Heidelcast 148: With Harrison Perkins On Archbishop Ussher And The Covenant Of Works

by Heidelcast on April 16, 2020 | 4 Comments

We are interrupting the Heidelcast series on the Doctrine of God, I AM that I AM to talk with the Rev Dr Harrison Perkins, (PhD, Queen’s University Belfast) about his new book on Archbishop James Ussher (1581–1656). He was primate of the Church of Ireland and a major influence on the Westminster Assembly. His Irish Articles (1615) were a source for the Westminster Standards. Harrison shows that Ussher was an import figure in the development of Reformed covenant theology and that the doctrine of the covenant of works was not an idiosyncratic Reformed doctrine but an expression of genuinely catholic (universal) Christian truth. Harrison is assistant minister at London City Presbyterian Church (Free Church of Scotland, lecturer in Christian doctrine at Cornhill Belfast, visiting lecturer in systematic theology at Edinburgh Theological Seminary, and the author of Catholicity and the Covenant of Works: James Ussher and the Reformed Tradition (Oxford University Press, forthcoming). You can also order this volume from the Evangelical Bookshop in the UK. He is also editor of Samuel Miller, Presbyterianism: Its History, Doctrine, Government, and Worship (Madison, MS: Log College Press, 2020).

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Resources On Ussher

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4 comments

  1. Wow! I learned so much! Very enlightening. I’ll be listening to this again. And, I’ll also be checking out the resources given.
    Thank you!

  2. Excellent! Uusher, the unsung hero (among others) of Westminster. Can’t get enough of the rather complex and history of the English church during this time.
    Thanks to you both!
    Jack

  3. I mistakenly omitted one of the languages with which Ussher said ministry students need to have some familiarity. He also said that the need to have some knowledge of Chaldean in addition to Greek, Hebrew, and some Syriac.

    For those who are interested, the portion of the lectures where Ussher made these recommendations is set be published as a critical transcription in the 2020 issue of Confessional Presbyterian Journal.

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