God's Grand Design: The Theological Vision of Jonathan Edwards

by Sean Michael Lucas

Jonathan Edwards produced a comprehensive theology of the Christian life that started with God’s glory and ended with all creation returning to that glory. It was a vision that remains quite simply magnificent. And yet it is a theological vision that has not been adequately explored until now. Professor and pastor Sean Michael Lucas has converted his years of teaching into this valuable overview of Edwards’s theology, exploring both redemption history and the application of God’s redemptive work in the individual. As Lucas unpacks Edwards’s vision in this accessible, two-part framework, the resulting revelation of God’s glorious work will strengthen our understanding of Edwards and of our own Christian life.

Genres: Theology, Biography, Church History

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2011

About the author

Sean Michael Lucas is the Senior Minister of First Presbyterian Church, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Prior to this, he served as Chief Academic Officer and associate professor of church history at Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri. He received BA and MA degrees from Bob Jones University and his PhD degree from Westminster Theological Seminary.

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a vast world of literature by and about Jonathan Edwards out there, which makes any book on a topic so large and comprehensive as his theological vision difficult. While I haven't read any other books solely dedicated to the study of Edwards before, I have to admit that Lucas seems to have done a good job on pulling together a comprehensive view of Edwards' theological view of the world's purpose, even if I don't agree that it is, as the Amazon summary suggests, terribly "accessible."

I feel like this book would benefit from a second read, but I don't think I have the time and the personal priorities to read this particular book again. I found parts of it quite beautiful -- I really enjoyed Lucas' summation in the final chapter, "The Christian Life as a Journey to Heaven." However, while Lucas insists that Edwards' ideas were "far from... a dry, theological schema," I felt like much of the book was just that -- dry, and quite abstract. That could just be because I'm a very concrete thinker and appreciate solid applications of theory, but it made most of the reading quite honestly drudgery rather than inspiration.

One point of difficulty for me personally was also Edwards' staunch rejection of other denominations and Christian groups. While I certainly don't view every single Christian or Christian-related group as theologically equal (especially considering the vast variations that that encompasses), it was a stumbling block to me to hear Edwards align the Roman Catholic Church with Satan (even though I am not a Catholic, and differ on many points of theology), and call Anabaptists "raving enthusiasts" and a tool of Satan. While I don't view all Christian groups as alike, our loyalty should be to God, and our faith in Him -- not our denomination. While I understand that Edwards had a drive to purify the church (contrasted, in Lucas' book, with his grandfather Stoddard who sought cohesion over purity in the church), it's disturbing to me that Edwards should consider self-professing Christians who believing in the Trinity, the deity of Christ and His saving blood to be allies or tools of Satan simply because they believe in, for example, full immersion for baptism.

By the same token, though, I do appreciate that Lucas didn't gloss over any difficult points of Edwards' views.

If I could, I would give the book 3.5 stars. I appreciate the crash-course in Jonathan Edwards' theology -- but it was less accessible and more abstract than I had hoped, and Edwards' denominational prejudices were a major distraction to me. Some highlights, for me, were the final chapter -- "The Christian Life as a Journey to Heaven" -- and the tiny snippets we get from Edwards' work "Images of Divine Things."

[Jim Klukow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who has attempted to tackle the literature of Jonathan Edwards, or even tried to keep up with the plethora of books about Edwards will agree that both are daunting tasks. This is why Lucas’ book God’s Grand Design is a welcomed addition to the field of Edwardian studies.

To bring the mind of Edwards to a commoner’s table of discussion is a feat in itself. Lucas has masterfully summarized, in a palatable and interesting manner, what he believes is the central theme of Edwards’ theology. That theme is understanding how God is working in each believer’s life within the context of a cosmic redemptive plan.

As a pastor and writer, Lucas condenses the essence of what drove Edwards to pursue faith in Christ so the average person, granted with some serious mental energy, can take advantage of the most definitive and pastoral theology on the Christian life ever written during eighteenth-century America.

Jonathan Edwards framed his reflections on the Christian life by envisioning and uniting the cosmic purposes of God and God’s personal concern for his people. God’s grand design or his “summum and ultimum” (highest and ultimate) purposes are to accomplish redemption and apply it to individuals. As Christians fill their vision of God with God’s grand purpose of glorifying himself through his redemptive plan, their affections are transformed, wills moved, and their beings engaged in benevolence toward all of creation.

Illuminating the mind, stirring the affections, and moving the will

Edwards was a master at “illuminating the mind, stirring the affections, and moving the will.” This provides believers with intellectually credible biblical substance and insightful practical and pastoral means by which they can enjoy God and give him glory. His “larger purpose was to raise his congregation’s vision from its apparently mundane and petty daily concerns to find their affections engaged by the cosmic purpose of God’s” redemptive work.

In the books’ first section he surveys redemption history, showing how God’s grand design has worked itself out through history. In this section, Lucas guides the reader through an interesting journey of Edwards’ theology of redemption. He begins with the fall of Adam. Next, he moves the reader through redemption shadowed throughout the Old Testament. Then he brings redemption to its fulfillment in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This section concludes by incorporating Edwards’ views on the consummation and his experiences with the Great Awakening.

The second section of the book applies Edwards’ theology of redemption to individual Christians. Lucas brings to the forefront a number of Edwards’ most famous sermons as examples of how the principles of revelation bring light and heat to the sinner’s heart and how human affections and habits move individuals either toward God or away from him.

