Owen on the Christian Life: Living for the Glory of God in Christ Paperback – September 30, 2015

There are many attempts to summarize the theology of John Owen, but this one is the best by far. The authors incredibly make the oft-times prolix Owen not only clear but also accessible. Liberally sprinkled with quotations from his works and integrating them by topic (the Holy Spirit, Sin, etc.), Barrett’s and Haykin’s book will lead you directly to the primary source itself—John Owen. Truly outstanding and highly devotional.

Owen's writings are dense but rich and the authors did a wonderful job condensing them without losing their vital substance. I can't recommend this volume or Owen himself highly enough.

Overall, I thought this was a great piece of work summarizing Owen's theology. The first chapter was excellent (and very timely for today) as it draws the reader into the historical context of Quaker theology abour the Spirit, and then observes Owen's response on the sufficiency of Scripture with the Spirit. It may be worth the price of the whole book.On the whole, I felt the remainder of the book was certainly good and solid. However, the excellent quality of the first chapter did not feel as present throughout the bulk of the book. While a very good piece of work, at times it felt more like reformed, systematic theology with Owen quotes to give support, rather than an intimate, personal look at the man and his gems (as found in Horton's on Calvin, or Trueman's on Luther). It wouldn't be fair to say that the entire book is like this, not at all, but for myself anyway, that was one thing that stood out to me as I read it. A little more "Owen", by way of quotations and anecdotes, would have been fun.Ultimately, this is a solid piece of historical theology in a readable fashion, which makes it well worth the price and time. I definitely recommend it.

Quality resource in its field

Owen on the Christian Life provides a broad-spectrum approach to John Owen’s theological insights into the Christian life. It is part of the “Theologians on the Christian Life” series from Crossway (see my other reviews in this series here).John Owen was a Puritan. Yes, one of “those people.” The word “puritan” has something of a bad connotation nowadays, but the theological movement was actually remarkably broad. Moreover, many insights can be gleaned from reading through the works of these theologians who emphasized a Christian life lived.The authors outline Owen’s theology through a number of chapters that build on each other, including chapters on the Trinity, penal substitution, justification, and more. Readers also learn about Owen’s transition towards congregationalism, discussions about church and state, and more.Central to Owen’s theology are the Trinitarian relations, which can help us to learn about divine-human and human-relations as well. Owen emphasized the importance of religious experience for the Christian life. This experience was never taken to trump the authority of the Bible–far from it. Instead, it was taken to be a bulwark in times of doubt and need. Justification in Owen’s view provides a way to be assured of one’s salvation, for God completes that which God has set out to do. Sanctification is where I believe Owen’s main contributions might be found, though I will outline that more below.The primary critique I have of the book is that it doesn’t seem to focus on Owen’s specific views of the Christian life as the other works in the series have. As I outlined above, there are chapters emphasizing various aspects of Owen’s theology, but these only get tied into the Christian life in what seems like offhand fashion at times. This makes the book read more like an exposition of Owen’s broader (largely Calvinistic) theology than a specific look at his doctrine of the Christian life. Particularly surprising to me was how Owen’s insights on sanctification and overcoming sin and temptation were lumped in with discussions of the power of prayer and the indwelling Spirit. Perhaps this is at least partially my own bias, having been edified greatly by his works on sin and temptation, but I think that more space dedicated to his work in this area would have been on point in a book on the Christian life.That said, the authors do a good job summarizing Owen’s approach to overcoming sin and putting it to death in our lives. Owen argues for several steps a Christian can take to battle sin and temptation in their lives. This is a proactive approach which views the Christian life as a Spirit-empowered battle against the temptations we face. Steps Owen describes include the envisioning of the consequences of sin, reflection on the Bible, and realizing the fact of the suffering our sin causes Christ.Owen on the Christian Life provides insight into the whole of Owen’s theology, with a focus on his theology of Christian living. It’s not necessarily as focused on the topic at hand as some other books in the series, but it is a worthy read that provides an introduction into the thought of this theological giant.The Good+Excellent insights into the Christian life+Provides broad overview of Owen’s work+Great insights into doctrine of the Holy Spirit, sanctification, and moreThe Bad-Doesn’t seem to focus entirely on the Christian Life

Having read several other volumes in Crossway's Theologians on the Christian Life series, I can say that this is the most theological treatment on any book in the series. Which would normally be okay, but the series is supposed to lean towards the practical aspects of Christian living. That's not to say that theology isn't practical, because it is, but is to say that the authors should have given much more space to Owen's views on sanctification and killing sin than his understanding of justification by faith and the atonement.It's criminal that they only gave one chapter (and a short one at that!) to Owen's works on the mortification of sin and indwelling sin.But aside from this qualm, I didn't want to give a review below 4 stars because there is so much good in this book. We would do well as Christians to read more on and by the great Puritan, John Owen.