Page "Lancelot Andrewes" Paragraph 24

Andrewes was considered, next to Ussher, to be the most learned churchman of his day, and enjoyed a great reputation as an eloquent and impassioned preacher, but the stiffness and artificiality of his style render his sermons unsuited to modern taste.

Nevertheless, there are passages of extraordinary beauty and profundity.

His doctrine was High Church, and in his life he was humble, pious, and charitable.

He continues to influence religious thinkers to the present day, and was cited as an influence by T. S. Eliot, among others ( Eliot also borrowed, almost word for word and without his usual acknowledgement, the opening of Andrewes ' 1622 Christmas Day sermon for ' The Journey of the Magi ').

In his 1997 novel Timequake, Kurt Vonnegut suggested that Andrewes was " the greatest writer in the English language ," citing as proof the first few verses of the 23rd Psalm.

His translation work has also led him to appear as a character in three plays dealing with the King James Bible, Howard Brenton's Anne Boleyn ( 2010 ), Jonathan Holmes ' Into Thy Hands ( 2011 ) and David Edgar's Written on the Heart ( 2011 ).