Before Jonathan Edwards

The Christ-centered exegesis of Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Edwards is remembered for his sermons and works of theology and philosophy--but he has been overlooked as an exegete. Gilsun Ryu's The Federal Theology of Jonathan Edwards explores how exegesis drove Edwards's focus on the headship of Christ as second Adam--and likewise formed a foundation for his broader theological reasoning and writing, especially on Christ and the covenants. Edwards's distinctive emphases on exegesis, redemptive history, and the harmony of Scripture distinguish him from his Reformed forebears. Ryu's study will help readers appreciate Edwards's contribution as an exegetically informed Reformed theologian.

Jonathan Edwards (1703&–58) was arguably this country's greatest theologian and its finest philosopher before the nineteenth century. His school if disciples (the &"New Divinity&") exerted enormous influence on the religious and political cultures of late colonial and early republican America. Hence any study of religion and politics in early America must take account of this theologian and his legacy. Yet historians still regard Edward's social theory as either nonexistent or underdeveloped. Gerald McDermott demonstrates, to the contrary, that Edwards was very interested in the social and political affairs of his day, and commented upon them at length in his unpublished sermons and private notebooks. McDermott shows that Edwards thought deeply about New England's status under God, America's role in the millennium, the nature and usefulness of patriotism, the duties of a good magistrate, and what it means to be a good citizen. In fact, his sociopolitical theory was at least as fully developed as that of his better-known contemporaries and more progressive in its attitude toward citizens' rights. Using unpublished manuscripts that have previously been largely ignored, McDermott also convincingly challenges generations of scholarly opinion about Edwards. The Edwards who emerges from this nook is both less provincial and more this-worldly than the persona he is commonly given.

A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God Preface Sect. I. A general introductory statement. Sect. II. The manner of conversion various, yet bearing a great analogy. Sect. III. This work further illustrated in particular instances. The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God Mr. Cooper’s Preface to the Reader Sect. I. Negative Signs; or, What are no signs by which we are to judge of a work and especially, What are no evidences that a work is not from the Spirit of God. Sect. II. What are distinguishing scripture evidences of a work of the Spirit of God. Sect. III. Practical inferences. Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England The Preface Part I. Showing the Extraordinary Work Which Has Oflate Been Going on in This Land, Is a Glorious Work of God Sect. I. We should not judge of this work by the supposed causes, but by the effects. Sect. II. We should judge by the rule of Scripture. Sect. III. We should distinguish the good from the bad, and not judge of the whole by a part. Sect. IV. The nature of the work in general. Sect. V. The nature of the work in a particular instance. Sect. VI. This work is very glorious. Part II. Showing the Obligations That All Are Under to Acknowledge, Rejoice in, and Promote This Work; And the Great Danger of the Contrary. Sect. I. The danger of lying still, and keeping long silence, respecting any remarkable work of God. Sect. II. The latter-day glory, is probably to begin in America. Sect. III. The danger of not acknowledging and encouraging, and especially of deriding, this work. Sect. IV. The obligations of rulers, ministers, and all sorts to promote this work. Part III. Showing, in Many Instances, Wherein the Subjects, or Zealous Promoters, of This Work Have Been Injuriously Blamed. Part IV. Showing What Things Are to Be Corrected or Avoided, in Promoting This Work, or in Our Behaviour Under It. Sect. I. One cause of errors attending a great revival of religion, is undiscerned spiritual pride. Sect. II. Another cause of errors in conduct attending a religious revival, is the adoption of wrong principles. Sect. III. A third cause of errors in conduct, is, being ignorant or unobservant of some things, by which the devil has special advantage. Sect. IV. Some particular errors that have risen from several of the preceding causes—Censuring others. Sect. V. Of errors connected with lay-exhorting. Sect. VI. Of errors connected with singing praises to God. Part V. Showing Positively, What Ought to Be Done to Promote This Work. Sect. I. We should endeavour to remove stumbling-blocks. Sect. II. What must be done more directly to advance this work. Sect. III. Of some particulars that concern all in general.

Scholars and laypersons alike regard Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) as North America's greatest theologian. The Theology of Jonathan Edwards is the most comprehensive survey of his theology yet produced and the first study to make full use of the recently-completed seventy-three-volume online edition of the Works of Jonathan Edwards. The book's forty-five chapters examine all major aspects of Edwards's thought and include in-depth discussions of the extensive secondary literature on Edwards as well as Edwards's own writings. Its opening chapters set out Edwards's historical and personal theological contexts. The next thirty chapters connect Edwards's theological loci in the temporally-ordered way in which he conceptualized the theological enterprise-beginning with the triune God in eternity with his angels to the history of redemption as an expression of God's inner reality ad extra, and then back to God in eschatological glory.The authors analyze such themes as aesthetics, metaphysics, typology, history of redemption, revival, and true virtue. They also take up such rarely-explored topics as Edwards's missiology, treatment of heaven and angels, sacramental thought, public theology, and views of non-Christian religions. Running throughout the volume are what the authors identify as five basic theological constituents: trinitarian communication, creaturely participation, necessitarian dispositionalism, divine priority, and harmonious constitutionalism. Later chapters trace his influence on and connections with later theologies and philosophies in America and Europe. The result is a multi-layered analysis that treats Edwards as a theologian for the twenty-first-century global Christian community, and a bridge between the Christian West and East, Protestantism and Catholicism, conservatism and liberalism, and charismatic and non-charismatic churches.

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.

Though Edwards spent most of his life working in local churches, and saw himself primarily as a pastor, his own views on the theology of the church have never been explored in depth. This book presents Edwards's views on ecclesiology by tracking the development of his convictions during the course of his tumultuous career. Drawing on Reformation foundations and the Puritan background of his ministry, Edwards refreshes our understanding of the church by connecting it to a nuanced interpretation of revival, allowing a dynamic view of the place of church in history and new thinking about its institutional structure. Indeed in Edwards's writing the church has an exalted status as the bride of Christ, joined to him forever. Building on the recent completion of the works of Jonathan Edwards, and material newly published online, this book, the first ever on Edwards's ecclesiology, demonstrates his commitment to corporate Christian experience shaped by theological convictions and his aspirations towards the visibility and unity of the Christian church. In a final section, Bezzant discusses topics relating to ecclesiology (such as hymnody, discipline, and polity), that occupied Edwards throughout his ministry. Edwards preached a Gospel concerned with God's purposes for the world, so it is the growth of the church, not merely the conversion of individuals, that is the necessary fruit of his preaching. The church in the West is rediscovering the importance of ecclesiology as it emerges from its Christendom constraints. Edwards's struggle to understand the church and its place within God's cosmic design is a case study that helps us to appreciate the church in the modern world.