‘Has the Story Changed?’

by Aaron Dunlop

The Irish Baptist Historical Society (IBHS) holds three lectures per year. On March 14th, 2024, Dr Andrew Curry presented a lecture on the first anti-Catholic apologetic writing in Ireland, by Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656). After reading John 14:6, he pointed out that the IBHS is one tool that God has given us to help us to keep coming back to ‘the way, the truth and the life’. The IBHS exists, he said, not just to tell us about the past, but done rightly, ‘it allows the past to provoke questions about our present thinking’.

Dr Curry set the context with a description of the religious landscape in Ireland in the 17th century—the Counter Reformation, the early Protestant Anglican Church and Dr James Ussher’s Anti-Catholic position—a position that set him at odds with his own family. It was Ussher’s 1624 response to the Jesuit missionary and writer, William Malone (1585-1655), that was the focus of this lecture.

Dr Curry based his remarks on four main theological and historical issues that were central in the debate, and that were highlighted by Professor Alan Ford, a prominent Ussher scholar from the University of Nottingham. These were, first, the Bible – its text and its interpretation. Second, the early Church and the Church Fathers, and the extent to which we can claim them as ‘Protestant’ or ‘Catholic’. Third, how the Protestant church traces its origins back from the Reformation to Christ. Finally, how to interpret and apply the apocalyptic passages of the Bible.

After a detailed and interesting consideration of these four main issues, Dr Curry presented data from a survey he had recently conducted among Irish Baptist pastors on these same issues, along with information from the 2021 NI Census. From this data he presented some ‘suggested questions’ that would help us, as Irish Baptists to discover if there has been drift in our thinking—has the story changed?

You can view the lecture here.

 

Our next Irish Baptist Historical Society lecture will be on Tuesday 14th May and you'd be very welcome to join us for a light tea and a lecture on The History of Windsor Baptist Church at 5.30pm in Ballynahinch Baptist.