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'Giving honour to the Spirit' : a critical analysis and evaluation of the doctrine of pneumatological union in the Trinitarian theology of Jonathan Edwards in dialogue with Karl Barth
No full textThe extent to which the 'honour' of the Spirit influenced the theology of
Jonathan Edwards is a hitherto underdeveloped theme. Against a backdrop of
Patristic thought and in dialogue with the theology of Karl Barth, evaluation is
made of pneumatological union in Edwards' Trinitarian theology as this centres
on the nature and inter-relatedness of the 'three unions' that characterize his
theology: the union of the three Persons of the Trinity, the union of the saints
with God, and the union of the divine and human natures of Christ.
Edwards' seeks to honour the Spirit as the mutual love of the Father for the Son
within his Augustinian, Lockean model of the immanent Trinity, and as 'Person'
in the economy. The challenges of doing so within the limits of this
psychological model of the Trinity are evaluated in dialogue with the
Cappadocian Fathers and Barth.
In a manner patterned after union in the Trinity, Edwards gave prominence to the
concept of the pneumatological union of the saints with God in Christ, in
fulfilment of the self-glorifying purpose of God in creation and redemption.
Edwards' experiential theology of conversion, and his elevation of subjective
sanctification by the Spirit over objective justification in Christ, for assurance, is
contrasted with Barth's greater emphases on the Christological union of God
with humanity and objective justification in Christ. Barth's more contemplative
approach is contrasted with the overly introspective spirituality of Edwards.
Edwards' view of the role of the Spirit in the hypostatic union of God with
humanity in Christ, which is reflective of the other unions, is also evaluated in
light of Patristic, Reformed-Puritan and Barthian thought on the nature of the
humanity Christ assumed, and the doctrine of the vicarious humanity of Christ. A
more emphatic incarnational emphasis may have saved Edwards' Spirit-
honouring spirituality from an anthropocentricity which is ironical given that the
glory of God is his ontic doxological concern
The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards in Britain
Full text linkFirst paragraph: The name of Jonathan Edwards does not loom large in histories of theology in Britain. The American is usually ignored, as in Bernard Reardon’s study of Religious Thought in the Victorian Age, or relegated to a single allusion, as in Tudur Jones’s Congregationalism in England, 1662-1962. By contrast, accounts of parallel developments in the United States give Edwards pride of place. That is true of general overviews such as Mark A. Noll’s America’s God and E. Brooks Holifield’s Theology in America as well as more specialist works such as Allen C. Guelzo’s Edwards on the Will: A Century of American Theological Debate and Joseph A. Conforti’s Jonathan Edwards, Religious Tradition & American Culture, both of which examine the subsequent reputation of the theologian. It is not surprising that American authors should lay stress on a home-grown product, but it is more culpable that writers about Britain should neglect him. The lacuna may be laid at the door of multiple presuppositions. One is a certain insularity, the silent assumption that Britain was self-contained in its doctrinal concerns, or, if affected at all, then swayed almost exclusively by influences emanating from Germany. Another is that the Church of England led the way in Christian intellectual affairs to the extent that patterns of thinking in other denominations were of little or no importance. And a third is that what mattered in Anglican thought in the nineteenth century was the emergence of the Oxford Movement and of liberal theology because they shaped the developments of the twentieth century, a belief that has discouraged the scrutiny of Evangelical thought at the time. All these notions may be detected in Reardon’s lucid book on Victorian theology, the standard work of the last generation. Yet in reality British readers frequently absorbed American texts, which after all were written in their own language. Many of these readers were outside the Church of England, for at mid-century nearly half the population at worship in England and Wales was Nonconformist and Scotland was overwhelmingly Presbyterian. And Evangelicalism, though it was to be eclipsed during the twentieth century, was in the ascendant in British society at large during much of the nineteenth century. Hence at that period an American who was a non-Anglican Evangelical was likely to enjoy a wide influence. Despite the general neglect of Jonathan Edwards in the literature, his legacy to subsequent generations in Britain is amply worth exploring
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Jonathan Edwards
No full textPost-Session Follow-Up with Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards a life
No full text"Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is a towering figure in American history. A controversial theologian and the author of the famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, he ignited the momentous Great Awakening of the eighteenth century." "In this biography, Jonathan Edwards emerges as both a great American and a brilliant Christian. George M. Marsden evokes the world of colonial New England in which Edwards was reared - a frontier civilization at the center of a conflict between Native Americans, French Catholics, and English Protestants. Drawing on newly available sources, Marsden demonstrates how these cultural and religious battles shaped Edwards' life and thought. Marsden reveals Edwards as a complex thinker and human being who struggled to reconcile his Puritan heritage with the secular, modern world emerging out of the Enlightenment. In this, Edwards' life anticipated the deep contradictions of our American culture."--BOOK JACKET
Jonathan Edwards and Philosophy
No full textUnderstanding Jonathan Edwards, Gerald R. McDermott (éd.), Oxford University Pres
Jonathan Edwards and Philosophy
No full textUnderstanding Jonathan Edwards, Gerald R. McDermott (éd.), Oxford University Pres
Jonathan Edwards
No full textEngraving of Jonathan Edwards by S.S. Jocelyn and S.B. Munson. (1829) [Image published opposite the title page of The Works of President Edwards: With a Memoir of His Life, Volume One, Published by S. Converse, New York, 1829
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