The Princeton Companion To Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) is widely recognized as one of the greatest philosopher-theologians America has ever produced, and recent years have seen a remarkable increase in research on his writings. To date, however, there has been no single authoritative volume that introduces and interprets the key aspects of Edwards' thought as a whole. The Princeton Companion to Jonathan Edwards provides just such a concise and comprehensive work, one that will be invaluable to students and scholars of American religion and theology as well as of literature, philosophy, and history. Comprising twenty essays by leading scholars on Edwards, the book will inform and challenge readers on subjects ranging from Edwards' understanding of the Trinity, God and the world, Christ, and salvation, as well as of history, typology, the church, and mission to Native Americans. It also includes a chronology of Edwards' life and writings that incorporates current research. Those familiar with Edwards' writings will find in these essays succinct expositions as well as bold new interpretations, and others will find an accessible, authoritative, up-to-date orientation to his multifaceted thought. The essays are by Robert E. Brown, Allen C. Guezlo, Robert W. Jenson, Wilson H. Kimnach, Janice Knight, Sang Hyun Lee, Gerald R. McDermott, Kenneth P. Minkema, Mark Noll, Richard R. Niebuhr, Amy Plantinga Pauw, John E. Smith, Stephen J. Stein, Harry S. Stout, Douglas A. Sweeney, Peter J. Thuesen, and John F. Wilson.

Long recognized as 'America's theologian', Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) is seen as instrumental in the Great Awakening of the 1740s that gripped much of New England and that laid the groundwork for an American Protestant religious identity. This Cambridge Companion offers a general, comprehensive introduction to Jonathan Edwards and examines his life and works from various disciplinary perspectives including history, literature, theology, religious studies, and philosophy. The book consists of seventeen chapters written by leading religious scholars, historians and literary critics on Edwards' life, work, and legacy. The Companion will be an invaluable aid to teachers and scholars and will be imminently accessible to those just encountering Edwards for the first time.

Jonathan Edwards has been recognized as the most influential evangelical theologian of all time. Before his death at the age of fifty-four, he had sparked a new movement of Reformed evangelicals who played a major role in fueling the rise of modern missions, preaching revivals far and wide, and wielding the cutting edge of American theology. He has never gone out of print, and Christians today continue to flock to seminars and conferences on him. In this biography of the great preacher and teacher, historian Douglas Sweeney locates for us the core and key to Edwards' enduring impact. Sweeney finds that Edwards' profound and meticulous study of the Bible securely anchored his powerful preaching, his lively theological passions and his discerning pastoral work. Beyond introducing you to Edwards' life and times, this book will provide you with a model of Christian faith, thought and ministry.

“Being sensible that I am unable to do any thing without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him, by his grace, to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to his will, for Christ’s sake. Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week. 1. Resolved, That I will do whatsoever I think to be most to the glory of God, and my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration; without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved, to do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved, so to do, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many soever, and how great soever. 2. Resolved, To be continually endeavouring to find out some new contrivance and invention to promote the forementioned things. 3. Resolved, If ever I shall fall and grow dull, so as to neglect to keep any part of these Resolutions, to repent of all I can remember, when I come to myself again. 4. Resolved, Never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God, nor be, nor suffer it, if I can possibly avoid it. 5. Resolved, Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can. 6. Resolved, To live with all my might, while I do live....

This volume provides an interpretative key to Jonathan Edwards's theology developed from within his own doctrinal constructs. Strobel offers a dogmatic exposition of Edwards's theology by unveiling the trinitarian architecture of his thought. Building upon this analysis, Strobel applies his construct to reinterpret three key areas of redemption debated widely in the secondary literature: spiritual knowledge, regeneration, and religious affection. In order to achieve this purpose, Strobel's approach is theological rather than philosophical, employing Edwards's self-confession as a Reformed theologian to guide his analysis. In advancing a theological reading of Edwards, Strobel focuses on the systematic nature of Edward's theology, ordering it according to his doctrinal affirmations. This necessitates, as many Edwards scholars now affirm, a primary focus on Edwards's trinitarian theology, where the Trinity serves as the key ontological principle which orders the whole of his doctrinal construction. By grounding the interpretive key in Edwards's understanding of the Trinity, Strobel's idiosyncratic exposition of his doctrine of the Trinity serves to recast Edwards's theology in a new light.

