The 21st Century Adaptation of Charity and Its Fruits: The Voice of Jonathan Edwards in Today's Language

by Jason Dollar

In this 21st Century adaptation of Charity and Its Fruits , readers will hear the voice of Jonathan Edwards through the vehicle of today's language. Edwards maintained that without love, the Christian faith is dead, empty, and pointless. When God saves people, he plants the seed of divine love within them where it grows and develops. Thus, God's love is the chief mark of salvation in a Christian's life. In Charity and Its Fruits , Edwards unfolds the wonder of God's love using 1 Corinthians 13 as his text. In a series of fifteen powerful sermons, which he preached in 1738, Edwards motivated Christians to live for the glory of God by living a life of divine love. This revised version of Edward's impactful sermons is rewritten for today's readers. Instead of unraveling long, dense sentences, people can focus on the concepts painstakingly illuminated in this incredible work.

402 pages, Paperback

Published December 19, 2022

Reviews

[Ashlynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I am the first person (supposedly) to rate this book on this app, I feel like I should provide a more thorough explanation. Firstly, as far as producing a reasonably good “translation” into modern speech, this books hits the assignment on the head. It is easy to understand and read and is fairly engaging. The 3/5 stars is not at all a reflection on Jason Dollar’s work to bring Jonathan Edwards’ sermons to life. My argument, so far as I (not a theologian or preacher) can have an argument (with someone who arguable was a theologian and a preacher), is with the doctrines of Jonathan Edwards as presented in this book. I am neither a Calvinist nor a cessationist, which I understand from this book Jonathan Edwards to be; and for a theologian and preacher, I found his Biblical justifications for these two controversial doctrines to be lacking or even to be ignoring of contrary Scriptures. I fully support reading books authored by individuals with contrary views of the readers. I believe in the case of faith to hopefully strengthen believers and in the case of all topics to encourage critical thinking. In this case, I highly encourage believers to read this book, if for nothing else than the excellent sermons excepting 1, 2, and 14. I do not, however, think that this means I should rate highly what I believe to be poor doctrine, but individual readers should judge that for themselves.