Learning from Puritan Failings

What can we learn from Puritan failings?

In an earlier post, I listed six reasons to study the Puritans according to J.I. Packer. To that end, I recommended Leland Ryken’s book, Worldly Saints: The Puritans As They Really Were. Ryken provides a much-needed corrective to the erroneous assumptions about English and American Puritanism.

However, Ryken also takes a chapter to acknowledge the Puritan failings, and considering that we American evangelicals are the modern descendents of the Puritans, I couldn’t help but see similar vulnerabilities in the 21st century church. Ryken recommends that we practice the following in light of Puritan errors:

__ Value leisure and recreation as good in themselves for purposes of rest, celebration, and human enrichment.

__ Be on guard against multiplying the rules that we add to our foundational moral principles.

__ Practice the art of conciseness, leaven some things unstated, choose quality of words over their quantity, and respect the attention span of an audience.

__ Beware of overkill through too much moralizing.

__ Avoid thinking in terms of male superiority.

__ Rise above party spirit by differentiating between the principle of a thing and its abuse.

__ Respect the religious feelings of people whose viewpoint we reject.

__ Remember that accuracy of expression is better than overstatement, that mildness of expression gains more respect than belligerence, and that a good thing when carried too far becomes ridiculous.