15Conclusion.doc

Nederduitse Gereformeerde Teologiese Tydskrif, 2015

Scholars are only recently beginning to note the importance of John Owen as a seventeenth-century reformed orthodox theologian. Th e Ashgate Research Companion to John Owen's Th eology is the fi rst book of its kind. Th is fact should fl ag this work as an important benchmark in Owen studies. Kelly Kapic and Mark Jones have assembled a wide array of scholars to treat aspects of Owen's theology from the standpoint of his relevance both to historical theology and to contemporary refl ection. While all of the essays in this volume will attract those interested in Owen and in the theological topics treated, they are not all of equal quality. Th is work is not only important for historical theology. It has the potential to bring Owen's theology to bear on many areas of contemporary theology. Because of the importance of this book, each chapter merits careful analysis.

2014

The life and work of John Owen (1616-83) has been attracting increasing attention as the four hundredth anniversary of his birth approaches. Owen was one of the most important religious figures of seventeenth-century England: born in humble circumstances in the reign of James I, and ordained as an Anglican priest under Charles I, Owen became known as a Congregationalist preacher to the Long Parliament (from 1646), preacher of the regicide (1649), chaplain to Oliver Cromwell on the invasions of Ireland and Scotland (1649-50), dean of Christ Church (1651-60) and vice chancellor of the University of Oxford (1652-57), principal mover in the Cromwellian religious settlement and active agent in the downfall of Richard Cromwell's administration (1659). The changing legal and cultural circumstances of the reign of Charles II forced Owen to withdraw from public life and facilitated the reenergising of his already prolific publishing career in defence of high Calvinist theology and the toleration of protestant dissenters: Owen wrote more than half of his eight or so million words in the twenty years before his death, while making significant contributions to the careers of John Bunyan and Andrew Marvell, among others. Over the last few years, the significance of Owen's contributions has been recognised (and sometimes, from a confessional perspective, defended) in a growing spate of publications. Some of the best writing on Owen has come from historians who have adopted a comparative approach to the study of his work: Tim Cooper's John Owen, Richard Baxter and the Formation of Nonconformity and Edwin Tay's The Priesthood of Christ: Atonement in the Theology of John Owen are distinguished examples of scholarly work which pay attention to the conceptual nuance, rhetorical development and broader social contexts of their subjects. Much of the best writing on Owen emanating from theologians has adopted a very different perspective, however, focusing on texts above contexts, and offering reflections on his work which provide helpful snapshots of principal thematic elements: The Ashgate Research Companion to John Owen's Theology and Christopher Cleveland's Thomism in John Owen are some of the best examples of this approach. Ryan McGraw's new book on Owen's theology of public worship will make an important contribution to the latter approach within the study of early modern theology. McGraw's work is based on his recent doctoral dissertation (University of the Free State, South Africa) and seeks to move beyond accepted conclusions about Owen's Trinitarianism by identifying its "highest expression" in public worship (12). McGraw draws upon a wide range of reading in Owen and other contexts within early modern Reformed theology to make a sometimes subtle but always convincing case for the centrality of public worship in Owen's theological imagination. In seven chapters and a substantial appendix, McGraw surveys Owen's relation of private and public communion with the Trinity, the biblical principles which guide and control public worship, the heavenly nature of public worship, the relationship between public worship and the new covenant and the benefits of an ordained ministry in the leading of public worship. McGraw's book covers a broad range of themes, but reflects some of the methodological difficulties common in the recent historical-theological approach. Surveying Owen's work after 1656, for example, McGraw comments that "it is remarkable for an individual theologian to remain so persistent and consistent in one set of emphases over the course of several decades" (139). It is possible, nevertheless, that, like a great deal of other historical-theological writing on early modern theology, this book offers an account of

Journal of Reformed Theology 8.2

2015

Colby Dickinson Abstract: Through a brief history of antinomian thought within the modern period, and the inspection of two contemporary responses to the ‘antinomian impulse’, I refocus the antinomian debate as being, not necessarily a heretical endeavor, but rather a dialectic between history and memory, structure and experience. Rather than portray antinomianism as a threat to the system which needs to be removed, perhaps we can learn to perceive it as a ‘weak messianic force’ moving through all constituted (religious) identities, not, then, as the end of ‘Christianity’ as an organized religion, but its original proclamation, ever in need of greater reformation.

Studies in Puritanism and Piety Journal, 2021

Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae (SHE), 2015

Reformed orthodox theologian Gisbertus Voetius (1589-1676) referred to the doctrine of the Trinity as 'the foundation of fundamentals'. Richard Muller notes that if any dogma comes close to achieving such status, it is the doctrine of the Trinity. It is thus surprising that most modern treatments of trinitarian theology assume that sixteenth and seventeenth century Reformed orthodoxy had virtually nothing to contribute to this vital doctrine. The recent Cambridge Companion to the Trinity and the Oxford Handbook of the Trinity both reflect this assumption. This article addresses how Reformed authors tried to harmonise the historical doctrine of the Trinity with their principle of sola scriptura. It does not treat positive developments or applications of the doctrine. The void left in the secondary literature has not adequately probed the bold claims of Voetius or the scholarly reflections of Muller. John Owen (1616-1683) is a growing exception to this trend. Both historians and theologians are starting to recognise his significance as a theologian in general and a trinitarian theologian in particular, but they often stop short of observing how he intertwined his trinitarian theology and piety throughout his writings. This article will reassess Owen's contribution to Reformed trinitarian theology in two major segments. The first does so by critiquing two recent treatments of his work. The remaining material explores the