Great Theologians 6: John Owen

 

John Owen (1616-1683)

John Owen is one of the most important theologians in the Reformed tradition of all time, and may justly be considered the leading theologian of the Puritan period in England. For good reason, he is often referred to as the Prince of the Puritans.

His life encompasses a huge range of achievements as a nonconformist church leader, theologian, academic, chaplain and even, briefly, a Member of Parliament.

He was of Welsh ancestry but born in Stadhampton, Oxfordshire in 1616 (his actual birth date is unknown). He graduated from Oxford University with a BA in 1632 (aged 15 or 16!) and an MA in 1635.  

He was brought up and followed the Puritan tradition and upon the outbreak of the English Civil War, he sided with the Parliamentary forces against King Charles I. This decision would cost him as he was cut off from inheriting his Welsh uncle's fortune, who was an ardent royalist.

He eventually became a chaplain to Oliver Cromwell and preached a sermon before Parliament the day after King Charles was executed in 1649. He was later appointed as Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University by Cromwell in 1652.

A congregationalist in church polity, Owen took a leading part in the Savoy Declaration of 1658, which was a revision of the Westminster Confession of Faith, the main revisions being the sections on the Church and Church governance.

Owen married his wife in 1644 (Mary Rooke) and the couple had 11 children, but 10 of them died in infancy, as was not uncommon in those times.

Owen's legacy to the church is an enormous body of writings. He was, by any standard, a prolific writer. However, unlike other Puritan writers like Thomas Watson, Owen was not blessed with an easy or attractive prose style and many of his works are a challenging read for the modern Christian. That said, his volumous output contains many classic works of the Reformed and Puritan tradition. His collected works run to 16 volumes. He also penned a monumental commentary on the Letter to the Hebrews, which runs to a further seven thick volumes.

Of the individual works which comprise his collected output, many are worthy of careful and repeated reading. His early work, A Display of Arminianism, written when Owen was 26, is a defence of Calvinist monergism and a refutation of Arminian synergism. One of his greatest and most enduring works is The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (1648) which is a full and polemical defence of limited atonement. In the words of J. I. Packer in his introduction to tbe Banner of Truth edition, Owen's work has never been refuted. Other works in Owen's output include an excellent treatises on the doctrine of justification and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Far from being a cold academic theologian, many of Owen's better known works are known for their practical application and warmth. These include Communion with God, The Glory of Christ, and perhaps Owen's most practical book of all, The Mortification of Sin.

Owen continued writing in his later life. He died in 1683 aged 66 or 67 and is buried in Bunhill Fields cemetery in London.