In recent years, scholarly interest in Christian spirituality has rekindled among evangelicals. Michael A. G. Haykin, professor of church history and biblical spirituality and director of The Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has been a key voice in this discussion. It is fitting for Haykin to be honored with a festschrift entitled The Pure Flame of Devotion: The History of Christian Spirituality. The editors, Stephen Weaver and Ian Clary, are pastor-scholars who studied with Haykin. Their collection of essays provides a model for examining spirituality through both historical and theological lens unto the end of personal and pastoral application.

The first introductory essay summarizes Haykin’s biography. The chapter recounts his commitments to Marxism in his early life, and it traces his movement from his conversion in 1974 to his role as a respected church historian. In the second introductory essay, Sean Lucas provides a segue into the heart of the book. He exhorts his readers, particularly pastors, to view church history as a pastoral discipline. Church history consists of both theological and cross-cultural components; as such, it offers much wisdom for the pastor in his service to Christ and his body.

Following the introduction, the book is divided into four primary sections: Patristics and Medieval, Reformation and Puritan, Evangelicalism and Modern, and Baptists. In the first section, Dennis Ngien provides a survey of the Spirit’s role in our worship as seen in Basil of Caesarea’s De Spiritu Sancto. Keith Goad’s chapter explores Gregory of Nazianzus’s doxological theology, which focused on a magnificent vision of God that the church could both understand and experience. David Hogg examines the Christocentric piety in the prayers of Anselm of Canterbury, while Francis Gumerlock reports on the belief in the fire of doomsday in the early medieval era.

In the second section, Carl Trueman investigates Martin Luther’s understanding of spirituality and how it manifests itself in his preaching. Mark Jones engages Calvin’s particular understanding of Christ’s humanity in Hebrews and how Calvin’s Puritan heirs, specifically John Owen, Thomas Goodwin, Stephen Charnock, and William Gouge, compared in their understanding of Christ’s humanity. Malcolm Yarnell describes the spirituality of European evangelical Anabaptists during the sixteenth century, while Erroll Hulse inspects William Perkins’s use of application in preaching based upon his The Art of Prophesying. In the final chapter of this section, Crawford Gribben surveys John Owen’s poetry and piety and his influence on each of these in history.

The third section leads off with Peter Beck’s assessment of Jonathan Edwards’s view of the Christian life as understood through his firm commitment to spiritual disciplines. Sharon James examines the holiness teachings of the 1800s, using Elizabeth Prentiss and Frances Ridley Havergal as case studies. Fred Zaspel provides a beneficial survey of B.B. Warfield’s spirituality that exhibits a deep sensitivity to the supernatural truth of the gospel. Kenneth Stewart closes the section with a practical and stimulating exploration of the frequency of the administration of the Lord’s Supper as seen in the lives of John Erskine and John Mitchell Mason.

In the final section of the work, Joel Beeke expounds the theme of perseverance in the life and teachings of John Bunyan as one aspect of Baptist spirituality. Robert Oliver considers the spirituality of an unfamiliar individual in church history, Edmund Ludlow, who acted as a signatory of the death of Charles I in 1649. Austin Walker analyzes Benjamin Keach’s The Glory of the New Church as a model for corporate spirituality. Nathan Finn provides a brief appraisal of the similarities between the spirituality of Jonathan Edwards and Andrew Fuller, concluding that the former influenced the latter, while Tom Nettles depicts the piety of James Petigru Boyce, emphasizing the priority of the Word and the Spirit in growing the saint in conformity to Christ. Donald Whitney portrays the spirituality of Charles Spurgeon as one that was “consistent, vibrant, [and] gregarious” (p. 429); it began with his relationship with God and was carried forward by Spurgeon’s practice of spiritual disciplines. In the section’s final chapter, Douglas Adams examines the progression of Thomas Todhunter Shield’s spirituality, which should be remembered for his commitment to separation from the world and the practice of prayer and evangelism. Clint Humfrey closes the book with a brief summary of Haykin’s academic experience and spiritual practices. He shows how Haykin serves as a model of uniting the intellect and spirituality, just as many saints of old.

The Pure Flame of Devotion addresses a variety of historic individuals, especially pastors. As such, pastoral implications and applications fill its pages, and these should be considered carefully. Positive and negative exhortations challenge the reader in their quest in the Christian life, which can be strengthened through a growing understanding of spirituality. The book also demonstrates numerous common themes across the history of Christian spirituality. Saints of old committed themselves to Scripture, prayer, and the spread of the gospel. These, likewise, should be the commitments we desire to renew in our own lives upon reading this book. Overall, The Pure Flame of Devotion ably explores a number of different individuals representing diverse backgrounds that reflect Haykin’s own research interests. The book merits close attention by scholars of spirituality and it should help pastors and students see the value of church history as a pastoral discipline.

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