John Owen

Who was John Owen? 


From the site bearing his name, John Owen:

Owen was by common consent the weightiest Puritan theologian, and many would bracket him with Jonathan Edwards as one of the greatest Reformed theologians of all time. Born in 1616, he entered Queen's College, Oxford, at the age of twelve and secured his M.A. in 1635, when he was nineteen. In his early twenties, conviction of sin threw him into such turmoil that for three months he could scarcely utter a coherent word on anything; but slowly he learned to trust Christ, and so found peace. In 1637 he became a pastor; in the 1640s he was chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and in 1651 he was made Dean of Christ Church, Oxford's largest college. In 1652 he was given the additional post of Vice-Chancellor of the University, which he then reorganized with conspicuous success. After 1660 he led the Independents through the bitter years of persecution till his death in 1683. (by J.I. Packer)

From the website, Faith By Hearing:

"Owen was a mild mannered, wealthy academician by day, and a political conspirator by night, while producing some of the most magisterial theological works of the Puritan generation. He had eleven children, all of whom he would bury."

Sad that he buried all his children, but I thought it interesting that he was a political conspirator.

Wikipedia:  John Owen 

I particularly liked this comment:  Like John Milton, he saw little to choose between "new presbyter" and "old priest."

This site, Christian Classics Ethereal Library had a brief biography as well as tabs listing several of Owens' works.

Monergism had an article here.