Jonathan Edwards—widely considered one the most important theologians in American history—has influenced generation after generation with his transcendent vision of our great and glorious God. But reading his writings for the first time can be a daunting task. Here to be your trustworthy guides are some of the very best interpreters of Edwards, who walk you through his most important works with historical context, strategies for reading, and contemporary application—launching you into a lifetime of discovering Edwards's God-centered vision of the Christian life for yourself.
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.
This compilation of reader response to Jonathan Edwards, spanning 276 years, includes a reprint of two earlier works ? Jonathan Edwards: A Reference Guide (1981) and Jonathan Edwards: An Annotated Bibliography (1994) ? and the publication of a third, a gathering of commentary from 1994 to 2005. Nearly 140 essays have been added to the first and second works, while the last new gathering ? which includes a celebration of the tercentenary of Edwards??'s birth ? adds another 700 to the whole. The text preserves the pattern of arranging items alphabetically within a given year and of recording cross-references. Essays in a collection are annotated serially rather than alphabetically. Each of the three sections is self-contained with an introduction and annotated bibliography of its own. Adding to the immense value of this work to Edwards scholars are the chronology of Edwards??'s works, listed by date and by short and long title, which precedes the entire work, and the three comprehensive indexes ? of authors and titles, of subjects, and additions to the previous volumes.
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.
You've heard his name, you've probably heard your pastor quote him, but who is he really? 250 years later, Jonathan Edwards, America’s consummate pastor-theologian, continues to capture the attention of Christians around the world. Yet Edwards left us over 1,200 sermons and thousands of pages of other publications, not to mention the literal thousands of books that have been written about Edwards since he died. Where does one even begin? That’s why we created The Essential Jonathan Edwards. It serves as a perfect introduction to Edwards’s life and thought. It explores Edwards day-to-day life, and his views on beauty, true Christianity, heaven and hell, and the good life. Strachan and Sweeney strike the perfect balance between necessary background information and giving Edwards’s own works room to speak. Whether you’re an Edwards fan already or only know Edwards because of “that Angry God sermon,” this book will lead you to drink deeply of Scripture and gaze longingly at God.
Josh Moody has assembled a team of internationally reputed Edwards scholars to ask and answer the question: What is Jonathan Edwards's doctrine of Justification? The contributors also examine the extent to which Edwards's view was Reformational while addressing some of the contemporary discussions on justification. This volume helps us look at justification through the eyes of one of America's greatest theologians, and speaks credibly and winsomely to the needs of the church and the academy today.
Kyle Strobel mines the work of Jonathan Edwards in search of the Puritan minister?s personal vision for spiritual development. "In Edwards," Strobel writes, "we find a grasp of spiritual formation that tries to balance deep thought with deep passion . . . a life of love with the contemplation of divine things."
