by Leland Ryken
304 pp.
We love the Puritans, because we think of all Christians they not only worked hardest at understanding the practical implications of godliness, they came the closest to living it out. As J.I. Packer says of them, “the typical Puritans were not wild men, fierce and freaky, religious fanatics and social extremists, but sober, conscientious, and cultured citizens, persons of principle, determined and disciplined, excelling in the domestic virtues, and with no obvious shortcomings save a tendency to run to words when saying anything important, whether to God or to man.”
Many of the best Puritan writers are surprisingly approachable, and we think that modern-day Christians can benefit immensely by spending some time reading them. The best place to start exploring the Puritans is Leland Ryken’s Worldly Saints. Ryken explains 17th century English and American Puritanism by quoting the writers extensively, collecting together what they had to say about such practical matters as work, marriage and sex, money, family, preaching, church, worship, the Bible, education, and social action. Ryken also tempers his mostly approving account by including a chapter describing what he sees as their faults: too many words, too many rules, too much partisanship, too much pious moralizing. The resulting picture of the Puritans is rich, detailed and realistic.
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