Spiritual Practices of the Puritans: The Importance of Diary-keeping

by Kirsten Birkett

The Puritans wished to live godly lives in heart and thought as well as action. One of the tools they utilised in training their hearts and minds was the practice of diary-writing. In this short overview we see the theory of Puritan diary-writing as worked out by John Beadle, and the inspiring example of the sixteenth-century Puritan Richard Rogers writing about his life.




Kirsten Birkett is a minister and writer based at St John's Houghton with St Peter's Kingmoor in Carlisle. She is a former Latimer Research Fellow and the author of a previous St Antholin's lecture, And the Light Shineth in Faith, Reason and Knowledge in the Reformation.

50 pages, Paperback

Published May 13, 2022

Reviews

[Nick Dawe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the transcript of a lecture from 2021 that gives a quick overview of the puritan practice of diary keeping. This isn't something I’d ever known about or considered in any way before (in fact I've probably thought a lot about some of the criticisms CS Lewis levelled at diary keeping in general, which has partly put me off keeping one).

However, the examples in this small book are inspiring, particularly as their focus is that these journals are of a spiritual nature - primarily to help the writer in their daily life, but also apparently for others in the church that the writer may choose to share or exchange with. The entries are not about the writer, but about God and what the writer has learnt about him in their daily experiences.

I’d love to read a much longer version of this book, although I will also try to dig out some of those diaries that are still easily available, and maybe even consider trying to keep my own spiritual journal as part of my daily devotions.