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Jonathan Edwards: An Introduction to his Thought
Since the seminal work of the American historian Perry Miller in the late 1940s, there has been a renewed interest in the life and work of the New England theologian, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). This has grown in the post-war period, and in the last twenty years it has become an academic cottage industry that has diversified in a number of important respects. Work on Edwards now spans a number of disciplines, including history, philosophy, theology, American literature and American Studies. He is recognised as a major thinker in the Early Enlightenment period, and as one of the pre-eminent thinkers in early American history. The American Lutheran theologian Robert W. Jenson even speaks of him as 'America's Theologian'. With the increasing interest in Edwards has gone an interest in teaching Edwards. The official Yale Jonathan Edwards Center website even has tips on how to teach a course on Edwards and outlines of what such a course might include. This single volume overview of central issues in Edwards' thought is sensitive to both the theological and philosophical aspects of his thinking and will be a very valuable contribution to the literature. It will help teachers and provide a good way into the subject for graduate students too.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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About the author
Oliver D. Crisp
52 books35 followersOliver D. Crisp (PhD, University of London, DLitt, University of Aberdeen) is professor of analytic theology at the University of St. Andrews. He is the author of several books, including Analyzing Doctrine: Toward a Systematic Theology, Saving Calvinism: Expanding the Reformed Tradition, Jonathan Edwards Among The Theologians, and The Word Enfleshed: Exploring the Person and Work of Christ. He is a founding editor of the Journal of Analytic Theology, and co-organizes the annual Los Angeles Theology Conference with Fred Sanders.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 24, 2018
A really great book summing up the most recent issues in Edwards studies. The chapters on Edwards doctrine of God and creation were most helpful to me. Excellent book!
October 3, 2019
Review title: Quantum theology
Jonathan Edwards was the first theologian of the North American continent, but despite never leaving the new England seaboard colonies in his life (1703-1758) always referred to and considered himself as a British subject (p. 14). Despite his isolated position, including missions to Native Americans on the inland frontier, he was counted by contemporaries as a philosopher and theologian of the highest regard. He was (you'll have to excuse the terminology until we can find better) the kind of "American original" who a few short years after his death would found a grand experiment in political, philosophical, and religious freedom that has survived nearly three centuries.
Like most Christian theologians who take the Bible seriously, Edwards believes that God created the universe ex nihilo. But he is a thorough-going and rigorously consistent idealist, believing that "God is the only true substance" (p. 106), a philosophy that includes us his created human beings: we are "literally ideas God thinks" (p. 107), an idea that the authors label as the "immaterial antirealist" position.
In case you think this is an abberation or misreading of Edwards, Crisp and Strobel then introduce Edwards's concept of "continuous creation"
While this appears to modern eyes a radical, indeed modern, idea, Crisp and Strobel ('s p. 200-202) place it in the context of Edwards's theological defense of a created world maintained by an actively historical God, against the rising materialism of a mechanistic world governed by science, not a creator God. The rigorous consistency of Edwards's arguments carry his point, but force him into a position that puts God at the center of not just allowing evil, but making evil a created component of God's world "taking part, as it were, in glorifying God" (p. 214)! Because of this awkward position, Crisp and Strobel propose that to "become Edwardsian" today we need to reconsider the "fruit of his conclusions" to come up with a theologically better way (p. 217).
This is billed as an introduction to Edwards's thinking, but it is not at all elementary or simple. The vocabulary and writing, both quotes from his writing and the authors' explanations, are dense and often difficult to follow. The authors' introduction suggests this might be a textbook for a survey class on Edwards's theology and philosophy, and as such it would benefit by explication from a good classroom instructor. For a layman like myself without such help I found myself at sea more than I would have liked, resulting in the three-star rating. There is a brief "further reading" section pointing to the 26 collected volumes of the Yale University Press collection of his writings (40 more volumes are only available at their website!) plus selected and annotated introductory, intermediate, and advanced accounts of his theology.
Jonathan Edwards was the first theologian of the North American continent, but despite never leaving the new England seaboard colonies in his life (1703-1758) always referred to and considered himself as a British subject (p. 14). Despite his isolated position, including missions to Native Americans on the inland frontier, he was counted by contemporaries as a philosopher and theologian of the highest regard. He was (you'll have to excuse the terminology until we can find better) the kind of "American original" who a few short years after his death would found a grand experiment in political, philosophical, and religious freedom that has survived nearly three centuries.
Like most Christian theologians who take the Bible seriously, Edwards believes that God created the universe ex nihilo. But he is a thorough-going and rigorously consistent idealist, believing that "God is the only true substance" (p. 106), a philosophy that includes us his created human beings: we are "literally ideas God thinks" (p. 107), an idea that the authors label as the "immaterial antirealist" position.
