Bishop Hoadly
modernLatitudinarianism1676 – 1761
Benjamin Hoadly (1676–1761) was an English Latitudinarian bishop and controversialist who argued against the coercive authority of any visible church, insisting that Christ's kingdom is purely spiritual and that religious authority resides in individual conscience guided by Scripture. His 1717 sermon 'The Nature of the Kingdom or Church of Christ' ignited the Bangorian Controversy, one of the most significant ecclesiastical disputes of 18th-century England. He applied similar interpretive principles to religious and civil authority alike, anticipating later intentionalist theories of textual and constitutional interpretation.
Notable Achievements
1
Sparked the Bangorian Controversy (1717) by denying the authority of any visible church to judge matters of faith
2
Argued that religious authority rests solely in Scripture as interpreted by individual conscience
3
Advanced an intentionalist hermeneutic holding that interpretation must recover the original author's meaning
4
Defended Whig political principles and religious toleration against High Church opponents
5
Served successively as Bishop of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester