Guy Richard on "The Supremacy of God in the Theology of Samuel Rutherford"
December 19, 2008
I am finally holding in my own hands Guy Richard's The Supremacy of God in the Theology of Samuel Rutherford (Paternoster). David Fergusson (sic), of New College, Edinburgh calls it "a landmark in Rutherford scholarship." In it, Guy (a dear friend, fellow pastor, former student, intern and staff member) has provided us with an important theological engagement with the thought of Samuel Rutherford. This work is as welcome as it is overdue. Rutherford is arguably the leading Scottish theologian of his era, and yet he is more often referenced than read, and a significant body of his work remains inaccessible to non-Latinists. So, this book has opened up some of this unexplored territory to us. Guy provides the reader with a helpful overview of Rutherford's doctrine of Scripture, God and salvation, as well as Rutherford's critique of Arminianism, and gives us new insights into Rutherford's contributions to the development of Scottish covenant theology, the lapsarian question, and significant themes later developed in the writings of Jonathan Edwards.