Evaluating the writings of one of the most significant religious figures in early modern England, this volume summarizes Owen's life, explores his various intellectual, literary and political contexts, and considers his roles as a preacher, administrator, polemicist and theologian. It explores the importance of Owen, reviews the state of scholarship and suggests new avenues for research. The first part of the volume offers brand-new assessments of Owen's intellectual formation, pastoral ministry, educational reform at Oxford, political connections in the Cromwellian revolution, support of nonconformity during the Restoration, interaction with the scientific revolution and understanding of philosophy. The second part of the volume considers Owen's prolific literary output. A cross-section of well-known and frequently neglected works are reviewed and situated in their historical and theological contexts. The volume concludes by evaluating ways that Owen scholarship can benefit historians, theologians, biblical scholars, ministers and Christian readers.

John W. Tweeddale reappraises John Owen's work as a biblical exegete, offering the first analysis of his essays, or “exercitations,” on Hebrews. Owen is frequently acknowledged as a leading figure of the puritan and nonconformist movements of the seventeenth century. However, while his reputation as a statesman, educator, pastor, polemicist, and theologian is widely recognized, he is not remembered as an exegete of Scripture. Yet throughout his life, Owen engaged in the task of biblical interpretation. His massive commentary on Hebrews in particular represents the apex of his career and exemplifies many of the exegetical methods of Protestants in early modern England. Although often overlooked, Owen's writings on Hebrews are an important resource for understanding his life and thought. Beginning with an evaluation of the state of research on Owen's commentary, as well as suggesting reasons for its neglect in current scholarship, Tweeddale then places Owen's work on Hebrews within the context of his life. What follows is a consideration of the function of federal theology in Owen's essays, and how his hermeneutic fits within the broader scope of reformed discussions on the doctrine of covenant. Tweeddale further examines Owen's attempts to resolve the challenge posed by a Christological reading of the Old Testament to a literal interpretation of Scripture. He then explores how Owen's essays represent a refining of the exegetical tradition of the Abrahamic passages in Hebrews, and how his exegesis distinguishes himself from the majority of reformed opinion on the Mosaic covenant. By focusing on the relationship of Christology, covenant theology, and hermeneutics in his commentary, this book argues that neither Owen's biography nor theology can be fully understood apart from his work on Hebrews and efforts in biblical interpretation.

In the opening chapter of the Confession, the divines of Westminster included a clause that implied that there would no longer be any special immediate revelation from God. Means by which God had once communicated the divine will, such as dreams, visions, and the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, were said to be no longer available. However, many of the authors of the WCF accepted that prophecy continued in their time, and a number of them apparently believed that disclosure of God's will through dreams, visions, and angelic communication remained possible. How is the cessationist clause of WCF 1:1 to be read in the light of these claims? This book reconciles this paradox in a detailed study of the writings of the authors of the Westminster Confession of Faith.

Since its coinage in a sixteenth-century translation of Leviticus, the term "scapegoat" has become widely used. A groundbreaking search for the origins of this expression, Flesh Becomes Word traces the scapegoat to its origins in Mesopotamian ritual across centuries of typological interpretation and religious reflection, to its first informal uses in the pornographic and plague literature of the 1600s, and finally into the modern era.

Early New England and the early modern era -- Jonathan Edwards and the Protestant scholastics -- Sources of Christian homiletics -- Sources of biblical exegesis: an ecumenical enterprise -- Sources of the formulation of doctrine: continuity and discontinuity? -- Sources of history as theology -- Conclusion and prospect

Experimental philosophy was an exciting and extraordinarily successful development in the study of nature in the seventeenth century. Yet experimental philosophy was not without its critics and was far from the only natural philosophical method on the scene. In particular, experimental philosophy was contrasted with and set against speculative philosophy and, in some quarters, was accused of tending to irreligion. This volume brings together ten scholars of early modern philosophy, history and science in order to shed new light on the complex relations between experiment, speculation and religion in early modern Europe. The first six chapters of the book focus on the respective roles of experimental and speculative philosophy in individual seventeenth-century philosophers. They include Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, Margaret Cavendish, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Isaac Newton. The next two chapters deal with the relation between experimental philosophy and religion with a special focus on hypotheses and natural religion. The penultimate chapter takes a broader European perspective and examines the paucity of concerns with religion among Italian natural philosophers of the period. Finally, the concluding chapter draws all these individuals and themes together to provide a critical appraisal of recent scholarship on experimental philosophy. This book is the first collection of essays on the subject of early modern experimental philosophy. It will appeal to scholars and students of early modern philosophy, science and religion.