Jonathan Edwards On Genesis

The Jonathan Edwards Renaissance is fully underway, with an increased emphasis on Edwards as an exegete and interpreter of Scripture. In this work, Brian Borgman explores Edwards’s exegetical, hermeneutical, and theological treatment of the book of Genesis. This study gives special attention to Edwards’s hermeneutics and exegesis of Genesis, his pastoral methods for preaching it, and his theological development of the meaning of “the image of God.” The result is a fruitful study on Edwards’s interaction with the first book of the Bible.

For too long, scholars have published new research on Edwards without paying due attention to the work he took most seriously: biblical exegesis. Edwards is recognized as an innovative theologian who wielded tremendous influence on revivalism, evangelicalism, and New England theology. What is often missed is how much time he devoted to studying and understanding the Bible. He kept voluminous notebooks on Scripture and died with unrealized plans for major treatises on the Bible. More and more experts now recognize the importance of this aspect of his life; this book brings together the insights of leading Edwards scholars on this topic. The essays in Jonathan Edwards and Scripture set Edwards' engagement with Scripture in the context of seventeenth-century Protestant exegesis and eighteenth-century colonial interpretation. They provide case studies of Edwards' exegesis in varying genres of the Bible and probe his use of Scripture to develop theology. The authors also set his biblical interpretation in perspective by comparing it with that of other exegetes. This book advances our understanding of the nature and significance of Edwards' work with Scripture and opens new lines of inquiry for students of early modern Western history.

Explore the Bible through the mind of one of the greatest theological minds of the eighteenth century, Jonathan Edwards. During his career, Dr. Edwards recorded in writing his thoughts on biblical passages in the form of sermons. This text includes his commentaries from the Bible that refer to passages from the Old Testament books of Genesis through Psalms.

This year, get to know the true Jonathan Edwards—and see the hand of God in your own life like never before. Jonathan Edwards is one of the most respected early American theologians. In Always in God’s Hands, Owen Strachan recovers the real Jonathan Edwards—the thinker, the compassionate father, the courageous reformer—as opposed to the caricature of him that is often presented. Edwards believed God was ever-present in each of our lives, caring and encouraging us in every moment. In a moving letter to his daughter, he reminds her of that comforting truth by describing her as “always in God’s hands.” Through daily quotes from Edwards’s letters and sermons, this inspirational devotional reveals the soaring theology and comforting spirituality of one of history’s most faithful and gifted pastors. With each meditation, compiler Owen Strachan offers refreshing and relevant insights, encouraging you in your walk with God.

Preached at Enfield, Connecticut on July 8, 1741, this is perhaps the greatest sermon ever preached in America—and is certainly among the most well known. Owing to its forthright dealing with God’s wrath and His intense hatred of sin and the sinner, it is also one of the most controversial. Indeed, for more than three-quarters of the sermon Edwards lays down a relentless stream of the most vivid and horrifying descriptions of the danger facing unregenerate men. While it is difficult to read such graphic language, there is abundant hope in the sermon’s conclusion. Edwards puts it this way, “And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open and stands calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners.” While those who would rather ignore God’s justice in favor of His mercy condemn Edwards and his sermon, those who were present and actually heard him preach that day reacted in a decidedly different manner. According to the diary of Reverend Stephen Williams who attended the sermon, “Before the sermon was done there was a great moaning and crying through the whole House, ‘what shall I do to be saved; oh, I am going to hell, etc.’” The diary goes on to indicate that Edwards had to interrupt his sermon and come down to minister to those who were under such awful conviction. And so, in spite of what the scoffers might think or say, “the amazing and astonishing power of God” was manifested among the people that day—with many falling not into the hands of an angry God, but into the arms of a mighty Savior.

This is the first complete edition of the private biblical notebook that Jonathan Edwards compiled over a period of nearly thirty-five years. Edwards' "Notes on Scripture" confirms the centrality of the Bible in his thought and provides more balance to earlier depictions of his writings that emphasized the scientific and philosophical while overlooking the biblical dimension. In this critical edition the entries appear in the order in which Edwards wrote them, beginning with a short commentary on Genesis 2:10-14 that he penned in 1724, and ending with his last entry, Number 507 on the Book of Solomon's Song, written two years before his death. This volume provides direct access to one of America's most influential religious thinkers. Edwards' entries range across the entire scriptural canon and reveal his creativity in the interpretation of particular biblical texts and his fascination with typology. The notebook also documents Edwards' engagement with the intellectual currents of his day, in particular his response to the challenge associated with the Enlightenment critique of biblical revelation. Stephen J. Stein's introduction situates Edwards as an exegete in the larger tradition of biblical commentary and in the intellectual world of eighteenth-century Western thought.

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 (1663-1728), 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.