1616 – 1683

John Owen

Worth knowing

An English Puritan theologian, chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and vice-chancellor of Oxford University in the 1650s.
Of the Mortification of Sin grew out of sermons he preached to Oxford students. Its theme is Romans 8:13: by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body.
After the Restoration of 1660 he lost his Oxford posts and led a nonconformist congregation in London until his death in 1683.

In Scholar’s Dream, John Owen has one book

The Mortification of SinJohn Owen, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (1656)SpiritualityEthics

John Owen’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from John Owen that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.”
John Owen, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (1656), ch. 2 (public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Be Killing Sin

EthicsArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameOwen’s subject is sin in a believer, and his claim is that it never holds still. Left alone it is not neutral — it is working. So the killing of it is daily, lifelong, done by the Spirit rather than by gritted teeth, because the alternative is being killed by it.

Learned byThe Mortification of Sin (Lv 1)

Strong against

×4Salvation from Sinan argument · why?

Owen: sin is not finished in a believer, and it is never resting. Be killing sin, or it will be killing you. Nobody writes that to people who have stopped sinning!

×2Seasonable Thoughtsan argument · why?

A quiet congregation is not the same as a mortified one. Sin left alone is not resting; it is working!

Words John Owen’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“In peace I will both lay myself down and sleep, for you, Yahweh alone, make me live in safety.”
Psalm 4:8 (WEB).

How it works in the game: the move Rest

SpiritualityRest · 100% accurate

In the gameBreak off and rest. Stamina is restored in full and any trouble is slept off, but the book is then ASLEEP for a turn (two turns, one time in five) while the other side does as it likes.

Learned byThe Mortification of Sin (Lv 40)

“When baptism is given in the words of the gospel, however great be the perverseness of understanding on the part either of him through whom, or of him to whom it is given, the sacrament itself is holy in itself on account of Him whose sacrament it is.”
Augustine, On Baptism, Against the Donatists 4.12.19 (trans. J. R. King, rev. Hartranft, NPNF¹ 4, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move It Rests on Christ

EcclesiologyArgument · power 72 · 100% accurate

In the gameIf a baptism were only as good as the hands that gave it, no one could ever be sure they had been baptised at all. The minister is not the one doing the saving.

Learned byThe Mortification of Sin (Lv 50)

Strong against

×4The Conscience of the Giveran argument · why?

It answers the sentence itself — the book was written at this man.

×3One Nature After the Unionan argument · why?

Everything rests on who Christ is. If his manhood had been swallowed up, there would be no man to stand in our place, and nothing for our salvation to rest on.

×2Every Creed Killsan argument · why?

The church is not the states that fought in its name. It never was.

×2The Traitor’s Handsan argument · why?

Augustine’s answer: baptism belongs to Christ, not to the minister. A traitor’s hands cannot undo what Christ gives.

×2The Varieties of Religious Experiencean argument · why?

The private inner experience is real. It is also not the thing faith rests on — that is outside you, finished, and does not rise and fall with how you feel about it on a given morning.

Who else was alive

John Owen against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 450A.D. 700A.D. 950A.D. 1200A.D. 1450A.D. 1700A.D. 1950

Boethius Boniface John of Damascus Daniel of Winchester Timothy I Alcuin of York Pope Leo III Eulogius of Córdoba Paul Alvaro of Córdoba Rimbert Humbert of Silva Candida Michael Cerularius Peter III of Antioch Anselm of Canterbury Ari Thorgilsson Ebo and Herbord Thomas Aquinas John Wyclif Lorenzo Valla Girolamo Savonarola Pope Paul III Martin Luther Miles Coverdale William Tyndale Emperor Charles V John Calvin Teresa of Ávila John Jewel The Council of Trent The English exiles at Geneva Hugo Grotius René Descartes John Owen Blaise Pascal John Bunyan Louis XIV of France Pierre Bayle Joseph Butler Jonathan Edwards Thomas Reid George Campbell William Paley John Henry Newman J. C. Ryle Friedrich Nietzsche James Orr B. B. Warfield Herman Bavinck W. R. Sorley James Denney J. Gresham Machen

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate51 authors sit outside this window