privileges, and social acceptance are discriminatory
and unjust. Opponents of legal recognition of homo-
sexuality argue the biblical denouncement of it as “an
abomination to God” (Leviticus 18:22–30), the natu-
ral-law violation of its practice, the health conse-
quences of its acceptance, and a fear of the decline of
the traditional family and social fabric (not to mention
for the CHRISTIAN RIGHT, COVENANTview of the wrath of
God on a civilization that affirms immoral conduct).
Like the ABORTION issue, the political furor over
legalized homosexuality is extremely volatile, often
compared to the slavery controversy preceding the
American Civil War. Proponents of homosexual rights
view their cause as the logical conclusion of EGALITAR-
IAN DEMOCRACY. Opponents see it as the moral decline
of Western civilization, much like that which preceded
the collapse of the Roman Empire. A complex social
and psychological issue, it promises to continue as a
prominent policy debate in the U.S. CULTURE WARS.
Hooker, Richard (1554–1600) English theolo-
gian and political philosopher
In his classic book, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity
(eight volumes), Hooker presented the Anglican royal-
ist/Parliament theory of government. In it, he saw the
English Church as a via media, or “middle way,”
between CATHOLICand Protestant and the English state
as a combination of the best of MONARCHYand REPUBLI-
CANgovernment. Drawn from the MEDIEVAL, NATURAL-
LAW perspective of St. Thomas AQUINAS, Hooker’s
political theory saw CHURCH AND STATEas both separate
and related. He shared the Thomists’ Aristotelian faith
in reason and rejected the PURITANbelief that human
intellect was hopelessly corrupted by sin. Still, he
adopted the MODERN, LIBERALbelief in government by
the CONSENTof the governed and the state as a SOCIAL
CONTRACT (á la John LOCKE), which offended his
monarchist colleagues who wanted to base the king’s
AUTHORITYin DIVINE RIGHT(see Robert FILMER). Hooker
liked the British compromise of the king in Parlia-
ment, CHECKS AND BALANCESin a mixed CONSTITUTION,
and the Established Church of England. The unique
blending of religion and politics in England created
the best society and government, for Hooker. Like
Edmund BURKElater, he was a traditional CONSERVATIVE,
seeing the accumulated wisdom of English culture and
common law as forming the most just, stable regime.
The church, as a political as well as a spiritual body,
conveyed an ethical tone to society and moderated the
individual impulses of radical Protestantism. He feared
the EVANGELICALbelief that every Christian can inter-
pret scripture, seeing it as leading to ANARCHY and
immorality. The church hierarchy must determine reli-
gious doctrine and practice, drawing on the wisdom of
the past. A limited monarchy, a representative Parlia-
ment, and a state church created the wisest, fairest
polity and culture.
Richard Hooker presents the classic British ethics of
dignity, civility, and moderation; slow, balanced, com-
promising, he embodies high, aristocratic British taste
and temperament. An archetypical “English gentle-
man,” educated in Latin School at Exeter, he attended
Corpus Christi College at Oxford. A teaching Fellow at
Oxford, he also served as master of the temple church
in London. As a scholar, churchman, and political
writer, Richard Hooker displayed the attitudes and
traits of a civilized, learned English Anglican clergy-
man. His idealization of the Late Middle Ages in Eng-
land would not have predicted the social, religious,
and political upheavals of the 1600s.Further Reading
Faulkner, R. K. Richard Hooker and the Politics of Christian Eng-
land.Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.Horkheimer, Max (1895–1973) German philo-
sopher
Horkheimer was the primary director of the Institute
for Social Research, otherwise known as the FRANKFURT
SCHOOL. Established in 1923, the Frankfurt School was
a group of social theorists that developed a Marxist-
inspired CRITICAL THEORYof modern CAPITALISMand cul-
ture.
Horkheimer assumed the position of the institute’s
director in 1930. He immediately began to recruit a
number of important scholars to the institute, such as
Theodor Adorno, Erich Fromm, and Herbert MARCUSE,
and to formalize the Institute’s research orientation.
The Institute’s theoretical approach was already domi-
nated by Marxism, but Horkheimer was critical of the
economic determinism exhibited by many orthodox
Marxists who attempted to reduce all social phenom-
ena to questions of the economic life of society. He
insisted that science, art, religion, ethics, and the psy-
chic structure of individual consciousness required
analyses in their own right, although he also stressed146 Hooker, Richard