On the Nature and Kingdom of God: The Theological Manuscripts of James Ussher (Perkins, Rester, eds.)

Description

James Ussher was a highly prolific titan of publication in the seventeenth century, and his writings earned the esteem of many in the Reformed churches. Still, a mountain of his unpublished manuscripts remains in the archives, ripe for investigation and full of just as much insight as his published works. This volume collects three of Ussher’s most significant unpublished manuscripts, each covering the major topics of theology. With introduction and explanatory apparatus by Harrison Perkins, these documents are available for the first time in print and in translation, shedding fresh light on Ussher’s contribution to the Reformed tradition.

Endorsements

“James Ussher was a seventeenth-century theological titan whose theological writing was passed around the Westminster assembly during its many long meetings. Even though Ussher was a royalist, the Westminster divines had great respect for Ussher’s work. Harrison Perkins has therefore done the church a great service by mining the archives of Oxford University to present a fresh translation of some of Ussher’s lost but now found works. Not only do these manuscripts provide readers with a window into theology of one of the seventeenth-century’s greatest theological minds, but they also rest in a cradle of Perkins’s expert editorial energies that provide context, commentary, and clarity for the reader. Anyone who loves classic Reformed theology will want to read, study, and ruminate upon this old but nevertheless new treasure.”
—J.V. Fesko, Harriett Barbour Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi

“James Ussher was quite the anomaly for his time and place; thoroughly Reformed in doctrine, he nevertheless supported episcopal ecclesiology and has the distinction of being one of the few Puritan-minded divines who served as an archbishop. Until now, his influence upon post-Reformation Reformed orthodoxy—and particularly upon the proceedings, debates, and confessional drafts of the Westminster Assembly—has been largely underestimated. Painstakingly transcribed and translated from handwritten manuscripts housed in the archives at Oxford University and Trinity College Dublin, three of Ussher’s landmark (and hitherto unpublished) summaries of the Christian faith are now accessible to scholars, pastors, and theologians—notes from his theological lectures, his early draft of the Irish Articles, and his highly influential pair of catechisms (The Principles of Christian Religion). This work is a masterpiece of fine scholarship, evidencing both the brilliance of Archbishop Ussher, as well as the skill of Harrison Perkins in collating, translating, contextualizing, commenting upon, and footnoting some of Ussher’s most significant but most ignored writings. With the publication of this magisterial critical edition, it is no exaggeration to say that the field of Ussher studies will never be the same.”
—Dr. Joel R. Beeke Chancellor and Professor of Systematic Theology and Homiletics, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, and pastor of Heritage Reformed Congregation, Grand Rapids, Michigan

About the Editors

Harrison Perkins is pastor of Oakland Hills Community Church (OPC) and author of Reformed Covenant Theology: A Systematic Introduction.

Todd M. Rester is an associate professor of church history at Westminster Theological Seminary and translator of Petrus Van Mastricht's Theoretical-Practical Theology.