Six Reasons to Study the Puritans

J.I. Packer suggests six reasons why we should study the 16th and 17th century English and American Puritans—the misunderstood and maligned forebears of (misunderstood and maligned) evangelical faith today.

First, he says, there are lessons for us in the integration of their daily lives. “Seeing life whole, they integrated contemplation with action, worship with work, labor with rest, love of God with love of neighbor and of self, personal with social identity, and the wide spectrum of relational responsibilities with each other, in a thoroughly conscientious and thought-out way.”

Second, Packer says there are lessons for us in the quality of their spiritual experience. Mindful of “the dishonesty and deceitfulness of fallen human hearts, they cultivated humility and self-suspicion as abiding attitudes, examining themselves regularly for spiritual blind spots and lurking inward evils.”

Third, there are lessons for us in their passion for effective action. “None of them wanted to be revolutionaries in church or state, though some of them reluctantly became such,” writes Packer; “all of them, however, longed to be effective change agents for God wherever change was called for.”

Fourth, there are lessons for us in their program for family stability. Regarding marriage, says Packer, the Puritan ethic “was first to look not for a partner whom you do love passionately at this moment but rather for one whom you can love steadily as your best friend for life, then to proceed with God’s help to do just that.” As for leading the household built around such a marriage, the Puritan’s family “he endeavored to make a Church, laboring that those that were born in it, might be born again to God.”

Fifth, there are lessons to be learned from their sense of human worth. “Through believing in a great God, they gained a vivid awareness of the greatness of moral issues, of eternity, and of the human soul.” Packer adds, “Their appreciation of man’s dignity as the creature made to be God’s friend was strong.”

Finally, there are lessons to be learned from the Puritan’s ideal of church renewal. Citing Richard Baxter’s famous work, The Reformed Pastor (which I read early in my ministry), Packer said—

For Baxter, a ‘Reformed’ pastor was not one who campaigned for Calvinism but one whose ministry as preacher, teacher, catechist, and role model for his people showed him to be, as we would say, ‘revived’ or ‘renewed.’ The essence of this kind of ‘reformation was enrichment of understanding of God’s truth, arousal of affections Godward, increase of ardor in one’s devotions, and more love, joy, and firmness of Christian purpose in one’s calling and personal life. In line with this, the ideal for the church was that through ‘reformed’ clergy each congregation in its entirety should be ‘reformed’—brought, that is, by God’s grace into a state of what we would call revival without disorder, so as to be truly and thoroughly converted, theologically orthodox and sound, spiritually alert and expectant, in character terms wise and mature, ethically enterprising and obedient, and humbly but joyously sure of their salvation.

To these six ends, you might want to pick up the 1986 book, Worldly Saints: The Puritans As They Really Were by Leland Ryken. Packer's six reasons to study the Puritans can be found in the foreward.