E-Book, Englisch, 240 Seiten
E-Book, Englisch, 240 Seiten
ISBN: 978-1-4335-5484-1
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
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Introduction Nathan A. Finn and Jeremy M. Kimble Jonathan Edwards is widely considered the most influential theologian in American history. This was not always the case. Before Perry Miller’s groundbreaking intellectual biography of Edwards in 1949, the famed Puritan pastor was best remembered for his alleged hellfire revival preaching and, among more careful scholars, for being the progenitor of the so-called New England Theology, a tradition that lasted into the nineteenth century.1 Things have certainly changed. Theologian Robert Jenson called Edwards “America’s Theologian” in his 1988 study of Edwards’s thought, while historian and Edwards biographer George Marsden dubbed him the “American Augustine” in an essay on interpreting Edwards’s intellectual legacy.2 Many pastors and other ministry leaders feel the same way, even as they sometimes express their sentiments in more or less creative ways.3 Miller’s biography marked the beginning of a significant scholarly renaissance among historians, theologians, and philosophers interested in Edwards’s life and thought. By far, the most important fruit of this renaissance thus far is the publication of the critical edition of The Works of Jonathan Edwards, originally edited by Miller and published by Yale University Press in twenty-six hardcover volumes between 1957 and 2008. An additional forty-seven volumes are available in electronic form through the website of the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University (edwards.yale.edu). In addition to The Works of Jonathan Edwards, scholars have written thousands of dissertations, theses, monographs, journal articles, book chapters, semischolarly studies, and other works related to Edwards.4 Dozens of conferences have been convened, often resulting in published anthologies. Scholars and students have read hundreds of papers at the meetings of scholarly societies. Newer Edwards study centers have been established in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Poland, and South Africa, as well as a second American center at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. The renaissance in Edwards studies has coincided with a growing interest in Edwards among evangelicals, especially (though by no means exclusively) in North America and on the British Isles. In fact, many Edwards scholars are themselves evangelicals who personally resonate in various ways with Edwards’s vision of the Christian life. On a more popular level, evangelicals have published numerous works about the New England theologian aimed at a more general readership. These include biographies, general summaries of his thought, and more narrow introductions to his views on topics such as revival and Calvinism. Reformed and evangelical publishing houses continue to offer a seemingly never-ending stream of uncritical reprints of Edwards’s works. A Reader’s Guide to the Major Writings of Jonathan Edwards exists to bridge the gap between the work of scholars and the interests of general readers, especially pastors and ministerial students. For our purposes, Edwards’s major writings include his lengthy treatises and his most influential works. Some of these works, such as his famed biography of David Brainerd and his earliest revival writings, were best sellers. Others, such as his important treatise on religious affections and his later writings on revival, have significantly influenced evangelical theology and spirituality. Still others, such as his ethical writings and some of his personal writings, appeared in print posthumously but have nevertheless proven to be works of enduring significance. Among Edwards’s best-known writings, the only works we have chosen not to address in this book are his sermons, since others have ably treated them in a similar volume.5 For our part, we discuss Edwards’s sermons only insofar as they were later revised and incorporated into larger writings, which was often the case. You may notice a fair amount of overlap and some recurring themes throughout the various chapters. This in part reflects Edwards’s approach to writing. He was a capacious thinker who constantly built later writings on the foundations of earlier writings, developed certain ideas across his corpus, and teased out concepts from different angles in different volumes and sometimes even within a single work. In particular, readers will find frequent references to Calvinism, spiritual awakening, and religious affections, even in chapters that might not seem at first blush to relate to those concepts. Each of our contributors is a scholar with expertise in Edwards’s life and thought who is able to navigate the contours of scholarly discussions about Edwards and offer readers a helpful and informative introduction to one or more of his major writings. Each is also a convictional evangelical who resonates personally with Edwards’s spiritual vision and wants to commend his writings to others so that they too might be encouraged, convicted, and challenged by this great pastor-theologian. These are trustworthy guides for those who wish to venture into Jonathan Edwards’s major writings. In every chapter except the first, we will introduce the text(s) being considered, provide the historical background of the text(s), summarize and analyze the text(s), and apply the meaning of the text(s) to contemporary readers, with a particular focus on our fellow evangelicals. In the first chapter, Dane Ortlund offers readers suggestions for how best to read Edwards’s writings. He provides a clearly learned but intentionally edifying perspective, and he rightly encourages readers to move past this book and dive into Edwards’s own works as soon as they can. In the second chapter, Nathan Finn examines Edwards’s autobiographical spiritual writings, a selection that includes his “Resolutions,” “Diary,” and “Personal Narrative.” These works are considered classics of evangelical spirituality. Next, Jeremy Kimble introduces Edwards’s revival writings, which are arguably his best-known works among general readers. Edwards helped his generation to chronicle, defend, and interpret the phenomena of spiritual awakening in ways that continue to influence evangelicals and others in our time. In chapter 4, Michael McClenahan addresses Edwards’s treatise Justification by Faith Alone, a volume that is less familiar today but that at the time represented an important critique of the aberrant view of justification identified with the Arminianism of that era. Edwards’s views on justification have sparked some debate and even controversy among scholars, so McClenahan’s chapter is especially helpful to readers unaware of that discussion. Chapter 5, written by Gerald McDermott, focuses on Edwards’s most famous treatise, Religious Affections. This work has become a classic among those interested in spirituality, religious psychology, and evangelical theology. One sign of its influence is that the other chapters in this book reference Religious Affections more than any other single work by Edwards. In chapter 6, Rhys Bezzant offers readers a helpful introduction to the best-selling work in Edwards’s corpus, The Life of David Brainerd. This volume is another spiritual classic that has inspired missionaries and other readers for generations, though the book has a more interesting history than many readers familiar with the work may realize. The seventh chapter is dedicated to Edwards’s tome Freedom of the Will, which presents a philosophical defense of a tightly Augustinian understanding of free will. Joe Rigney provides a winsome overview of a volume that can be difficult to read and that has proven controversial since the day it was first published. In chapter 8, Robert Caldwell introduces Edwards’s volume Original Sin. This work creatively and constructively defends the Calvinist understanding of human depravity in response to a contemporary challenge from a lapsed Calvinist theologian who had rejected this traditional doctrine. In chapter 9, Sean Lucas discusses Edwards’s posthumously published A History of the Work of Redemption, a sermon series Edwards had originally hoped to rework into a theological treatise. This volume anticipated the sort of biblical theology that has become popular among many Reformed and evangelical biblical scholars and pastors since Edwards’s time. Paul Helm addresses Edwards’s ethical writings in the final chapter. He briefly revisits Religious Affections before focusing on the technical treatise The Nature of True Virtue and the popular sermon series Charity and Its Fruits, both of which were published after Edwards’s death. The book closes with an appendix by John Piper wherein he recounts his personal encounter with the writings of Jonathan Edwards. Since Piper has inspired so many evangelicals to become interested in Edwards, this essay seems like a fitting way to conclude this book. We trust that you will find A Reader’s Guide to the Major Writings of Jonathan Edwards to be helpful. Because of its structure, the book can be read in its entirety, and we hope many readers will do just that. However, you might prefer...
