Catholicity and the Covenant of Works

Book excerpt: A noted religious scholar and leader of Protestant thought, James Ussher (1581-1656) helped shape the Church of Ireland and solidify its national identity in the seventeenth century. In Catholicity and the Covenant of Works, Harrison Perkins addresses the development of Christian doctrine in the Reformed tradition, paying particular attention to the ways in which Ussher adopted various ideas from the broad Christian tradition to shape his doctrine of the covenant of works, which he utilized to explain how God related to humanity both before and after the fall into sin.