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This article first appeared in ChristianWeek (April 10, 2009 - Vol 23 No 2) 

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Back in the day when I was a just-getting-started young pastor, being labeled a Calvinist was a sure route to ministerial obscurity. Everyone knew that reformed pastors neglected evangelism while perfecting their five-point anti-Arminian tirades. True Calvinists were a lot to be avoided, and I was as anti-reformed as anyone.

It was in the 1970’s, while church planting in England, that I first encountered the Banner of Truth Trust, a publishing ministry devoted to reprinting Puritan works for a fledgling reformed evangelical movement. I had been invited to attend the Westminster Fellowship, a monthly gathering of pastors chaired by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel in London. The monthly interaction with more than 200 reformed pastors, along with a well-stocked bookroom at the chapel, heavy on reformed authors, resulted in my embracing reformed soteriology. Though an exhilarating theological journey for me, it was cause for considerable concern with many friends back home in the USA and Canada.

How things have changed. Today it is cool to be a Calvinist. Just ask any of the thousands of young men and women flocking to conferences featuring contemporary reformed preachers like John Piper, C.J. Mahaney, Mark Dever, Al Mohler, John MacArthur and R.C. Sproul, to name just a few.

Puritans from the 16th & 17th centuries are the forerunners of today’s new Calvinists. However, despite the fact that publishers like Banner of Truth have faithfully reprinted the best from the immense body of Puritan-authored literature, Puritans are still, according to blogger Tony Reinke (www.spurgeon.wordpress.com), caricatured as “dry, culturally withdrawn and excessive zealots.”

Despite the current Calvinistic resurgence, many contemporary Christians cringe at the thought of wading through the finely-honed theology of a Jonathan Edwards or John Owens.

Banner of Truth is taking aim at this reticence to encounter the Puritans by introducing us to their carefully crafted summaries of significant Puritan titles. Billed as “Pocket Puritans”, these 60-120 page booklets address themes of perennial interest to Christians. Eight titles have already been published, with more promised in the coming months.

Impure LUST (John Flavel) is a powerful warning about the “horrid nature and frightening consequences” of sexual immorality coupled with sound counsel on how to escape or avoid the trap of sexual sin. In 46 pages, we find five arguments for avoiding this sin and 6 directives for escaping its clutches if one has succumbed to sexual temptation. In defending the need for such pointed counsel, Flavel said: “That this sin is a dreadful gulf, a quicksand that has sucked in and destroyed thousands, is truly apparent both from Scripture and experience. Solomon tells us, Prov. 22:14, that it is a ‘deep ditch, into which such as are abhorred of the LORD shall fall’. Oh! The multitudes of dead that are there! (sic) and if so, I cannot in duty to God, or in love to you, be silent, where the danger is so great.” The book concludes with a short biographical sketch of John Flavel.

The two other titles featuring Flavel’s writing are: Binge DRINKING, a no-holds-barred attack on the “soul-destroying evils of this detestable sin”; and Sinful SPEECH, a sober assessment of this all too prevalent failure of Christians to guard their tongues.

Other titles in the series include Living FAITH (Samuel Ward); REPENT and Believe (Thomas Brooks); UNITED We Stand (Thomas Brooks); ANGER Management (Richard Baxter); and HEAVEN, A World of Love (Jonathan Edwards).

Reformed pastor and theologian, Sinclair Ferguson, who has written, edited and contributed to at least 20 books says, “To read the work of a Puritan doctor of the soul is to enter a rich world of spiritual theology to feed the mind, heart-searching analysis to probe the conscience, Christ-centered grace to transform the hear, and wise counsel to direct the life.”

Having read Puritan works for over 30 years, I concur with Ferguson’s sentiment. Though contemporary readers may find the prose of Puritan writers difficult to navigate at times, their passion for God’s glory and their concern for the good of God’s people will shine brightly through.

If you want substantial writing that will feed your soul, but are not yet ready to invest in full-length works, give the “Pocket Puritans” a chance. I feel certain that many will be drawn to drink more deeply from the well of Puritan theology and Christian living.

This article first appeared in ChristianWeek on July 18, 2008. 