In case you think this is an abberation or misreading of Edwards, Crisp and Strobel then introduce Edwards's concept of "continuous creation"
Of course, he also believes all created things are ideal. Once the world God initially creates ceases to exist (the moment after it has been brought into existence), God creates a numerically distinct, but qualitatively identical, world in its place. This second world is almost the same as the previous one, apart from any small, incremental changes God builds into this second world, so that it appears as if action is taking place across time. This second world immediately ceases to exist, to be replaced by a third world. As before, it is numerically distinct from the second world, but qualitatively identical to it, except for those minor incremental changes built into this third world to distinguish it from the previous one, in order to preserve the appearance of change across the three worlds, from the first, through the second, to the third; and so on. Each momentary world God instantiates is an entire state of affairs created ex nihilo that is immediately annihilated and replaced by an entirely new world the next moment--one that appears to all intents and purposes to be just like the previous world. (p. 109)This bizarre theological view of a radically immaterial and unreal world does strikingly parallel modern quantum physics, and provides an explanation for time which has yet evaded science. Crisp and Strobel liken this view to the analogy of movie film, where a series of discrete still images is rapidly projected in sequence to produce the illusion of motion and time passing; what appears to us to be time passing is actually an infinite number of worlds being created instantaneously out of the fertile, fast, and unstoppable mind of God.
While this appears to modern eyes a radical, indeed modern, idea, Crisp and Strobel ('s p. 200-202) place it in the context of Edwards's theological defense of a created world maintained by an actively historical God, against the rising materialism of a mechanistic world governed by science, not a creator God. The rigorous consistency of Edwards's arguments carry his point, but force him into a position that puts God at the center of not just allowing evil, but making evil a created component of God's world "taking part, as it were, in glorifying God" (p. 214)! Because of this awkward position, Crisp and Strobel propose that to "become Edwardsian" today we need to reconsider the "fruit of his conclusions" to come up with a theologically better way (p. 217).
This is billed as an introduction to Edwards's thinking, but it is not at all elementary or simple. The vocabulary and writing, both quotes from his writing and the authors' explanations, are dense and often difficult to follow. The authors' introduction suggests this might be a textbook for a survey class on Edwards's theology and philosophy, and as such it would benefit by explication from a good classroom instructor. For a layman like myself without such help I found myself at sea more than I would have liked, resulting in the three-star rating. There is a brief "further reading" section pointing to the 26 collected volumes of the Yale University Press collection of his writings (40 more volumes are only available at their website!) plus selected and annotated introductory, intermediate, and advanced accounts of his theology.
May 30, 2018
Oliver Crisp and Kyle Strobel are two of the most well-published theologians in Jonathan Edwards studies today. I have personally profited from many of their books and articles. Therefore, I take this new 2018 introduction to Edwards’s thought to be an exciting addition to the ever-growing body of Edwards’s secondary literature.
Crisp and Strobel claim that this book will hopefully be a “shorter introduction that might assist those coming to Edwards for the first time, or those wanting a more manageable overview of key themes in his work” (2). I think Crisp and Strobel do an excellent job of introducing many of key ideas from Edwards in as fairly a straightforward way as possible.
However, overall, I think the book is a fairly advanced introduction, at points especially highlighting upon the academic secondary literature that focuses upon intricate issues within Edwards. As an academic I think they have hit their audience’s mark with me. But I worry just how accessible this book might be for true first-comers to Edwards. Crisp and Strobel are superb in their efforts at explaining Edwards as clearly as can be done. But unless one is already invested in some of the details of Edwardsean scholarship, I doubt such a person will see this book as much of an introductory help to understanding Edwards.
The chapter breakdowns of this book represent, I think, fairly intuitive, “at the joint”, demarcations in Edwards’s thought. I’ll cover most of these chapters very briefly here. Chapter one was an interesting biographical chapter making the case that Edwards, though in one sense an American theologian, yet “in another, deeper sense, Edwards was just as clearly not an American theologian” (13). The chapter gave me a greater appreciation of the unique context of being a theologian living on the outskirts of an eighteenth-century empire. With limited resources, Crisp and Strobel make the case that Edwards was something of theological magpie, gathering ideas into his nest wherever he could find them.
Chapter two focuses upon Edwards’s understanding of the Trinity and an explanation of how Edwards’s doctrine of God focuses upon beauty and glory. Chapter three extends the analysis of Edwards’s doctrine of God and includes a discussion of his controversial position of idealism. Chapter four represents one of the more advanced chapters on Edwards’s understanding of God’s relation to creation. Crisp and Strobel canvass four interpretations in the secondary literature that attempt to explain Edwards’s adherence to “pure act” theology and his claim that God has “dispositions”. According to the authors, these various interpretations all fit within two competing streams of Edwardsean thought: one that holds a dispositionalist reading of Edwards (following primarily Sang Hyun Lee), the other an essentialist reading of Edwards, which is closer to immediate Edwards’s forbears. Given my own dabbling in the past couple of years in Edwards’s studies, I found this chapter very helpful in at least laying out a “map” of the differing perspectives on Edwards.
