A Quest for Godliness by J.I. Packer

J.I. Packer's book is a collection of essays on the Puritan views and practices of godliness. Packer starts with an overview of the Puritans and their deep and abiding desire to know Christ and to serve him faithfully. Packer does not spend much time debunking the idea that Puritans were joyless, dour, teetotaling spoilsports, probably because his audience already knows it's not the case, and the fact that the joys to be found in following Christ surpass anything forgone in the world anyway.

The book has major sections on The Puritans and the Bible, The Puritans and the Gospel, The Puritans and the Holy Spirit and The Puritan Christian Life, each with a few articles.

It includes an concluding essay on Jonathan Edwards, and quite a bit on Richard Baxter, but a large portion of the book addresses John Owen's writings and influence on Puritan thought and practice. Packer wrote in introduction to Owen's The Death of Death in the Death of Christ and his essays on Owen are each excellent.

One of the most interesting things to me was the emphasis on application in Puritan preaching. They believed that because people have minds that are affected by the Fall, they have hard time determining what to do with the preached Word. So their preaching emphasized application, and they strove to apply the teaching to the people who came to their meetings in various spiritual conditions. Some were unbelievers in need of the initial saving grace of the gospel, some were backsliding Christians, some were discouraged, some were joyful and growing, and so on. Church attendance was mandatory in England during the time of the Puritans (not their doing--it was by order of the queen) and so they had very mixed congregations.

There is some repetitiveness in the essays since it is a compilation of individual essays written for various publications, but it is not annoying.

This took me a long time to read. Since it was a collection of essays, I picked up and put it down over the course of 10 months probably. Finished it on 10/10/13.