THEY’RE BACK! The 21st Century Puritans are taking over the blogosphere in case you haven’t noticed. Puritanism is the lastest and greatest craze among those who label themselves as New Calvinists. Take a look…
Here’s the announcement of a a blog called “Meet the Puritans” that was featured on the Gospel Coalition website on September 2, 2009. http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2009/09/02/meet-puritans-blog/
“Meet the Puritans” Blog
“Daniel Hyde, Mark Jones, and Rowland Ward have started a new blog, Meet the Puritans.
The purpose of this website is to promote the seventeenth century English Puritans. We intend to do this by means of original research, theological and devotional commentary upon the writings of the Puritans, reviews of books about the Puritans, recommendations of books about the Puritans, and by providing Recommended Reading of helpful materials in your study of the Puritans.”
You can check it out at this link: http://www.meetthepuritans.com/2009/09/01/welcome-to-meet-the-puritans/
Mitch Cervinka wrote an article “What is a 21st Century Puritanism?” (http://members.toast.net/puritan/), which ends with the following paragraph:
“A ‘21st Century Puritanism’, then, is the always-reforming spirit of 17th-century Puritanism applied to the challenges of the 21st century church. In place of an Arminian “free-will” gospel that exalts human worth and ability, the 21st Century Puritan calls us back to the Biblical gospel that exalts the power and sovereignty of Almighty God. In place of the “seeker-sensitive”, man-pleasing paradigm for worship, the 21st Century Puritan points us back to the Biblical, God-ordained pattern of worship revealed in Scripture—emphasizing a Godward focus—preaching Hisglories, rejoicing in His mercy to hell-deserving sinners, falling at His feet in humble supplication, singing from joyful, forgiven, God-saturated hearts psalms and hymns that exalt His majesty and honor.”
Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, ¼ of Together of the Gospel, and founder of 9Marks Ministry has been a proponent of Neo-Puritanism. The Monergism website includes the following in Mark’s bio: “Dr. Dever’s scholarly interests include Puritanism and ecclesiology.” (http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/bio/markdever.html)
Here’s an audio recording from the 9Marks website which focuses on the Puritans:
The Puritans with Ligon Duncan and Michael Lawrence
“Mark Dever discusses the Puritans with his own associate pastor, Michael Lawrence, and with the Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS, Ligon Duncan. Each tells how he came to know of the Puritans and how he has been affected by them in life and ministry.”
You can listen to it at this link: http://media.9marks.org/2000/06/15/the-puritans-with-ligon-duncan-and-michael-lawrence
Mark Driscoll, who interviewed J.I. Packer on the topic “Young Christian Leaders” (http://www.theresurgence.com/node/1091) focuses on Puritans as well on his blog.
The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals website includes the following book review by Derek Thomas in their effort to promote 21st Century Puritanism:
The Devoted Life: An Invitation to the Puritan Classics
If you’d like to read it, here’s the link:
http://www.alliancenet.org/partner/Article_Display_Page/0,,PTID307086_CHID560462_CIID1930424,00.html
As stated previously, the internet is chockfull of reformed websites that promote Puritanism. We leave you with a list of them for your reading pleasure.
http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_category/Puritans/
http://blog.beliefnet.com/tonyjones/2009/04/neocalvinist-no-neopuritan.html
http://vanguardchurch.blogspot.com/2009/04/deciphering-nuanced-differences-between.html
http://jcrylequotes.com/2010/03/06/meet-the-puritans-book-giveaway/
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2008/01/07/puritan-reading-challenge/
http://www.puritanfellowship.com/
http://members.toast.net/puritan/Conferences/Conferences.htm
While we respect the Puritans for their holy living and their desire to “purify” the church, we must ALWAYS remember that they were sinners just like the rest of us, including the Christian leaders who are promoting 21st Century Puritanism. We highly doubt that you’ll read about the “sins” of the Puritans on these websites; however, that will be our focus next week here at TWW.
Thanks for the plethora of links about the Puritans!
May more and more interest be generated about these fine examples of Christian history.
Soli Deo Gloria Deb!
Erik,
As long as we as Christians keep our priorities straight – Jesus Christ is our “first love” – then it’s great to admire these “fine examples of Christian history”.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Purification of the church is by the “Refiner’s fire”, and that Refiner is Jesus Christ. Puritans, like other uber-Calvinists, misplace the emphasis of scripture as being on the sovereignty of God, rather than His love. Yes, God is sovereign, including over his own sovereignty, and scripture teaches that God, in order to grant us freedom to choose to love and follow Him in the Person of Jesus Christ, restrains His own sovereignty, just as He did to allow the crucifixion that provides for our redemption if we accept His gift of love and mercy.
That is one thing I loved about the Puritans: Sovereignty of God. What I saw that was unbiblical was their own authoritarianism and Old Covenant focus. What is it about us that we ignore the fact that these ‘brilliant’ theologians baptized babies?
I agree with Deb about keeping priorities straight. I do see too much tendancy to follow humans and their teaching/example than to follow Christ alone. Satan loves this about us. He loves it when we promote Puritans instead of Jesus Christ.
So the focus on the puritans is a good thing (as long as primary focus is on Christ)? Thanks for the reminder that they are sinners. As always great depth.
Ah Anonymous
A good reader always waits until the end of the story. Subtlety, my friend, subtlety.May God bless you this day.
“So the focus on the puritans is a good thing (as long as primary focus is on Christ)? Thanks for the reminder that they are sinners. As always great depth.”
