Communion with God: The Divine and the Human in the Theology of John Owen

During the last century with the rise of Pentecostalism some had said the 20th century was the century of the Holy Spirit. With the influx of reprinting of Puritan works and works on the theology of Puritans, it could easily be said that perhaps the 21st century is the century of the Puritans. In this new release, Communion with God, by Kelly Kapic (Associate Professor of Theological Studies at Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, GA), this most wonderful trend continues. Kapic is no stranger to the Puritans or to Owen. He has preciously edited with Randall Gleason, The Devoted Life: An Invitation to the Puritan Classics (IVP) and has recently updated a number of John Owen's works with the help of Justin Taylor (Overcoming Sin and Temptation and Communion with the Triune God both from Crossway). This volume is the edited substance of his PhD dissertation from King's College, University of London). Owen serves as crucial figure for study in the life of the Puritans. The "Calvin of England," the chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, the Presbyterian turned Congregationalist, the writer of numerous books, the preacher of many sermons, the scholarly academic, the admirer of the country preacher (Bunyan to be precise), Owen is a necessary figure to study. Many find him daunting as his writing has been referred to as "dense." Therefore, a study like Kapic's on the relationship of the divine and human in Owen's thought, is most needed in our day of both historical and theological imprecision. The primary thrust then of the thought of the book revolves around the relationship between God and man. Kapic writes near the end of his introductory chapter on the life of Owen, "Since humanity was created to commune with God, the theological enterprise must be primarily concerned with understanding humanity in its relation with God. As we see at the very end of our study, being made in God's image is primarily about loving Jesus Christ, who is the mediator between God and humanity. This unique relationship is ultimately what defines being in communion with God" (pp. 33-34). Kapic then proceeds to flesh out this thinking in the following chapters. Chapter 2 deals with exploring humanity as made in the image of God and works through Owen's use of faculty psychology, and a brief survey of humanity through history, providing a framework for fitting creation, fall, and redemption into Owen's thinking on the relationship between God and man. In chapter 3 Kapic turns to the ultimate expression of relationship between God and man, the God-man, Jesus Christ and answers questions like, why the incarnation? Chapter 4 deals with the issue of justification and works through Owen's understanding of faith and his disagreement with Roman Catholic opponents and how he understands negative and positive imputation. Chapter 5 moves to the main core of the book which is human communion with God. Specifically Kapic looks at Owens's creative attempt to view the Trinity within the context of

In addition to exploring John Owen's `anthroposensitive' theology in regard to communion with the Triune God, Prof. Kapic simultaneously exposes other peculiar insights that I found very thoughtful. The readers will find that, while anthroposensitive pastorally, the foundation of Owen's anthroposensitivity is Christocentric throughout the text. The thesis of this study is that a true postlapsarian communion with God can only be a reality in the context of Christology. To arrive to this conclusion, some pre-requisite treatments are appropriately given on the creation of man as the image of God and how this image was shattered in the Fall; on the necessity of a Mediator to restore this broken communion, and how it is only possible if the Mediator is both God and man, which in turn necessitates an incarnation for this Mediator, fulfilled in the God-man Jesus Christ, to carry out the reconciliation between God and humanity. The treatment on these subjects involves plenty of theological jargons and references that could potentially be intimidating. In the chapter that deals with communion with God itself, though still highly academic, I find it the most affectionate section of the book. On communion with the Father, for example, "Owen encourages his readers to use their imagination by asking them to picture anything that appears to have a loving and tender nature in the world, and after imagining away any imperfections or weaknesses, the love of the Father becomes easier to conceive: He is as a father, a mother, a shepherd, a hen over chickens. All these earthly manifestation of love serve as imperfect pointers to the source of love itself, the perfect love of the Father."(p.170). Further down the line of thoughts, under the same heading of the communion and love of the Father, he also commented, "Believers also discover God to be their rest and delight. While the soul has looked for a place to rest from its wanderings, nothing it has loved satisfies its longing until it embraces God, who alone fills the soul with present and eternal rest," (p.172), which does two things. First, it reminds me of Augustine's famous quote, "that he is happy who possesses God. You made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace till they rest in you." Second, this could be a reference of Owen's uncommon interpretation of Heb 4:10. Here we see the difficulty associated with the word "he" which is in the King James Version that Owen most likely used, and modern translations that use the word "anyone" (NIV) and "whoever" (ESV) that causes a significantly different interpretation. While most scholars agree that "he" or "whoever" or "anyone" in v.10 refers to believers and the word "rest" means the eternal rest in heaven, Owen, on the contrary, gives convincing arguments why "he", not "anyone" or "whoever", actually refers to Christ and "rest" refers to Christ resting, not literally, after the Resurrection; the completion of his redemptive work. The "rest" referred to