Leaders in the Northern Church is aptly named for a succession of fourteen prominent bishops in the Diocese of Durham, and each sermon in this collection is devoted to one of them. Although Lightfoot did not live long enough to complete his planned fourteen-part series, this collection contains the ten sermons he did preach. These sermons are based on texts from Isaiah, Proverbs, Judges, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Colossians, and Revelation, and draw examples from the history of the Diocese of Durham and the lives of its bishops. This volume concludes with a sermon on Psalm 34 delivered by B. F. Westcott.
The ease with which [Lightfoot] passes . . . from one subject to another, from a review of commentaries on St. Paul’s Epistles to an emendation of the text of Euripides, from an investigation of the meaning of ‘Caesar’s household’ to the position of the Long Walls at Athens, represents the work of [one] who regards the New Testament as the goal of all his studies.
—Brooke Foss Westcott, author
Lightfoot’s research is characterized by clarity and precision, and a historical sense that sees the details within the larger movement of history.
—William Baird
Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1828–1889) was born in Liverpool. He attended King Edward’s School in Birmingham before enrolling at Trinity College, Cambridge. He edited the Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology from 1854 to 1859.
In 1852 he was elected a Fellow of Cambridge, and was ordained in 1854. He became tutor of Trinity College in 1857, professor of divinity in 1861, and anon of St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1871. Lightfoot preached regularly and participated in various ecclesiastical activities. He gained enormous popularity for his defense of the New Testament in response to Walter Richard Cassel’s Supernatural Religion. Lightfoot also participated on the committee for an English revision of the New Testament.
In 1879, Lightfoot became Bishop of Durham, where he continued his theological study, writing, and preaching. In addition to the works included in this collection, Lightfoot also wrote commentaries on Galatians, Philippians, and Colossians and Philemon. Lightfoot was succeeded as bishop by his lifelong friend, Brooke Foss Westcott.