But that begs the question! WHY are Puritans so popular now and seeing such a huge resurgence. You cannot swing a dead cat in reformed land without hitting a Puritan reference.
The question is: Why Puritans and not Christ?
BTW: I do not think the focus is a good thing at all.
“But that begs the question! WHY are Puritans so popular now and seeing such a huge resurgence?”
(1) The original resurgence of Puritans took place in the 1950s in Great Britain. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and a young J. I. Packer promoted the Puritans and held an annual conference.
(2) Banner of Truth was started in the 1950s and began reprinting lots of old literature. They began by publishing old editions of the Puritans, but eventually they began releasing abridged and accessible paperbacks.
(3) J. I. Packer kept promoting the Puritans, and R. C. Sproul began advocating the Puritans in the 1980s and 1990s. Packer particularly focused attention on Richard Baxter and John Owen. Leland Ryken summarized a lot of historical scholarship that was reconsidering negative stereotypes of the Puritans.
(4) John Piper created a huge interest in Jonathan Edwards in the 1990s and even more so in the 2000s. Mark Dever also promoted Edwards and recommended Richard Sibbes.
(5) The internet made it easier to find Puritan works. Small Christian bookstores were replaced by superstores like Mardel that had room for a couple of shelves of Puritans. Conferences like T4G had whole tables of Puritan books for sale.
(6) Evangelical Christianity began to feel increasingly shallow by the 1990s and 2000s. Revivalism was running out of energy. Charismatic churches relied too much on emotion and produced burnout. Church growth pragmatism focused on seekers and new Christians and didn’t have much to offer to more mature Christians.
(7) As a result of the shallowness of evangelical Christianity, many evangelicals began seeking deeper historical roots. Some turned to Roman Catholic mystics, but this did not appeal to everybody. The emerging church appealed to medieval aesthetics and devotional practices, but this movement seemed too faddish and unorthodox.
(8) Therefore, many evangelicals became interested in the Puritans. At their best, the Puritans are wonderfully Scripture-saturated and Christ-centered (using Piper-style hyphenation). They preach to both the head and at the heart. The contemporary promoters of Puritanism have carefully selected and promoted the best of the Puritan works, creating a kind of “canon.” They have also created a kind of nostalgia for Puritans, mostly portraying the Puritans as gentle and winsome in contrast to the negative image they have had for a long time in our culture.
Good summary, Jeff. I’m sure the ladies will have more to add regarding both the decline and resurgence of Puritanism. For now, I’ll add my own item to your list:
(9) The New Calvinists have affinity for the hyper-authoritarianism of Puritan theologians and find in it justification for their own focus on and abuse of their authority as “God’s anointed”.
“(9) The New Calvinists have affinity for the hyper-authoritarianism of Puritan theologians and find in it justification for their own focus on and abuse of their authority as ‘God’s anointed’.”
I don’t think this is really all that true. Most of the works in the current Puritan “canon” focus on individual sanctification. The Puritan works on pastoral ministry and church government have not been reprinted that much (except as part of multi-volume sets) or that widely recommended. I have read most of the Puritan works that are most frequently recommended by New Calvinists, and I have not picked up on the hyper-authoritarian emphasis.
One exception might be Richard Baxter’s “Reformed Pastor” which exhorts pastors to visit all of their members frequently, ask invasive questions about the state of their souls, and catechize them. In some ways, it is strange that so many young Calvinist pastors love this work, because many of them would prefer to sit in their office and read all day. I could see how reading Baxter’s “Reformed Pastor” might lead to a more intrusive style of ministry than most churches are used to.
The popular Puritan authors come from every type of church polity imaginable – episcopal, presbyterian, and every form of congregationalism. They did not even agree among themselves on issues like pastoral authority. So one must not paint with too broad a brush.
Jeff, great points…speaking of the above 8. But I have to agree with Junk on #9. I have seen way too much of it in action.
Jeff,
Great comment. Good summary. My pastor and some in our church have taken an interest in the Puritans, but it is a healthy interest. I haven’t seen #9 in our church.
The only thing that I see seems to be an emphasis on God’s sovereignty, but not to the exclusion or reduction of man’s responsibility, and the occasional reading in service from the Valley of Vision, which I think is a collection of Puritan prayers.
Let’s face it. Some emphases and re-canonizations can be healthy. And some can be very unhealthy.
Hopefully this week’ posts will help you to see our points. The Puritans were no different than us.I hope that my examples will help to bring the Puritans into todays’ stories that we cover. Thank you all for your interest.
Dee:
Interesting thought about the Puritans being no different from us. That means that someday, someone will write some incredibly glowing book about us – and say, “Man. They were the true believers!” And then someone on a blog will say, “Not so fast. They were so mean, immoral bla, bla, bla.”
Anonymous
We need to learn fully from each group-successes and failures. Only then do we grow in understanding about the issues we face as humans and Christians.
Blessings
What happened to comment #2608?
Sorry Ann. You must have us confused with another blog. We don’t number our comments here at TWW.
No confusion at all. Go to the comments on a blog posting and check at the address bar and you will see something like this: http://thewartburgwatch.com/2010/03/18/puritans-rising/#comment-2630 . Hence this is comment #2630. Just curious as to where #2608 went.
I do not see comment numbers on that link
Click on the date/time of any comment and then look in the address bar of your browser. At the end of the address you will see the comment number. For example your comment made Tues.,Mar 33 at 06:37pm is comment #2635.