Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

All Subjects Of The Kingdom Of Christ: John Owen's Conceptions Of Christian Unity And Schism, Sung-Ho Lee

CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations

Throughout the seventeenth century the Church of England experienced disintegration and schism. Each Protestant party charged the other with breaking the unity of the church. For this reason, schism and unity were one of the most controversial issues that leading theologians wrestled with. However, scholars have not paid due attention to this issue. The object of this dissertation is to explore how John Owen, a great leader of the second-generation Congregationalists, defended Congregationalism, Protestantism, and Nonconformity from the charge of schism. Aware that the ecclesiological terms, such as “schism,” “unity,” and “separation,” were seriously abused by his opponents, Owen carefully …