, but he also analyses the ambiguities and tensions of that relationship and how it helped provoke the Puritan movement. The heart of the book examines how, according to Richard Hooker, certain forms of Puritan legalism posed a much greater threat to Christian liberty than did meddling monarchs. In expounding Hooker's remarkable attempt to offer a balanced synthesis of liberty and authority in church, state, and conscience, Littlejohn draws out pertinent implications for Christian liberty and politics today