A consistent indigenous English doctrine of scriptural perspicuity correlates with a
commitment to the availability of the vernacular scriptures in English and supports the English
roots of the Early English Reformation (EER). Although political events and figures dominate
the EER its religious component springing from John Wyclif and streaming throughout the
tradition must be recognized more widely. This book critically surveys the doctrine of
scriptural perspicuity from the beginning of the Church in the first century (noted as early as
John Chrysostom) through the seventeenth century examining its impact on the current debates
concerning competing hermeneutical systems reader response hermeneutics and the debates in
conservative American Presbyterianism and Reformed theology on subscription to the Westminster
Confession of Faith the length of creation days and other issues.