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“Calvinism is making a comeback - and it is shaking up the church” according to Colin Hansen, editor-at-large with Christianity Today. The growing fascination with reformed theology is attracting a younger generation of evangelicals now taking their place in various ministry roles across the church.

Hansen publicized the Calvinistic comeback in a Christianity Today cover story (September 22, 2006) entitled “Young, Restless, Reformed.” That article has grown into a book length explanation of the movement: Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists (Crossway Books, 2008), a popular level look into this Reformed resurgence sweeping across North America.

There are many factors at work in this embrace of all things Reformed, a major one surely being the high visibility, and popularity, of some of the main leaders in the contemporary reformed setting: John Piper, Al Mohler, John MacArthur, Mark Dever, D.A. Carson, R.C. Sproul, and C.J. Mahaney to name just a few. Even a cursory reflection on the persons mentioned reveals the growing influence of the new Reformed community. Within the above-named group one finds several brands of premillennialism, an amillenialist or two, dispensationalists and covenant theologians, along with cessantionists and non-cessationists.

But the longevity of this new-found interest rests in the necessity of grasping the historical and biblical foundations of reformed theology. That will require hard work in discovering its roots: both within the pages of Scripture and within the flow of Reformation history.

One significant resource to that end is Richard Muller’s four volume work, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: The Rise and Development of Reformed Orthodoxy, ca. 1520 to ca. 1725 (Baker Academic, 2003). The fruit of twenty-five years of work in the sources, Muller examines three interrelated and foundational elements of Reformed thought: prolegomena (a discussion of fundamental issues of method: presuppositions and intentions in studying theology), Scripture and God.

Muller, who teaches historical theology at Calvin Theological Seminary, wants to provide a “suitable alternative to the all-too-neat and consistently ahistorical ‘Calvin against the Calvinists’ approach” that has occupied too much 20^th century scholarship. While seeking to correct the distortions of many 19^th and 20^th century scholars, Muller says he has “consistently avoided language of praise and blame” and has “avoided contemporary theological comment.” And, as far as one can do so, Muller says he lets the crafters of post-Reformation orthodoxy speak for themselves without reading contemporary concerns into their writings.

In volume one, “Prolegomena to Theology” (1987, 2003 2^nd ed.), we are reminded of the critical need to read the sources with reference to their own historical context. While acknowledging the great debt we owe to the work of 19^th and 20^th century theologians and historians, Muller notes that “many of these writers have embedded in their historical scholarship large components of theological argumentation” to demonstrate how they themselves stand in line with Reformed theology and/or Protestant Orthodoxy. “The history of Reformed thought,” says Muller, must be “read forward, not backward, and read as the history of a tradition that is represented by a wide variety of writers in a series of diverse historical contexts.”

Volume two, “Holy Scripture: The Cognitive Foundation of Theology” (1993, 2003 2^nd ed.) covers how the Scriptures were viewed in Medieval Scholastic Theology through the early years of the 18^th century. Muller explores how the Post-Reformation scholars understood the nature, properties, canon and interpretation of the Bible.

Volumes three and four cover the doctrine of the Godhead: “The Divine Essence and Attributes” (2003) and “The Triunity of God” (2003).

How successful Muller has been with the project will have to be determined by others far more qualified than I to offer judgment. But I do commend these volumes to all who claim the mantle “Reformed” or want to understand the background to the contemporary surge in Reformed theology.

Muller will require focused, disciplined reading. But those who invest the time will find rich reward. And the 123 page bibliography of primary and secondary sources will provide a lifetime of further research for those so inclined.

Carl Trueman (Westminster Theological Seminary) says of Muller’s work: “Nobody engaged in this area can afford to ignore (Muller’s) arguments or his conclusions: those who wish to dissent from his central theses have been set a daunting task, and those who find themselves in agreement have been set a standard for their own research.”

I hope these volumes find their way onto the shelves a many young pastors and Christian leaders.

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Purchase these books now by clicking on the cover scan or title.

Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics, 4 Volumes
By Richard A. Muller / Baker

Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists
By Collin Hansen / Crossway Books & Bibles