As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
Read the series.
There are many people who are wary of buying a book by a Puritan author and getting stuck in the mud from a combination of old English and heady theology. An certainly, if I were to be asked to give an example of just such an author, I think I might serve up Thomas Goodwin as my “for instance.”
Read the series.
This review was written some years ago, but it fits well into the present project, so I decided to include it here. I hope I will be forgiven for posting a preexisting book review in the series, but the book is one of the most famous Puritan works and really had to be included. The review is of the recent edition of the work, John Owen, Communion with the Triune God, edited by Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor, Wheaton, Ill: Crossway, 2007.
Read the series.
There are a number of good books dealing with doubt that I would recommend. More modern authors like Os Guinness, Gary Habermas and J. P. Moreland have made solid contributions to this subject. Of the Puritan authors, we find quite a few addressing assurance, but not so many dealing with doubt.
I’m going to begin a series on Puritan books and writers that I hope will be edifying for my readers. I believe the Puritans to be the single greatest group of writers on the Christian Life and the Life of Faith. This is not to say I believe they were always right, or that they should be followed religiously on every sentence they wrote. I differ from them in their adherence to Reformed Covenant Theology, be it paedobaptist or credobaptist. I think they sometimes overplayed what it takes to get saved and have assurance of salvation (e.g., Bunyan’s Grace Abounding).
Discussion