Worshiping God With Our Minds: Theology As Doxology Among The Puritans -- By: Peter Beck

Journal: Puritan Reformed Journal
Volume: PRJ 05:2 (Jul 2013)
Article: Worshiping God With Our Minds: Theology As Doxology Among The Puritans
Author: Peter Beck


Worshiping God With Our Minds:
Theology As Doxology Among The Puritans

Peter Beck

As Diarmaid MacCulloch argues, “Puritanism is in the eye of the beholder.”1 Interpretations of the Puritan project vary. Some interpret the Puritans as the logical outcome of political upheaval within the English state. Others see the movement as a faith-based expression of sociological changes taking place during the transition between the medieval and early modern periods.2 Though these efforts accurately describe the when, the context, and the what, they fall short of explaining the why.

Still other historians have recognized the shortcomings of explaining the seismic shift represented in Puritanism in purely secular terms. These scholars have sought to explain the Puritans according to their own standards, according to their theological concerns. Carden, for example, argues, “Their absolute belief in the Bible and the God of the Bible was the fundamental motivating force behind their worldview.”3 Horton Davies, on the other hand, interprets the movement as a biblically driven reaction to the worship of the Roman Catholic Church and its close ecclesiastical relative, the Church of England.4 Packer believes that communion with God is the “heart of

Puritan theology and religion.”5 These attempts to explain the center of Puritan thought, and others like them, are adequate insofar as they go. Yet, they too fall short of offering the holistic explanation that the Puritans themselves provided.

According to their own words, the Puritans sought a system of faith that was first and foremost about the worship of God. The worship that they desired, however, was more than liturgical expressions of faith on Sunday that differed only in form from their predecessors. Instead, they deduced from their studies of Scripture that theology and the life informed by such convictions were to be one harmonious act of worship.

A survey follows that examines the thoughts of four key Puritan thinkers. Separately, they represent three different eras in the movement’s development. Seen together, however, it becomes clear that each shared a common goal: a theology that leads to doxology.

William Ames (1576-1633)

Trained at Cambridge University, William Ames developed his theology under the influence of early Puritan William Perkins (1558-1602). Ames, however, quickly established himself as th...

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