I am currently reading...
Overcoming Sin and Temptation by John Owen. It is his original work but cleaned up a little (not that Owen was lacking; the shortcoming is obviously ours.)
It is not abridged or paraphrased, but the editors (Kelly Kapic and Justin Taylor) have cleaned up the punctuation, made the outline format a little more logical to a modern-day reader, translated the Latin he constantly throws in, and provided a glossary for out-of-date or uncommon words. I've only attempted to read pre-masticated Owen in the past (letting someone else do the hard work,) so reading the text as he wrote it, has been good. The editors went to great lengths to make Owen more accessible to believers today. Owen states that he wrote these volumes because in his day, even in the best professors, he observed a serious lack of seeing the necessity of constantly waging war against and mortifying the sin that remains within. Not much has changed. I see the absence of it in my own life to a discouraging degree.
So all this to say, if you have wanted to read Owen, but felt overwhelmed like I did, this is an excellent way to have the best of both worlds: easier to understand, yet Owen in his own words.
(I feel like LeVar Burton on Reading Rainbow)
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Do you know if this book is similar to his "Mortification of Sin"? After scratching my head in confusion enough while reading that one, I put it aside to come back to later.
Yes, it is actually that work plus two other works (Indwelling Sin and Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It.) Not only is his subject matter so lofty, but his style of writing does not make it any easier. So this version is still a little difficult, but removes the obstacles of crazy format and punctuation and words we've I've never heard of.
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