Thomas Watson, a forgotten theologian that I am writing a thesis on. He was pretty awesome. He wrote lots of sermons and books. He was the very best type of Puritan, living in the grace and fullness of life provided by Christ and encouraging everyone he met concerning the pure and eternal life of God. He was well loved by his congregation at St. Stevens in London, England. He was an advocate for Charles I and he actually opposed Oliver Cromwell, which is very strange for a Puritan. He refused to follow the Act of Uniformity (as in he did not use the 'Common Book of Prayer') and was expelled from his pastorate from whence he went to preach in the barns and fields and private halls across England. His numerous writings have been cherished for their simplicity, usefulness, depth, and poetry, many are still being published to this day. And nobody has ever taken time to write about him in any detail.
It's rather amazing actually. A theologian with a significant body of writing prized for its academic rigor, spiritual richness, and accessibility to the common man and nobody knows anything about him. We're not even sure as to the dates of his birth and death! I've started reading through his writings and I'm getting to the half way point. I have been amazed at how well he lays things out, I suppose the theological taste of it would be like drinking a dark rich roast of coffee brewed from fresh coffee beans off the plant (if I drank coffee). It is surprising to find such good and applicable material to today's spiritual climate in books from the 1600's. Sometimes the taste is a little bitter though, he's not exactly tactful when addressing the state of non-Christians or backsliding Christians.
I think there is a lot that today's Evangelical Church can learn from Watson. The relentless focus on growing in grace and faith, the heavy focus on repentance and godly sorrow, and stunning maturity and richness of his sermons could be a great help for us today.
I am unsure how to tackle this problem though. More later as I continue to think through it.
