Journal: Masters Seminary Journal
Volume: TMSJ 09:1 (Spring 1998)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

MSJ 9:1 (Spring 98) p. 97

Book Reviews

William Ames. The Marrow of Theology. Trans. from the Latin and Introduction by John Dykstra Eusden. Foreword by Douglas Horton. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997. xiv + 353 pp. $24.99 (paper). Reviewed by J. Gregory Behle, Professor of Christian Education, The Master’s College.

Any reader familiar with the history of Puritan literature will quickly recognize William Ames’ Medulla Theologica, “The Marrow of Theology,” as one of the seminal works of Puritan theology. Eusden, in his opening comments, writes,

In a burst of enthusiasm Thomas Hooker (1586?-1647) of Hartford once recommended the Marrow and another of Ames’ works to fellow clergymen: “They would make him (supposing him versed in the Scriptures) a good divine, though he had no more books in the world” (1).

Ames’ influence on the intellectual history of American Puritanism cannot be overstated. The Puritan divine, Cotton Mather, bestows the accolade “incomparable” on Ames (Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana. Book I [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977] 124). Josiah Quincy, in his bicentennial history of Harvard College (1840), noted that as late as 1726, seniors as part of the Harvard curriculum studied Medulla (Quincy, History of Harvard University. I [Cambridge, Mass.: John Owen, 1840] 441). Samuel Morison, noted historian of Harvard, lists Medulla as an essential work to the study of Puritan divinity and observes that Ames works “ … are found in almost every recorded New England library” (Morison, The Intellectual Life of Colonial New England [Ithaca, N. Y.: Great Seal Books, 1960] 11, 160). Morison further suggests that the collegiate mottos of both Harvard, Veritas, In Christi Gloriam and Yale, Urim & Thummim have strong corollaries within the works of Ames, and were in likelihood, drawn from them (Morison, The Founding of Harvard College [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963] 330-31).

William Ames (1576–1633) was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, of a Puritan merchant family. He gained his formal education at Christ’s College, Cambridge, under the tutelage of William Perkins. He was suspended, but not expelled, from Christ’s College for failure to wear the surplice during college chapel exercises. After a brief time in Colchester, England, Ames moved to Leyden, Holland. It was there that Ames became involved with the Remonstrant controversies and distinguished himself as a Calvinistic theologian. From 1622 to 1632 he served as professor of theology at the University of Franeker, obtaining the rectorship in 1626. His scholarship attracted students throughout Protestant Europe

MSJ 9:1 (Spring 98) p. 98

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