Puritan Spirituality and American Evangelicalism

Here's the promised second part of Packer's three particular points of contrast between the Puritans and American evangelicals:

We observe that whereas the experimental piety of the Puritans was natural and unselfconscious, because it was so utterly God-centered, our own (such as it is) is too often artificial and boastful, because it is so largely concerned with ourselves. Our interest focuses on religious experience, as such, and on man's quest for God, whereas the Puritans were concerned with the God of whom men have experience, and in the manner of his dealings with those whom he draws to himself. The difference of interest comes out clearly when we compare Puritan spiritual autobiography—Grace Abounding, say, or Baxter's autobiography, or the memoirs of Fraser of Brea—with similar works of our own day. In modern spiritual autobiography, the hero and chief actor is usually the writer himself; he is the centre of interest, and God comes in only as a part of his story. His theme is in effect 'I—and God.' But in Puritan autobiography, God is at the centre throughout. He, not the writer, is the focus of interest; the subject of the book is in effect 'God—and me.' The pervasive God-centredness of Puritan accounts of spiritual experience is a proof of their authenticity, and a source of their power to present God to the modern reader. But when experience of God is told in a dramatised and self-glorifying way, it is a sure sign that the experience itself, however poignant, lacked depth, if, indeed, it was genuine at all (A Quest for Godliness, Packer, 216-217).

This description by Packer resonates with my experience of the Puritans and of modern evangelicalism. The sheer God-centeredness of the Puritans stands starkly over against our utter man-centeredness. So once again, I thank God for the Puritans (and many others, even some contemporaries who've followed in the train of God-centeredness that goes all the way back to the Bible itself) for leading me to God, not man, not self.