This title is an introduction to Jonathan Edwards (1703-58). It looks at subjects which Edwards considered vitally important such as revival, Bible, typology, aesthetics, literature and preaching, philosophy and world religions.

This classic is organized as follows: Introduction Containing Explanations of Terms and General Positions Chapter I. Wherein Is Considered, What Reason Teaches Concerning This Affair. Section I. Some things observed in general, which reason dictates Section II. Some further observations concerning those things which reason leads us to suppose God aimed at in the creation of the world Section III. Wherein it is considered how, on the supposition of God’s making the aforementioned things his last end, he manifests a supreme and ultimate regard to himself in all his works Section IV. Some objections considered, which may be made against the reasonableness of what has been said of God making himself his last end. Chapter II. Wherein If It Is Inquired, What Is To Be Learned From Holy Scriptures, Concerning God’s Last End In The Creation Of The World Section I. The Scriptures represent God as making himself his own last end in the creation of the world Section II. Wherein some positions are advanced concerning a just method of arguing in this affair, from what we find in the Holy Scriptures Section III. Particular texts of Scripture, that show that God’s glory is an ultimate end of the creation Section IV. Places of Scripture that lead us to suppose, that God created the world for his name, to make his perfections known; and that he made it for his praise. Section V. Places of Scripture from whence it may be argued, that communication of good to the creature, was one thing which God had in view, as an ultimate end of the creation of the world. Section VI. Wherein is considered what is meant by the glory of God and the name of God in Scripture, when spoken of as God’s end in his works Section VII. Showing that the ultimate End of the Creation of the World is but one, and what that one end is.

In Before Jonathan Edwards, Adriaan Neele seeks to balance the recent academic attention to the developments of intellectual history after Jonathan Edwards. Neele presents the first comprehensive study of Edwards's use of Reformed orthodox and Protestant scholastic primary sources in the context of the challenges of orthodoxy in his day. Despite the breadth of Edwards scholarship, his use of primary sources has been little analyzed. Yet, as Neele proves, Edwards's thinking on the importance of these primary sources has significant implications not only for the status of the New England theology of pre-Revolutionary America but also for our understanding of Edwards today. This volume locates Edwards's ideas in the context of the theological and philosophical currents of his day, as well as in the pre-modern exchange of books and information during the colonial period. The pre-Revolutionary status of theology and philosophy in the wake of the Enlightenment had many of the same problems we see in our theological education today with respect to the use and appropriation of classical theology in a 21st-century context. Ideas about the necessity of classical primary sources of Christianity in sustaining our theological education are once again becoming important, and Edwards offers many relevant insights. Edwards was not unique in his deployment of these primary sources; many New England pastors, including Cotton Mather (166301728), preached and wrote about the necessity of orthodox theology. Edwards's distinction came in his thinking about the issues set forth in these sources at a transitional moment in the history of Christian thought.

Approaching Jonathan Edwards offers a new theoretical approach to the study of Edwards, with an emphasis on his writing activity as the key strategy in shaping his legacy. This book analyses the ways in which Jonathan Edwards' intense personal piety and deep experience of divine sovereignty drove an introverted intellectual along a course that would eventually develop into a mature and respected public intellectual.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is widely regarded as one of the major thinkers in the Christian tradition and an important and influential figure in American theology. After Jonathan Edwards is a collection of specially commissioned essays that track his intellectual legacies from the work of his immediate disciples that formed the New Divinity movement in colonial New England, to his impact upon European traditions and modern Asia. It is a unique interdisciplinary contribution to the reception of Edwardsian ideas, with scholars of Edwards being brought together with scholars of New England theology and early American history to produce a groundbreaking examination of the ways in which New England Theology flourished, how themes in Edwards's thought were taken up and changed by representatives of the school, and its lasting influence on the shape of American Christianity.