Binding: Paperback
Page Count: 368
Publisher:Baker Academic
ISBN#: 9780801020384
Availability: Usually Ships the Same Business Day
Description: William Ames' classic summary of seventeenth-century Puritan theology is once again available in its only modern English translation. Ames was one of the most influential theologians of his day, particularly among New England Puritans such as John Cotton and Thomas Hooker. He was, in fact, planning to travel to America at the time of his death. These lectures were first presented to students in Leyden in the 1620s, and their reissue will be of great interest to contemporary students of Puritanism.
The Marrow of Theology is composed of two books. The first summarizes the Puritan understanding of the traditional doctrinal elements of systematic theology. The second covers the more practical matters of the Christian life. Combined with John Dykstra Eusden's excellent introductory study of Puritan theological method, this volume provides an indispensible tool for the study of Puritanism and its influence on later theology.
Author Information:
William Ames (1576?1633) was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where William Perkins was his tutor. He attended the Synod of Dort as an English observer and there began to develop his reputation as a brilliant theologian. From 1622, he was professor of theology at the University of Franeker in Holland, where he attracted students from all over Protestant Europe.
Reviews:
"In this work we not only learn much about Puritanism in old England and new, but we can analyse a stream of Christian life and thought that has to some degree helped to shape many of us, our contemporaries, and our institutions."
--Robert Handy,
Union Seminary Quarterly Review
"Numerous explanatory footnotes clarify difficult passages and point out cross references in the Scriptures. In short, Eusden's book, because of its helpful introduction and editorial notes, is a potential paradigm for subsequent reprintings of other Puritan classics."
-- Richard Etulain,
Christian Scholar's Review
One of the best and most concise systematics ever penned.The same level that Francis Turretin gives us in his massive 3 volume systematic theology, is equally revealed by William Ames and his one volume Systematics. Ames was a puritan’s puritan. He was quoted in colonial America more than Calvin and Luther combined. He was very influential in the shaping of puritan theology and doctrine. In this work, he sets forth in a unique style, systematic theology divided into two sections: Faith and Observance. Faith dealt with the more “systematic” ideas in parsing out theology, where observance explained the more pietistic nature of theology. Here Ames outlined all of theology and practice. He says “Theology is doctrine or teaching of living to God.” We then see the division of “doctrine and teaching” and then the “practical application” of this in book two under faith.
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- Dr. C. Matthew McMahon
Monergism Review:
The Marrow of Theology, by William Ames, is a comprehensive and minutely-reasoned dogmatic theology of the Puritan worldview. In its own time, it was commended by such Puritans as Thomas Hooker and Increase Mather as the only book outside the bible needed for making one a sound theologian. And today, there may be no other single volume which will give as broad and insightful an understanding of Puritan theology as this. more...
