4 Learning from History: Retrieving the Puritan Heritage
4
Learning from History: Retrieving the Puritan Heritage
As a gifted preacher, Martyn Lloyd-Jones found it easy to express deep truths in memorable ways. His pithy summary of the role of the annual Puritan and Reformed Studies Conferences at Westminster Chapel is an excellent example:
It is always essential for us to supplement our reading of theology with the reading of church history . . . if we do not, we shall be in danger of becoming abstract, theoretical, and academic in our view of truth, and failing to relate it to the practicalities of life and daily living.
The conferences are now seen as having played a significant part in reinvigorating evangelicalism across denominations in Great Britain, particularly within the Church of England during the 1950s and 1960s.
So why did Packer prize the Puritans so highly? And what did he think that his own generation of pastor-theologians might learn from them? We have already seen the theological framework within which Packer positions the Puritans: the fundamental belief that the wisdom of the past can be reappropriated by today’s Christians, allowing it both to enrich and to challenge our own ideas and lives. In his writings, Packer not only developed this general principle, but at the same time applied it in the case of one specific body of wisdom and expertise which he believed to have particular relevance – the Puritan heritage.
Historians point out that ‘Puritanism’ is not an easy concept to define. Like the modern term ‘evangelical’, it designates such a wide range of theological opinions and institutional commitments that it is sometimes unclear whether it continues to be meaningful. The term ‘Puritan’ originated in England during the later sixteenth century, and was intended as a criticism, even a caricature, of a religious movement that seemed to threaten the Church establishment of the day. As Packer himself noted, ‘Puritanism’ 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.’ Some historians suggest that Puritanism was a form of English Protestantism that was characterised by its enthusiasm or zeal, rather than by its specific theological beliefs; others point out that it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that some central theological convictions – such as a strong doctrine of election – were integral to Puritan self-understanding.
At points, Packer speaks of the Puritans as being ‘theologically homogeneous’.Historians will find this statement problematic, given – to mention only one particularly obvious point – the very significant differences between Richard Baxter and John Owen on the doctrine of justification by faith, noted in Packer’s doctoral thesis. Yet Packer’s concern is primarily to learn from those who are broadly known as ‘Puritans’, whose characteristic ‘mind-set’ consisted in a rigorous biblical commitment to doctrinal and ethical precision, aiming at holiness of life. Packer perhaps understates some of the theological differences that existed between leading Puritans on matters such as their understanding of the Church – but this is not of critical importance to his agenda, which is to enable us to learn from this body of wisdom from the past.
Packer’s interpretation of the ongoing relevance and value Puritanism held for contemporary Christian living was set out in his landmark work A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (1990). This important and influential work takes the form of a collection of papers, including nine lectures from the original Puritan and Reformed Studies Conferences, concerned both to delineate the Puritan vision of the Christian life and to embed this in today’s Church. It allows a broad understanding of the theological, pastoral and spiritual vision of the Puritans which does not require agreement on what lies at the core of Puritanism, the precise extent of a ‘Puritan era’ or whether Puritans were – or ought to be – Presbyterian, Anglican or Congregationalist.
Packer locates the essence of Puritanism as lying primarily in its understanding of the transformation of humanity leading to spiritual ‘maturity’ – an amalgam of wisdom, goodwill, resilience and creativity. It was at heart ‘a spiritual movement, passionately concerned with God and godliness’. Although this vision was rigorously grounded in theology, it was essentially an experiential (or, to use the language of that age, an experimental) religion: ‘Puritanism was essentially an experimental faith, a religion of “heart-work”, a sustained practice of seeking the face of God, in a way that our own Christianity too often is not.’
This aspect of Puritan theology needs to be emphasised, in that it avoids the somewhat dry and dusty approaches that treat theology as essentially abstract theorising about God. The American Presbyterian writer James Henley Thornwell was well aware of the inadequacy of an excessively rationalist or cerebral approach to theology, which failed to engage with human experience and emotion.
It gave no scope to the play of Christian feeling; it never turned aside to reverence, to worship, or to adore. It exhibited truth, nakedly and baldly, in its objective reality, without any reference to the subjective conditions which, under the influence of the Spirit, that truth was calculated to produce. It was a dry digest of theses and propositions – perfect in form, but as cold and lifeless as a skeleton.
