A refreshed version of Stephen Charnock's classic work on the character of God, Boundlessly Good explores the attribute of God's goodness. Boundlessly Good examines God's goodness manifested in Scripture and the story of redemption, creation, and daily providence.
A note from the editors on editing conventions: “How can a lay reader get the most out of Charnock?” This question governed our approach to this Boundlessly God series. How could one of the best theological works on God’s character slip into the reading diet of everyday Christians?
From an editorial point of view, tackling Charnock’s Discourses was a formidable climb, strewn with Elizabethan language landmines and complex Puritan theology. A stirring work that could ring off the walls of some grand 17th-century church as a sermon needed to be converted into a book that a college student or a secretary on her commute could pick up and read. In editing Discourses, our goal was to preserve as much of Charnock’s passion, insight, and exhaustive exposition and discussion as possible and still render him readable for an educated, twenty-first century lay audience.
We took on the role of literary shoeshines: polishing up the gold that was already there. We broke up giant walls of text, shortened sentences, removed passive voice, imposed chapter and section hierarchies, and mopped up complex grammar and punctuation. A lot of rhetorical questions underwent a declarative restructuring.
We worked to preserve much of Charnock’s original wording, imagery, and sequence of argument. Scripture references that were formerly in the Old King James translation were rewritten in the English Standard Version. We capitalized pronouns that referenced the Godhead, and updated words that carried now-obsolete meanings or connotations.
Even though the wording may have been modernized, the robust, deep thoughts originally produced by Charnock have been preserved. When you read this, you are essentially "reading Charnock"".
A note from the publisher: Our primary goal in this initiative is to give people a more solid foundation for genuine faith. As the original work is in the public domain, any profits from this initiative will go to missions work, preferably in remote places of the world.
Puritan divine, Stephen Charnock was an English Puritan Presbyterian clergyman born at the St Katherine Cree parish of London. Charnock studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, during which he was converted to the Christian faith, beginning his spiritual journey as a Puritan divine.
He moved to Ireland in 1656 where he became a chaplain to Henry Cromwell, governor of Ireland. In Dublin, he began a regular ministry of preaching to other believers. Those who came to hear him were from different classes of society and differing denominations, and he became widely known for the skill by which he discharged his duties.
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