1 Experience seems to testify that a certain amount of contact with the business of practical life is necessary to the highest style of thought and authorship; and that minds, when left to undisturbed literary leisure, are apt to degenerate into habits of diseased speculation and sickly fastidiousness. 2 Most certainly the works that have come from men of monastic habits have done little for the world, compared with the writings of those who have ever been ready to obey the voice which summoned them away from tranquil studies to breast the storms and guide the movements of great social conflicts. 3 The men who have lived the most earnestly for their own age, have also lived the most usefully for posterity (John Owen, The Works of John Owen Volume 1: The Glory of Christ, 1965, p. LXVIII).
The Rev. A. Thomson penned the above quote about the life of Dr. John Owen, the English non-conformist Independent Puritan that I considered the greatest thinker among his contemporaries. Those three long sentences describe the man's intellectual contribution during his retirement and last days here on earth.
If I were to apply the same exegetical method in analyzing the above statements that I used in analyzing the biblical text, I need to identify the exact number of sentences and the central idea that Rev. Thomson intended to communicate.
I came up with at least three sentences and that's the reason why I put numbers in front of the beginning of each sentence just like what we find in the biblical text. This aids me to have a clear grasp of the substance of the above paragraph.
Dissecting it, the main idea that we can get is that the paragraph talks about the testimony or witness of experience when it comes to the publication of any printed materials. And it tells us two things:
That works or books or any writings that are of high quality and utility for the next generation are those written by men who have contact with the business of practical life, those who breast the storms, those who guide the movements of great social conflicts. In short, those who have lived most earnestly for their age.
On the contrary, the writings of those minds left to undisturbed literary leisure and monastic habit or isolated study have done little for the world and degenerate into habits of diseased speculation and sickly fastidiousness.
Reflecting on what the Rev. A. Thomson wrote about the intellectual contribution of Dr. John Owen, I could not help asking the question about the "storms" or the "great social conflicts" we are facing today. Yes, serving as Vice-Chancellor of Oxford in the 17th century pushed Dr. Owen to confront the hot issues of his day such as the threats of political and religious tyranny, Arminianism, Socinianism, and Romanism. How about in our time? What are the great social conflicts we are facing today? And how many men published writings dealing with these issues?
If I were to identify the social issues of our day, irreligiosity and bad theology would be number one. These are the ideological roots of Statism or totalitarianism that is so widespread in the 20th century, and I don't see any sign of decline in the 21st century. The third one would be the existing monetary system that serves as the economic and financial base that perpetuates these dictatorial policies. The last would be the mental health issues that afflict almost everyone if we carefully listen to the voices of those experts in the mental health industry.
How many intellectuals in this age write about these issues that people find useful for the long term? I wish I was mistaken in my observation that the majority of intellectuals in our time fall into the second category described in the paragraph under study. Their writings are of little utility for our time and the next generation due to their inclination to speculation and excessive and cautious attention given to small details that are of little use.