Portrait of a Prophet: Lessons from the Preaching of John Owen (1616-1683)

This study offers a sketch of John Owen’s prophetic preaching in which his dogmatic providentialism and the fiery apocalypticism almost threaten to destroy his image as a Reformed Orthodox theologian and man of the Renaissance. With an initial glance, one might think that there is little practical to be learned from such a vignette. However, upon closer inspection three striking applications, or, in the language of early-modern homiletics, ‘uses’, emerge that are directly relevant for much contemporary preaching.