James Ussher and a Reformed Episcopal Church: Sermons and Treatises on Ecclesiology

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