©2007, Baker Academic, 284 pp., pbk.

John Owen was a giant among Puritan theologians. His prolific writings require close reading. He was a scholar but he was not cut off from ministering face to face to people. He was a minister, a chaplain to Cromwell's army, and also a mentor of Oxford students.

In this insightful work on Owen's thinking, Kapic stresses the fact that Owen wrote with passion to show man's need of communion with God and what this means in practice. Owen begins to unfold his premise by explaining God's image in man. Adam was created in God's image. This image allowed for a unique relationship between God and man. Owen explored this image in terms of the will, the mind, and the affections. With man's fall in the Garden, the image was shattered but not lost. Readers knowledgeable of post–fall events will recall that the fallen couple sought to hide from the One with whom a close relationship had so recently existed. Sinful man no longer wanted to, or could, commune with God on his own.

A second Adam was needed desperately. Kapic's explores Owen's thinking regarding the incarnate Christ. The reader can clearly see how Owen maintainsed Christ's humanity and his divinity in two natures yet saw the unity of Christ as a person. In his unfolding of this truth he stressed the work of the Spirit. God so loved His people that His Son voluntarily took on human flesh and willingly served as the true Lamb of God who atoned for sins. Man could have no better bearer of God's image set before them than Jesus Christ incarnate Who was the eternal second member of the Trinity.

Owen also explained Christ's priestly work regarding justification and the relationship of faith and works. Kapic concludes his work by surveying Owen's thinking on the justified sinners' communion with God. He stresses the importance of understanding our communion with God in a Trinitarian sense. There is a good linkage with this idea and our being made in God's image – thus in the image of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This section was very thought-provoking as is the section on the relationship of the Lord's Day and the Lord's Supper to our communion with God.

Kapic has provided readers with a very helpful summary of Owen's thinking in the areas covered, giving readers much on which to reflect and rejoice about how God brought His people into communion with Him. The book will be of particular interest to those familiar with Owen and his writings, and to those who want to read a good introduction to Owen's thinking. The author brings together the fruits of much research on his part. He discusses others who have studied Owen, and also shows the influence of the early church fathers on Owen.

©2010 Byron Snapp, Hampton,Virginia