A Right Reading of Redemption: Richard Baxter, John Owen, and Their Seventeenth Century Controversy

[crhoades]

This is an essay my pastor has done for a doctoral class at WTS PA. He is delivering it as a paper at the ETS meeting this week in SC.

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http://ssfonline.org/pdf/resources105.pdf

This essay was written as part of the requirements for a doctoral course at Westminster Seminary, entitled, "Texts of the English Reformation." My professor for this doctoral seminar was Dr. Carl Trueman. It was his first class to teach at WTS, and he blew us all away. As the title of the paper suggests, this deals with the debate over justification between John Owen and Richard Baxter. Given the nature of the debate, as well as, the nature of Systematic Theology, this essay also addresses their profound differences regarding the nature and extent of the atonement. It is becoming more apparent to me that one must treat the atonement, when addressing the doctrine of the justification. As an aside, if the reader is interested in this, a book I read some ten years ago, The Work of Christ by Robert Letham from the "Contours of Christian Theology" series by IVP, ch. 9 is a great place to start. In fact, this book is simply excellent, and deserves your serious consideration.

At any rate, here is the paper on Owen and Baxter. I have only lightly edited it form the original (a couple of typographical errors and an updated footnote to supply an alternate source for a theological work, with corresponding bibliographical update). May it stir your interest in these two theological titans, and may it increase our guard against any teaching that threatens a biblical, Confessional, orthodox understanding of the doctrine of justification.

 

[Myshkin]

Chris-

Thanks for the link, very helpful.

Things I learned from it:
1. "Reformed" in Baxter's The Reformed Pastor does not refer to reformed in theology, but rather to the character and nature of the pastor in a revived sense. (I am probably the only one on the PB that didn't know this )

2. J.I. Packer has a scholarly side. I only knew him as a layman's theologian and devotional writer.

3. A confirmation that the Puritan movement was not monolithic. A point that seems to be lost to many who are enamored with the revival in Puritan interest, and who also seem to hold them as the purest of the pure in all things christian.

4. The FV winds of today are nothing new. Reading Baxter's view and motives for his view are eerily similar to things heard today.

5. The importance of Owen, someone I know very little about, was made clear. Not just for defending the faith from outside attacks (i.e. Rome), but also for preserving evangelical/reformed distinctives against downgrades from within.





[Edited on 3-14-2006 by RAS]