James Ussher and the Theological Maturation of the Church of Ireland, 1600-1634

Despite the fact that by all material measures the reformed Church of Ireland was in decline by the year 1600, theologically it had only just begun to mature, a process which lasted approximately 30 years and which saw the Church of Ireland define itself as a distinct entity from both the Roman Catholic Church and the neighboring Church of England. In this paper I follow the developing theology of James Ussher, a major Irish protestant ecclesiastical figure, in order to gauge the concurrent theological development and maturation of the Church of Ireland. I examine three texts in whose creation Ussher figured prominently and which deal with the notion of the Pope as Antichrist. Then, in recognition of the intimate interplay between history and theology, I consider the historical, political, and social atmosphere of English-speaking Ireland at the time of the writing of these texts in order to see how their theology both affected and was affected by their historical context. I conclude that the Church of Ireland’s developing theology of the papal Antichrist assists us, as modern readers, to better understand the historical and political events that were in play in the volatile years of the early seventeenth century, and to see how the developing theology of the Church of Ireland informed its members of their identities as both protestants and Irishmen