Thursday, 3 July 2014

Sofa Spotlight - The Life of God in the Soul of Man, Henry Scougal

This book was in the 17th Century by a Professor of Divinity at Aberdeen University. Its original form was a letter to a friend to help him work out what it would be like to be a follower of Jesus and not someone who just practiced religion. Scougal talks about how following Jesus means that you will do some things that look religious. The difference between that and practicing religion is the reason for doing it. If you are following Jesus you are doing those things because you love Him and want to grow in your love for Him. The other option is practicing religion to try and earn your way into God's good books. Scougal explains it better than I do - read the book and you will see what I mean!

At the start there is a brief section on Scougal's life. Sadly he died at the age of 27 from tuberculosis. The hard thing about this book is that the language can be tricky. It was written for a 17th century audience (of one, his friend) and so you have to do a bit of work to understand what is going on,  but it is worth it.


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