Professor, thank you for the interesting feature about Mr. Ussher. I do think it’s unfair to call Mr. Ussher ignorant for getting creation’s time wrong when he got its year right.
Risible? Perhaps the Janus-faced "large-hearted" Ussher held a more subversive view than you've considered. Perhaps he, publicly of not, under-stood 'creation' (as have so many All Mighties) in purely political – rather than scientific – terms. In that case, both time and year would be defensible and Ussher's seventeenth century conclusion could both bring some peace to the ancient and acrimonious 'creation' debate and also redirect the misspent energies of both sides toward holding the Sovereign (however configured on Earth or in Heaven) accountable for the excesses of His/Her ministering angels. Peace, at least, was Ussher's pastoral and juridical wish for all, "[H]e worked hard to achieve reconciliation between churchmen and dissenters," Why the World Was Created in 4004 B.C., James Barr.
I skimmed. For the Reduced Episcopacy, you should say what each level does compared to the existing system. A chart with the two side byside wuld be good. Maybe with Church of Scotland too .
I'm not clear on the English system, even. Can a bishop do much in the way of making a rector do something? Can he remove him?
Professor, thank you for the interesting feature about Mr. Ussher. I do think it’s unfair to call Mr. Ussher ignorant for getting creation’s time wrong when he got its year right.
Risible? Perhaps the Janus-faced "large-hearted" Ussher held a more subversive view than you've considered. Perhaps he, publicly of not, under-stood 'creation' (as have so many All Mighties) in purely political – rather than scientific – terms. In that case, both time and year would be defensible and Ussher's seventeenth century conclusion could both bring some peace to the ancient and acrimonious 'creation' debate and also redirect the misspent energies of both sides toward holding the Sovereign (however configured on Earth or in Heaven) accountable for the excesses of His/Her ministering angels. Peace, at least, was Ussher's pastoral and juridical wish for all, "[H]e worked hard to achieve reconciliation between churchmen and dissenters," Why the World Was Created in 4004 B.C., James Barr.
Poor Ussher, it’s all those pesky unknown unknowns!
I skimmed. For the Reduced Episcopacy, you should say what each level does compared to the existing system. A chart with the two side byside wuld be good. Maybe with Church of Scotland too .
I'm not clear on the English system, even. Can a bishop do much in the way of making a rector do something? Can he remove him?