The Spirit and the Church (Puritan Paperbacks) Owen, John cover image

Product Details
  • Cover Type:
  • 208 Pages
  • Publisher: Banner of Truth
  • Publication Date: July 2002
  • ISBN: SOWENJOSPIRITANDTHECHURCH9780851518220

The Spirit and the Church (Puritan Paperbacks)

Owen, John

Pricing details
$8.10
$9.00 MSRP

How do Christians come to the certainty that the Bible is the Word of God, and gain an understanding of His mind and will from it? How do they acquire the ability to pray, and lead others in prayer? how are they comforted and supported in all the difficulties they meet? And how can the church be led, taught and guided aright, when Christ is not here on earth?

According to the great Puritan leader John Owen, the answer to all these questions is the same: by the gracious and powerful work of the Holy Spirit.

He it is who convinces, assures, teaches, comforts and equips the church and all its members for all the work they are called to do. In an age when many think Christianity is nothing more than human effort, based on fallible human conclusions, Owen calls the church back to divine certainty and divine resources.

The style in which the Puritans wrote can present difficulties for modern readers, but this updated abridgement by Dr. R.J.K. Law will allow Owen to speak to Christians today on a theme which remains as vitally important for the well-being of the church in the twenty-first century as it was when Owen first wrote.

About the Author

John Owen was born in 1616 in Stadhampton, Oxfordshire and died in Ealing, West London, in 1683. During his sixty-seven years he lived out a life full of spiritual experience, literary accomplishment, and national influence so beyond most of his peers that he continues to merit the accolade of ‘the greatest British theologian of all time.’

No outline of Owen’s life can give an adequate impression of the stature and importance to which he attained in his own day. He was summoned to preach before Parliament on several occasions, most notably on the day after the execution of Charles I. During the Civil War, Owen’s merit was recognized by General Fairfax, then by Cromwell who took him as a Chaplain to Ireland and Scotland. He was adviser to Cromwell, especially though not exclusively on ecclesiastical affairs, but fell from the Protector’s favour after opposing the move to make him King. In 1658 he was one of the most influential members of the Savoy Conference of ministers of Independent persuasion. After the Ejection he enjoyed some influence with Charles II who occasionally gave him money to distribute to impoverished ejected ministers. All in all, he was, with Richard Baxter, the most eminent Dissenter of his time.

Despite his other achievements, Owen is best famed for his writings. These cover the range of doctrinal, ecclesiastical and practical subjects. They are characterized by profundity, thoroughness and, consequently, authority. Andrew Thomson said that Owen ‘makes you feel when he has reached the end of his subject, that he has also exhausted it.’ Although many of his works were called forth by the particular needs of his own day they all have a uniform quality of timelessness.

Endorsements (${ productEndorsements.length })

How do Christians come to the certainty that the Bible is the Word of God, and gain an understanding of His mind and will from it? How do they acquire the ability to pray, and lead others in prayer? how are they comforted and supported in all the difficulties they meet? And how can the church be led, taught and guided aright, when Christ is not here on earth?

According to the great Puritan leader John Owen, the answer to all these questions is the same: by the gracious and powerful work of the Holy Spirit.

He it is who convinces, assures, teaches, comforts and equips the church and all its members for all the work they are called to do. In an age when many think Christianity is nothing more than human effort, based on fallible human conclusions, Owen calls the church back to divine certainty and divine resources.

The style in which the Puritans wrote can present difficulties for modern readers, but this updated abridgement by Dr. R.J.K. Law will allow Owen to speak to Christians today on a theme which remains as vitally important for the well-being of the church in the twenty-first century as it was when Owen first wrote.

About the Author

John Owen was born in 1616 in Stadhampton, Oxfordshire and died in Ealing, West London, in 1683. During his sixty-seven years he lived out a life full of spiritual experience, literary accomplishment, and national influence so beyond most of his peers that he continues to merit the accolade of ‘the greatest British theologian of all time.’

No outline of Owen’s life can give an adequate impression of the stature and importance to which he attained in his own day. He was summoned to preach before Parliament on several occasions, most notably on the day after the execution of Charles I. During the Civil War, Owen’s merit was recognized by General Fairfax, then by Cromwell who took him as a Chaplain to Ireland and Scotland. He was adviser to Cromwell, especially though not exclusively on ecclesiastical affairs, but fell from the Protector’s favour after opposing the move to make him King. In 1658 he was one of the most influential members of the Savoy Conference of ministers of Independent persuasion. After the Ejection he enjoyed some influence with Charles II who occasionally gave him money to distribute to impoverished ejected ministers. All in all, he was, with Richard Baxter, the most eminent Dissenter of his time.

Despite his other achievements, Owen is best famed for his writings. These cover the range of doctrinal, ecclesiastical and practical subjects. They are characterized by profundity, thoroughness and, consequently, authority. Andrew Thomson said that Owen ‘makes you feel when he has reached the end of his subject, that he has also exhausted it.’ Although many of his works were called forth by the particular needs of his own day they all have a uniform quality of timelessness.

  • Cover Type:
  • 208 Pages
  • Publisher: Banner of Truth
  • Publication Date: July 2002
  • ISBN: SOWENJOSPIRITANDTHECHURCH9780851518220