To spend a year studying Jonathan Edwards is to basically spend a year learning that you need more time to really understand the man. A year is simply not enough time to dig deep into the theology, thought, and life of the great Puritan preacher. He is incredibly complex, insightful, unique, and brilliant. On most assuredly cannot call themselves an Edwards master after only a year, and I am beginning to wonder if you ever could. My year with Edwards was not, however, entirely fruitless. Several key things have can be gleaned from a year of studying Jonathan Edwards.
For starters, I learned that Edwards was highly devotional. The accusation that Edwards was a cold academic, a heartless preacher, etc. just don’t hold up as you dig into his sermons and treatises. He had great passion and was expressly committed to pursuing God with his whole heart. In fact his interest in engaging both head and heart was sometimes mistaken by those of his own age as being overly emotional. His defense of the Great Awakenings reveals his interest in both the affections and the intellect. There’s so much about this approach that Christians today need to adopt. We often tend towards one or the other extreme, either reacting against cold intellectualism by rejecting the study of the theology all together, or we react against ungrounded emotionalism by avoiding all feelings. Edwards is a better model of balance in this regard.
One of the more important things I learned this last year was that Edwards was not perfect. Of course, I already knew this but being able to examine in some specific detail the issues that few touch was important for me. Edwards had some serious faults. Most of these receive little attention in the circles I run in. Edwards is all too often celebrated as the perfect Puritan pastor, but the man owned slaves! He also struggled with serious bouts of legalism and was prone to a kind of theological ingenuity that departed far from Scripture at times. His discussions on Original Sin and the Trinity are, I believe, sorely lacking in Biblical support. As much as I love and appreciate Edwards I have found it important to wrestle with the issues of his sins and weaknesses. He deserves more attention, no doubt, but these areas of his life deserve our attention too.
I also benefited greatly from reading about Edwards interest in the poor and oppressed. In some ways Edwards can serve as role model for the young missional-minded Evangelicals interested in social justice and care for the needy. I have elsewhere argued that Edwards was a proto missional theologian, and I firmly believe that after reading about his burden for the poor and down trodden in Northampton. I was not expecting to learn this from Edwards, but he had an incredible social-conscience informed by the testimony of Scripture.
Finally, I might speak to Edwards commitment to doing compelling creative theology. He was bound to Scripture, or at least he wanted to be, and yet he refused to put limits on his speaking and thinking about doctrines. He was committed to the orthodox Reformed faith that he grew up in, and yet he was willing to go where other theologians had not. He was willing to ask tough questions, persist in seeking thorough answers, willing to use his brain to understand the Scriptural truths. I want to say what my forebears have said that coincides with the truth of Scripture, but I don’t want to stop there. Communicating theology, thinking afresh about these great doctrines, means being willing to be creative in my expression of the objective truths. Edwards is a great role model of this kind of theologizing. He does sometimes go too far adrift in his composition and communication. But in a host of other areas he continues to think in bigger categories, communicate fresh insight, and boldly wrestle with tensions that other theologians avoid. In that regard I want to celebrate Edwards. Theology is alive for him, and that is evident in the way he talks about God and the things of God. He is a model theologian, even if not a perfect or faultless one.
I have grown in my affection for Jonathan Edwards this last year. I have learned an immense amount from him and yet I realize that I have barely scratched the surface on Edwards. There is so much scholarly work out there to read, both from Edwards and from secondary sources. No matter what tradition you come from, or what you’re looking for I suspect Edwards has something to say to you. His works can be dense at times, but the hard work of digging in them produces great reward. So whether you spend a year, a lifetime, or just a week reading Jonathan Edwards, I truly believe you’ll benefit from it.
Sparrow & Heart Soul Care 