Such an approach to theology divorces it from the realm of experience – and hence from the reality of everyday Christian life, especially among believers who did not find intellectual analysis natural or easy. Packer was clear that Puritanism avoided this unhelpful imbalance between reason, emotion and experience, and thus provided an important model of how theology should be done – a point to which we shall return when considering Packer’s understanding of the relation of theology and spirituality (see pp. 101−12).
We have already seen how Packer’s reading of John Owen’s ‘Mortification of Sin in Believers’ persuaded him that Puritanism offered a realistic and rigorous approach to sin, which was thoroughly rooted in the Bible. ‘Without Owen,’ Packer once remarked, ‘I might well have gone off my head or got bogged down in mystical fanaticism.’ Owen’s treatise can be read as an extended commentary on Romans 8:13: ‘For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.’ The word ‘mortify’ in the King James translation familiar to Owen and his contemporaries means ‘to put to death’. Owen himself summed up the message of his treatise like this: ‘Be killing sin or it will be killing you.’
Packer’s own spirituality – expressed in writings such as Knowing God – echoes some of the themes that he finds in the Puritans. As he later reflected, the Puritans ‘made me aware that all theology is also spirituality, in the sense that it has an influence, good or bad, positive or negative, on its recipients’ relationship or lack of relationship with God’. Although Puritan spirituality is sometimes portrayed by its critics as other-worldly, inattentive to the problems and concerns of everyday life, Packer points out that this judgement is somewhat hasty and unperceptive: ‘The Puritans’ awareness that in the midst of life we are in death, just one step from eternity, gave them a deep seriousness, calm yet passionate, with regard to the business of living.’ While proclaiming that we should have heaven ‘in our eye’ throughout our earthly pilgrimage, they insisted that this ‘hope of glory’ must both inform and sustain our earthly life, affecting our relationships with others and our attitudes to the world around us. They viewed this life as ‘the gymnasium and dressing room where we are prepared for heaven’, teaching us that preparation for death is the first step in learning truly to live.
Packer hoped that A Quest for Godliness would encourage readers in ‘opening the windows of our souls to let in a breath of fresh air from the seventeenth century’. It is a helpful image, drawing on C. S. Lewis’s famous essay ‘On the Reading of Old Books’. Opening a window allows fresh air to enter, both blowing away cobwebs and enabling us to breathe more easily. The image neatly conveys two central ideas: removing what is dead, useless or unhelpful, and renewing and revitalising our spiritual lives.
Packer’s vision for the transforming, reforming and enriching impact of Puritanism on evangelicalism proved highly attractive to many evangelicals, particularly those concerned about the historical shallowness and theological superficiality of the movement. Packer’s agenda helped catalyse increasing scholarly interest in Puritanism in both its British and North American forms, as well as a growing demand for Puritan writings which resulted in the publication of new editions of classic works and collections.
A further outcome of this fresh interest in Puritanism is the emergence of theological and devotional works which represent modern interpretations and applications of the Puritan heritage. An excellent example is found in John Piper’s outstanding work Desiring God, which sets out some of the leading themes of the spirituality of Jonathan Edwards, perhaps the greatest American Puritan writer. Although Piper began to read Edwards while a student at Fuller Theological Seminary, he only appreciated his full significance when working on his PhD at the University of Munich, when he began to appreciate Edwards’ remarkable ability to illuminate and inform contemporary concerns and issues. For both writers, wise retrieval of the past leads to individual and communal renewal in the present.
Packer built up a significant library of Puritan classics over the years, partly to resource his own research and teaching, but also for his personal enjoyment. In 2002, Packer donated his collection of early printed books to Regent College’s Allison Library. This collection of seventeenth-century Puritan literature includes John Bunyan’s Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1692); many of Richard Sibbes’ sermons printed in the 1630s and 1640s; a first edition of the Works of William Perkins (1613); and a first edition of Joseph Symonds’ Case and Cure of a Deserted Soule (1639). These have now been digitised, and are freely available to scholars working in this field.
In the next chapter, we resume our main narrative, following the Packers as they moved to Bristol, in England’s west country.