Two benefits from reading this book

Through Lucas’ insights into Edwards, I found myself considering what I have experienced as true faith in Christ and what could be called spurious religious feelings. It was helpful to look at my own religious experiences and compare them to Edwards’ warnings about how easy it is to become self-deceived.

The second benefit in this book was how well Lucas explained Edwards’ connections between holiness and love. When a person desires and delights in God fruits are produced such as holiness, genuine community, and the virtue of selfless love. These transform the believer's character into qualities that reflect God’s nature.

For individuals desiring to increase their effectiveness in both serving and teaching Scripture, Lucas’ constant engagement with what it means to be a minister of the Gospel as well as how to pray both privately and globally become powerfully engaging ideas. His application on praying for personal and international revival was especially challenging for me.

[Terence Tan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excerpt from my 3,222 word review:

You will note that throughout this book review, I referred to Edwards and Lucas interchangeably. That’s a credit to Lucas because he parks the reader in the mind of Jonathan Edwards throughout the book.

And that is also a problem because Lucas aims to keep the precise statements precise, he is reluctant to dumb down Edwards for dumb people (like me, not you).

So I would read and re-read and re-read and at one point in the book, I actually thought maybe there is something wrong with my comprehension. The words are in English and I don’t understand what they mean. I got so frustrated, I skipped to the appendix just to check whether I could understand Lucas’ essays. And to my relief I found that I can understand Lucas when he is using his own voice. The problem occurs when he is using Edwards-speak.

If you don’t know Jonathan Edwards or are uninterested in church history or in theology or in the Puritan literature, then this is not for you. This book needs something in you to work with.

A better entry into Jonathan Edwards could be one of the other books Lucas recommends in Appendix 1. Or you could… just read Religious Affections. It’s a good book. It settles an argument still relevant today, emotions in service.

Even though it was rough sledding, I am happy I finished the book. I can tick off one Puritan book for this year. Yes, I know God’s Grand Design was published 11, not 300, years ago. And yes, I know the author is still alive unlike the Puritans he writes about. But 300 year old wine is still 300 year old wine, whether it’s served in the original bottle or in a modern wine glass. Lucas preserves much of Edwards style and thoughts, for all the good and bad that brings.

Full Review here: https://readingandreaders.com/podcast...

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

God's Grand Design is an outstanding introduction to the theology that mid 18th century Congregational pastor, Jonathan Edwards wrestled with and taught over his career. The value of this short book (about 190 pages), is that it introduces the reader to the often complex development of Edwards' teaching and demonstrates its value and worthiness, even to people in the early 21st century.

Lucas, a PCA pastor and seminary lecturer on the works of Edwards, is well equipped for this task, for he is able to critique and summarize Edwards, while using secondary sources to place him in context. While not a work a spiritual devotion, because so much of Edwards writing speaks to the heart of a Christian, Lucas writing does a fine job of letting the original text encourage today's Christian to greater heights of spiritual maturity and understanding.

Much of Edwards teaching was centered on the role of God's sovereignty over his creation, and for the Christian, the growth of affection and love towards Christ driving greater and greater maturity and expectation of Christ's rule. Like many day to day pastors, Edwards had the complex task of relating the work of universal redemption and God's rule to individual listeners, in his case the individuals at his small, New England churches (at that time the edge of the Christian world).

Lucas divides his work into two sections: Redemption History and Redemption Applied, and ties Edwards teaching together, in as close to a short, systematic way, as I think is likely. Lucas' writing on how Edwards wanted to help people understand and deal with false and genuine religious affections leading to false and genuine religious virtues is especially valuable. He barely, but in an interesting way, touch on how Edwards was beginning to confront the coming challenge from Enlightened Deism and the Biblical Higher Criticism that came in the generation or so, after Edwards death in his mid 50's.

For the general reader, the challenge will be early on in this book, to reorient their mind towards how an 18th century pastor / scholar handled with some weighty, but very common spiritual concerns. Once that transition is made, however, the reader should get a lot of value from this work and even find it has some serious devotional value, to consider their own life in Christ.

As an introduction to the theology and teaching of Edwards, this book is highly recommended.

[Benjamin Glaser · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work was a lot of fun to read. Sean Michael Lucas is a good writer, which always helps when reading any book, but especially one that is a "theological biography" (my words) like this one. Lucas does a great job of letting Edwards be Edwards. Too many books like these result in the author spending half his time "defending" or "excusing" the words of the author being profiled. One thing I really enjoyed about this book is that, whether consciously or not, this work shows that many of the anti-Edwards postings regarding his affections to be totally missing the mark.

Highly Recommend.

[Josiah DeGraaf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good introduction to many of Edwards' teachings and ideas that I learned a lot from. The section on Edwards' view of affections was particularly good, particularly the part on false affections and recognizing false-believers. This book did what it was really supposed to do: it gave me a good background on Edwards' theology and made me want to actually read Edwards himself. So in that aspect, this book was a success.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (Good).

[Raully · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a nice introduction to Edwards, but I was looking for a little bit more. The annotated and idiosyncratic bibliography at the end of the book is the best part.

[Zack Clemmons · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thoughtful and (mostly) thorough introduction to Edwards's theology. Prose was pedestrian. Good in providing a broad scope.