Description
Book SynopsisDrawing on material from a range of genres, with extensive reference to manuscript collections, Richard Snoddy offers a detailed study of James Usshers applied soteriology. After locating Ussher in the ecclesiastical context of seventeenth-century Ireland and England, Snoddy examines his teaching on the doctrines of atonement, justification, sanctification, and assurance. He considers their interconnection in Usshers thought, particularly the manner in which a general atonement functions as the ground of justification and the extent to which it functions as the ground of assurance. The book documents Usshers change of mind on a number of important issues, especially how, from holding to a limited atonement and an assurance that is of the essence of faith, he moved to belief in a general atonement and an assurance obtained through experimental piety. Within the framework of one widely accepted scholarly paradigm he appears to move from one logically inconsistent position to another, but
Trade ReviewSnoddy has made a major contribution to the field of historical theology with this work. His careful analysis of the thought of an eminent Reformed theologian will be indispensable to researchers at postgraduate level and beyond working in the fields of Reformed theology, Reformation-era preaching, polemic, and pastoral concern, and religious reform in the British Isles. * Dr Susan Royal, Reviews in History *
Table of ContentsContents ; Abbreviations ; Conventions ; Introduction ; 1. Vae Mihi Si Non Evangelizavero - The Preaching Prelate ; 2. Lubricus Locus - The Nature and Extent of the Atonement ; 3. 'This Sweet Doctrine' - Justification by Faith ; 4. 'An Imperfect Kinde of Perfection' - The Sanctified Life and Its Reward ; 5. 'The Comfortable Assurance of Our Salvation' - A Search for Certainty ; Conclusion ; Bibliography ; Index
