I am reading J.I. Packer’s A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan vision of the Christian Life and my heart is stirred just in its opening chapters regarding the holistic vision that the Puritan reformers held. The Puritan ideal is not satisfied with anything less than total transformation – of heart, mind, body, church, community & culture. The glories of the doctrine of the sovereignty of God will settle for nothing less. Ultimately, the gospel fruit in full bloom will witness the new heavens and the new earth at the second coming of Christ and the consummation of the Kingdom- the sure arrival of the glorious City of God.
Who were the Puritans? “Puritans were labeled such “in the early 1560’s, it was always a Satirical smear word implying peevishness, censoriousness, conceit, and a measure of hypocrisy, over and above its basic implication of religiously motivated discontent with what was seen as Elizabeth’s Laodicean and compromising Church of England,” writes Packer. The Puritan Vision of the Christian life is often relegated as cold, doctrinally obsessed intellectualism, but this is not a fair caricature of the movement al all. “The Puritan goal was to complete what England’s Reformation began: to finish reshaping Anglican worship, to introduce effective church discipline into Anglican parishes, to establish righteousness in the political, domestic, and socio-economic fields, and to convert all Englishmen to a vigorous evangelical faith.” (Packer, Quest for Godliness, p.28)
Societal transformation was an integrated feature of their theological outlook and understanding of the church’s role in the world. The Kingdom of God is here and is yet to come. Transformation is possible at every level and will come in fullness in due time. Too often Puritans are seen as heavenly-minded separatist “pietists” with no interest in the souls of men or in the affairs of the world. This could hardly be a more false caricature. According to Dr. Packer, a fresh study of the Puritans would yield great fruit for the contemporary church. To understand the practice of these English and American reformers like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Richard Baxter, John Owen and Charles Spurgeon would open up a true fount of blessing for Christians everywhere, for churches everywhere.
Who were the Puritans? “Puritans were labeled such “in the early 1560’s, it was always a Satirical smear word implying peevishness, censoriousness, conceit, and a measure of hypocrisy, over and above its basic implication of religiously motivated discontent with what was seen as Elizabeth’s Laodicean and compromising Church of England,” writes Packer. The Puritan Vision of the Christian life is often relegated as cold, doctrinally obsessed intellectualism, but this is not a fair caricature of the movement al all. “The Puritan goal was to complete what England’s Reformation began: to finish reshaping Anglican worship, to introduce effective church discipline into Anglican parishes, to establish righteousness in the political, domestic, and socio-economic fields, and to convert all Englishmen to a vigorous evangelical faith.” (Packer, Quest for Godliness, p.28)
Societal transformation was an integrated feature of their theological outlook and understanding of the church’s role in the world. The Kingdom of God is here and is yet to come. Transformation is possible at every level and will come in fullness in due time. Too often Puritans are seen as heavenly-minded separatist “pietists” with no interest in the souls of men or in the affairs of the world. This could hardly be a more false caricature. According to Dr. Packer, a fresh study of the Puritans would yield great fruit for the contemporary church. To understand the practice of these English and American reformers like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Richard Baxter, John Owen and Charles Spurgeon would open up a true fount of blessing for Christians everywhere, for churches everywhere.
Packer identifies three groupings of contemporary believers that would benefit greatly from a study of the Puritans. He identifies these three categories as, “Restless Experientialists”, “Entrenched Intellectualists” and “Disaffected Deviationists.” (Packer, A Quest for Godliness” p.30) I will post his definitions of these three groupings on a later post, but I find his line of thought and insight to be very profound.
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