ABSTRACT
John Owen is frequently acknowledged as a leading figure of the puritan and nonconformist movements of the seventeenth century. For example, historian Richard Greaves claims that Owen “was indisputably the leading proponent of high Calvinism in england in the late seventeenth century.”3 Such a comment is not without precedent or justification. Owen’s distinguished life warrants his importance for understanding the history and theology of “high Calvinism” in the post-Reformation period. His advisory role to Oliver Cromwell, educational reform at Oxford, leadership at the Savoy Assembly, advocacy of toleration, promotion of spiritual holiness and communion with God, defense of protestant orthodoxy against heretical, heterodoxical, and “popish” errors, and voluminous,
if sometimes cumbersome, writings represent only a sample of his achievements. Nevertheless, while Owen’s reputation as an ecclesiastical statesman, educator, pastor, polemicist, and theologian is widely recognized, he is generally not remembered as a biblical exegete and commentator. This is somewhat surprising given that one of Owen’s final accomplishments was the writing of a commentary.
