Puritan Books Evaluated: Part 1 – Introduction

By Paul Henebury on

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).

The Pilgrim’s Progress: It was written in prison. It has never been out of print since its first publication in 1678.

By Filings on

“For all its strict view of perseverance, Bunyan manages to pastorally describe meditation on the Word, trusting in God’s promises, the power of prayer, fleeing temptation, living by grace, maintaining spiritual disciplines and ultimately leaning on the sustaining grace of God that is the ground and cause of it all.” - Churches Without Chests

On Christian Doctrine

By Filings on

“The first book is by far the richest for Christian devotion. Here Augustine distinguishes between things that should be ‘enjoyed’ (God alone) and those that should be ‘used’ (everything else, including Scripture, as a means to lead to God). He teaches his famous ordo amoris (order of loves)” - Churches Without Chests

Temptations old books can help us face

By Filings on

“Jacobs’s advice is more applicable to our problems with partisan epistemology—the idea that truth can’t ever straddle political aisles. Jacobs’s advice is to increase our ability to know whom to trust by expanding our ‘personal density’ to include perspectives from the past.” - TGC