James Ussher (1581-1656), Archbishop of Armagh, is popularly known as a proponent of young earth creationism due to the insertion of dates from his biblical chronology into many editions of the King James Version of the Bible. Despite this popular portrayal, historians have recognized Ussher's importance in the ecclesiological and theological debates of the seventeenth century and his stature as one of the great scholarly intellects of early modern Europe. This volume, complete with a helpful introduction by a leading scholar in the field, seeks to introduce four of Ussher's sermons and two treatises on church government to a modern audience.
The writings of Ussher presented here contain some material printed for the first time as well as a selection of Ussher's better known treatises, such as The Original of Bishops and Metropolitans (1644) and The Reduction of Episcopacy (1657). Together these sermons and treatises address the theme of the Church-its nature, its unity, its purity, its government, and how it must deal with difference. Combining these items together with helpful editorial notes, this volume promises to stimulate theological reflection on a theme highly relevant for the church today, especially for those within the Reformed and Anglican traditions.
Editor: Richard Snoddy is an Associate Research Fellow at London School of Theology and currently a Visiting Research Fellow at Queen's University, Belfast. He is the author of The Soteriology of James Ussher (Oxford University Press, 2014), co-editor of Learning from the Past: Essays on Reception, Catholicity, and Dialogue in Honour of Anthony N. S. Lane (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015), and is editor of Evangelical Quarterly.
General Editor: Eric Parker (Ph.D, McGill University) is the General Editor of the Library of Early English Protestantism. Eric has published academic articles in historical theology treating figures such as Martin Luther, Martin Bucer and the Cambridge Platonists, and he is currently co-editing a volume on Nicholas of Cusa and early modern reform forthcoming with Brill. He lives in the deep South with his wife and two children, where he is seeking ordination in the Reformed Episcopal Church.
ABOUT LEEP
The Library of Early English Protestantism (LEEP) is a multi-year project that aims to make available in scholarly but accessible editions seminal writings from key but neglected 16th and 17th-century Church of England theologians. This project intends to bring old resources to a new audience, specifically for those Reformed and Anglican readers seeking to deepen and broaden their understanding of their theological tradition. The purpose of LEEP is to make the rediscovery of these sources as easy as possible by providing affordable, comprehensively-edited, modernized-spelling editions for contemporary seminarians, clergy, students, and theologically-concerned laypeople.
