An Intro to John Owen's The Mortification of Sin

I don't know about you, but I had a fairly negative perception of the Puritans until the last year. The word itself conjures up images of boredom and irrelevancy. Also, grade-school stories about the Pilgrims and the Salem Witch Trials created in me a picture of stuffy, dispassionate people who had gone the way of the Dodo bird. However, last spring (Spring 2010), under the teaching and direction of Dr. Andy Davis, I began reading their theological works from the seventeenth century and found an amazing trove of treastises and theological volumes which seemed to me to find a perfect balance between academic theology and personal Christian growth and maturation. The Puritans, including titans such as John Bunyan, Ralph Venning, John Flavel, and John Owen (apparently John was a popular name), tirelessly exposited the Word of God and its implications, while always seeking to apply such efforts into the lives of their congregants. For the Puritans, the result of theological study should be Christian maturation, not in a sense of growth in knowledge, but, rather, growth in Christ-likeness. Their writings and sermons both challenge how you think about God, as well as how you think about your everyday life.
As part of my personal Bible study time I have decided to read through one such work by John Owen, The Mortification of Sin. Christian living consists of two processes: the killing of one's sinful habits which remain from one's pre-conversion life (which the Puritans called the mortification of sin) and the expansion and growth of those virtues which we receive from Christ when we justified through faith (which the Puritans called vivification). Owen's guide treats both the theological issues concerning how Christians still must battle sin, as well as offers practical steps for doing so. As I read through his work, I hope to make a few comments here and explore just how we as believers can truly kill sin in our lives. We'll see what comes up. I take Owen's purposes in writing for that of my own, that being, "to press more effectually on the consciences of men (and myself!) the work of considering their ways, and to give more clear direction for the compassing of the end proposed."