Communion with the Triune God

Of Communion with God by the great Puritan divine John Owen (1616-1683) was published in 1657.  It was republished recently in 2007 with light editing and helps by Justin Taylor and Kelly Kapic for the sake of the modern reader.  Emily and I have just taken this one up to foster our fellowship with the one God who is three persons and the three persons who are one God.

It is interesting to note that this work by Owen grew out of sermons that he had preached to his flock.  So this is a pastoral work, and it is a pastoral work of spiritual and theological genius.  And as Kapic states in the introduction to the republished edition, this work is "intentionally and consistently Trinitarian in structure and Christocentric in emphasis." It is divided into three parts: (1) Of Communion with the Father; (2) Of Communion with the Son Jesus Christ; and (3) Of Communion with the Holy Spirit.  Part two is by far the longest.   

One of the reasons this book is so valuable and beneficial for us today is that Owen, like many Puritians, was strong where we are weak.  In harmony with Buynan and other dissenters like him, Owen, Dewey Wallace says, "insisted upon a very personal and emotional experience of union with Christ and the Holy Spirit."  In my quarter of evangelicalism, our approach to God is oftentimes intellectualistic, dry, cold.  So Owen, an intellectual giant probably without rival today, can help us.  We are rightly afraid of emotionalism, but we, as they say, throw the baby out with the bath water.  Or, using another metaphor, like the drunk, after falling off one side of the horse, we fall off the other side as we try to get back on.

So I'm eager to be led with my wife into deeper communion with the triune God by an old saint who knew God personally, intimately, richly, profoundly.