BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES: John Owen and the Civil War Apocalypse: Preaching, Prophecy and Politics

In addition to arguments for Owen's abiding theological significance, some authors, like Sebastian Rehnman, Carl Trueman, and Richard Muller, have examined the place of his thought within the philosophical and theological background of international Protestant Scholasticism; this approach to Owen studies also accounts for his place within the longer stream of Christian scholastic approaches to theological method that date back to the medieval period. According to Owen's assessment, the 1630s represented England's decade of negligence because it ignored how the kingdom swung back toward Rome, away from pure gospel, during the Laudian period. Three main ways that God works, claimed Owen in his prophetic posture, were 1) “hardening the reprobate,” 2) “exposing hypocritical professors,” and 3) “refining a godly remnant” (see chapter 6). [...]fasts and prayers were practices that Owen encouraged people to employ that they might more ably discern God's ways and works in their day, so that they might properly interpret his rebukes and know how best to reform and respond to such divine discipline.