Leaving a Legacy of Faith with Jenny-Lyn de Klerk
Today we’re kicking off a new series called Women of the Faith. In this series, we’ll dig into the lives of a few women from church history whose stories will encourage you to lean into the faithfulness of God as you walk in whatever he sets before you today. Jenny-Lyn de Klerk is joining us for today’s conversation about three Puritan women (Puritans Lucy Hutchinson, Agnes Beaumont, and Mary Rich) who will inspire you to walk in grace-driven obedience.
Jenny-Lyn de Klerk (PhD, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) works as an editor at Crossway and has multiple degrees in church history and historical theology, specializing in Puritan spirituality. She has also written articles for Themelios, the Midwestern Journal of Theology, and the Gospel Coalition and contributed to the Lexham Dictionary of Church History. Jenny-Lyn and her husband, JD, live and attend church in Tsawwassen, British Columbia.
We pray that this conversation grows your desire to walk in grace-driven obedience, just like these women did. If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing our Women of the Faith series with a friend or leave us a review on iTunes or Spotify!
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Who were the Puritans and why is it helpful to consider their stories?
More specifically, what is the value in considering the stories of Puritan women? How does seeing the success of women in church history encourage us in our walk with the Lord today?
How has studying the lives of these women impacted your own life and spurred you on to Christlikeness?
Can you tell us a little about your favorite Puritan woman? Who is she? Why is she your favorite?
Tell us about the theological treatise that Lucy wrote. What is that? Why didn’t she simply purchase a catechism that had already been written by a professional theologian?
Let’s talk about Agnes Beaumont. As a new convert, how did scripture comfort and encourage her in the midst of her struggles with her father and town gossip? How might her tempered reaction to her father’s accusations encourage listeners who are witnessing to lost family members?
Can we talk about Mary Rich’s approach to spiritual disciplines?
Generally speaking, how did these ladies feel about the local church?
How did they handle the issue of personal sin?
TWO QUESTIONS I ASK EVERY GUEST
What are your 3 simple joys when it comes to studying church history?
What figure from church history has had the greatest impact on your journey with Jesus?
NOTES & QUOTES
Who are the Puritans? The Puritans were a group of pastors and lay people in 17th Century England. They are remembered for applying the Bible to every aspect of life and having a deep, close relationship with God.
If we only know about the men in particular we have a distorted understanding of reality because we’re missing half of the population. Just from that perspective, you won’t have a full understanding of the men at the time if you don’t know about the women and the children and people from different levels of society.
With the women, their writings are a raw, unfiltered version of spirituality where they’re taking notes immediately when things are happening. They are not, in the same way, writing a huge book that they’re seeking to publish in academia, so you get a very real perspective on what it actually looks like to see these big, awesome, beautiful principles that the Puritans are teaching and how they play out in real life, especially when things are not going your way, or unexpected things happen, or you’re through something really difficult or tricky.
The Puritans were very steeped in Scripture and they had a great command of the English language.
It really doesn’t make any sense for us to be lamenting that we aren’t like so-and-so in our lives… Those are not helpful thoughts. When we look at the lives of other real women from history we can see that God did an amazing work with them and they didn’t have to become another person to make a positive impact on their family or community.
Puritans were about having a deep, close connection with God. The Puritan women had a raw, unfiltered version of spirituality.
When we look at the lives of women in history, we are reminded of who God is.
Lucy Hutchinson
Historian, poet, and theologian
Lucy wrote what we believe is the only systematic theology that we have from a woman in the 17th century. Lucy wrote this systematic theology for her daughter, Barbara. Not only do we have a woman writing theology, but she’s writing for her daughter, which shows us how theology was important for both genders.
“Sects are a great sin and Christians ought all to live in the unity of the spirit and though it cannot be but that offenses will come in the church yet woe be to them by whom they come… Love is the bond of perfectness and they that break the communion of saints walk not charitably and will be accountable to God for it. In his name therefore I beg of you to study and exercise universal love to every member of Christ under whichever denomination you find them.” Hutchinson, “Principles of the Christian Religion,” 2:191
Mary Rich
Mary Rich wasn’t trying to compartmentalize aspects of her life, where in the morning she read the Bible and then for the whole rest of the day she was doing stuff that didn’t relate to God or church or anything. Rather, she’s with God the whole day… her whole life was a life spent with God.
“O Lord, I do therefore most humbly beseech you to enable me to be slow to anger, remembering that you have told me that he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that governs his spirit than he that takes a city; and he that has no rule over his spirit is as a city that has no wall. Oh bring all my passions into subjection to my reason, and my reason to my religion. Let me not fret myself in any way to do evil, nor to be angry, and sin in my anger; but give me a meek, quiet, contented spirit, which is in your sight of great value.” Walker, Eureka, 190
Agnes Beaumont
A young convert who went through a series of crises and wrote it all down at the end of everything happening to have a record of it. Often we don’t have many documents from people who were of lower social status because they didn’t have the time or resources to write, so her writings offer a unique perspective.
Because she had memorized so much Scripture, she was not only able to feel close to God by expressing herself to him through prayer, but she could also hear from him through each specific trial that she went through. Her hectic life didn’t allow her to sit down with her Bible thinking of all the implications of everything that happened… sometimes she didn’t even have her Bible with her, and it wasn’t even appropriate to grab a Bible… But because she had memorized Scripture, she was able to feel close to God even though she wasn’t sitting down looking at Scripture the whole time.
“Oh, it was a feast of fat things to me! My soul was filled with consolation… Oh, I had such a sight of Jesus Christ that it broke my heart to pieces… A sense of my sins, and of his dying love, made me love him, and long to be with him.” Beaumont, Narrative, 45
These women were really intense about their spiritual practices, but at the same time, they always kept their focus on this not being a checklist or a rulebook. Instead, it was about spending time with God.
Deliberate meditations were taking scripture and focusing on specific passages and trying to squeeze everything that you could out of that passage, applying it to your life, and taking a period of time to really focus on it.
Occasional meditations were paying attention to the everyday things in our life and trying to take some kind of spiritual meaning out of that, whether it’s a metaphor or a more direct reminder.
Love for the local church was directly connected to their lives.
The Puritans were so good at striking a balance between things. When people think about them being extreme people… that was actually the complete opposite. They were amazing at balance. They are very open about their sin and serious about their sin. They call it out for what it is and deal with it head on. On the other hand, they do not go into a personal crisis every single time they come to realize a sin in their life, unless we are talking about the main crisis of their spiritual life when they had a conversion moment.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What did you learn about the Puritans?
What would it look like for your life to be steeped in scripture?
How can you walk in faithfulness where God has you today?
What are some spiritual disciplines you could start practicing that would draw you nearer to the heart of Christ?
What did you learn about God from looking at the lives of these Puritan women?
IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
Affiliate links used are used where appropriate. Thank you for supporting the products that support Journeywomen!
FOR MORE OF JOURNEYWOMEN
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Follow Us: Instagram | Facebook
Support the podcast by writing a review
