Today we are releasing a new ebook from John Piper, Captive to Glory: Celebrating the Vision and Influence of Jonathan Edwards. It is a collection of the best snapshots of Edwards’s influence in Piper’s published corpus.
The Focus on Glory
J.I. Packer has written a few book endorsements during his long, fruitful ministry, but he’s only mentioned the ghost of Jonathan Edwards once. Back in 1986, commending the first edition of John Piper’s Desiring God, Packer remarked, “Jonathan Edwards, whose ghost walks through most of Piper’s pages, would be delighted with his disciple.”
If Edwards would be delighted, it’s because the focus of Desiring God, and Piper’s entire vision for ministry, is the glory of God. Edwards’s theology is complex, and has been the subject of years of seemingly endless scholarship on its details, but his passion for the supremacy of God is crystal clear. And this is palpable in anything Piper has to say.
Now in One Volume
Thanks to the generous partnership of three publishers—Multnomah, Baker, and Crossway—we’ve corralled into one volume the best Edwards excerpts from Piper’s main writings.
Thanks to Justin Taylor, we’ve added two helpful appendices. The first appendix features a chronology compiled by Taylor of Edwards’s influence on Piper, beginning in seminary in 1968. The second appendix is an impressive bibliography of all things Edwards and Piper.
The Aim of It All
Since each chapter of this book is a selection from a different book, there’s no necessary order the reader must follow, though the hope is that he can trace the movement from the most fundamental theology to its practical implications in the life of the church. In fact, a miniature version of the entire book is captured in the first chapter.
But keep in mind, the aim of this book is not that you can merely observe the influence of Edwards in Piper, or that you are inspired to read more primary sources, or even that you just see God’s glory. The aim is that you delight in God’s glory— that you are overcome by God’s grace in Christ to remove every obstacle that stands in the way of you enjoying him forever. May he truly do this work in our hearts.
To Download the eBook
To download Captive to Glory, click on the following format options:
- Download ebook as a PDF file.
- Download ebook as an EPUB file formatted for readers like the Nook, Sony Reader, and Apple iBooks (iPad, iPhone, iPod).
- Download ebook as a MOBI file formatted for Kindle applications (this option works well on some mobile devices, and not so well on others).
Note: To load the ebook on a mobile device it may be necessary to view this blog post from within your device and then to click the download option.