The Reformed Baptists gave us a copy of Crawford Gribben’s story of James Ussher and the Irish Puritans. It is a well written sketch of a long bit of history—just long enough to provide good reading for a Sunday afternoon. It centers, of course, on the greatest of Ireland’s churchmen, James Ussher. He was responsible for a great deal of things, not only in Ireland for he seems to have been the main mind behind the Westminster Confession and the 39 articles. He was unbeatable in debating the Jesuits, but so highly regarded that at one point Cardinal Richelieu even offered him a job.
The history of religion in Ireland is abrupt and tragic, full of great advances and great setbacks. The turmoil the Reformation eventually brought to England and Scotland touched Ireland deeply. And now those high and troubled waters of religion seem to have receded away, with little but the memory of suffering left behind. From Trinity College in Dublin Gribben writes to call for the Gospel to be sounded again in Ireland.