Chapter five looks at Edwards’s understanding of the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Chapter six investigates Edwards’s view of salvation as participation and his particular conception of “theosis”. Chapter seven explores Edwards’s theological anthropology and moral thought.
The final chapter, number eight, is a bit different from the rest of the book. Rather than introduction, Crisp and Strobel now “turn to a slightly more critical kind of assessment” (198). They interestingly ask here, what does it mean to “become Edwardsean”? They essentially argue throughout the chapter that this entails retrieving a central feature of Edwards’s theological impulse (his “non-contrastive” appraoch) but rejecting “radical” features of his thought on the topic of God’s relation to the world in order to utilize Edwards’s thought for constructive theology today. They list such “radical” features as idealism, occasionalism, continuous creationism, and panentheism.
The book concludes with an annotated bibliography that I found incredibly helpful. Bibliographies are great. But bibliographies with comments are even better!
Overall, this was an excellent introduction, though again, perhaps a little too advanced. I found their critiques of Edwards’s “radical” philosophical notions to be insightful. However, I am not as convinced as they seem to be about whether Edwards was actually committed to all of these “radical” notions (particularly panentheism). And I am even more disinclined to agree with some of the implications they see for Edwards’s thought. The authors are fairly explicit in suggesting that Edwards’s views erode moral responsibility and implicate Edwards inextricably with the classic “problem of evil” for theism. Though I appreciate the challenges that they pose here, I’m not sure that Edwards’s account of God and human freedom is as problematic as they make out.
But as any good book does, this book clearly encourages thought and invites discussion. As a fairly advanced introduction to Jonathan Edwards’s thought, I think this scores highly in that regard.
Crisp and Strobel claim that this book will hopefully be a “shorter introduction that might assist those coming to Edwards for the first time, or those wanting a more manageable overview of key themes in his work” (2). I think Crisp and Strobel do an excellent job of introducing many of key ideas from Edwards in as fairly a straightforward way as possible.
However, overall, I think the book is a fairly advanced introduction, at points especially highlighting upon the academic secondary literature that focuses upon intricate issues within Edwards. As an academic I think they have hit their audience’s mark with me. But I worry just how accessible this book might be for true first-comers to Edwards. Crisp and Strobel are superb in their efforts at explaining Edwards as clearly as can be done. But unless one is already invested in some of the details of Edwardsean scholarship, I doubt such a person will see this book as much of an introductory help to understanding Edwards.
The chapter breakdowns of this book represent, I think, fairly intuitive, “at the joint”, demarcations in Edwards’s thought. I’ll cover most of these chapters very briefly here. Chapter one was an interesting biographical chapter making the case that Edwards, though in one sense an American theologian, yet “in another, deeper sense, Edwards was just as clearly not an American theologian” (13). The chapter gave me a greater appreciation of the unique context of being a theologian living on the outskirts of an eighteenth-century empire. With limited resources, Crisp and Strobel make the case that Edwards was something of theological magpie, gathering ideas into his nest wherever he could find them.
Chapter two focuses upon Edwards’s understanding of the Trinity and an explanation of how Edwards’s doctrine of God focuses upon beauty and glory. Chapter three extends the analysis of Edwards’s doctrine of God and includes a discussion of his controversial position of idealism. Chapter four represents one of the more advanced chapters on Edwards’s understanding of God’s relation to creation. Crisp and Strobel canvass four interpretations in the secondary literature that attempt to explain Edwards’s adherence to “pure act” theology and his claim that God has “dispositions”. According to the authors, these various interpretations all fit within two competing streams of Edwardsean thought: one that holds a dispositionalist reading of Edwards (following primarily Sang Hyun Lee), the other an essentialist reading of Edwards, which is closer to immediate Edwards’s forbears. Given my own dabbling in the past couple of years in Edwards’s studies, I found this chapter very helpful in at least laying out a “map” of the differing perspectives on Edwards.
Chapter five looks at Edwards’s understanding of the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Chapter six investigates Edwards’s view of salvation as participation and his particular conception of “theosis”. Chapter seven explores Edwards’s theological anthropology and moral thought.
The final chapter, number eight, is a bit different from the rest of the book. Rather than introduction, Crisp and Strobel now “turn to a slightly more critical kind of assessment” (198). They interestingly ask here, what does it mean to “become Edwardsean”? They essentially argue throughout the chapter that this entails retrieving a central feature of Edwards’s theological impulse (his “non-contrastive” appraoch) but rejecting “radical” features of his thought on the topic of God’s relation to the world in order to utilize Edwards’s thought for constructive theology today. They list such “radical” features as idealism, occasionalism, continuous creationism, and panentheism.
The book concludes with an annotated bibliography that I found incredibly helpful. Bibliographies are great. But bibliographies with comments are even better!
Overall, this was an excellent introduction, though again, perhaps a little too advanced. I found their critiques of Edwards’s “radical” philosophical notions to be insightful. However, I am not as convinced as they seem to be about whether Edwards was actually committed to all of these “radical” notions (particularly panentheism). And I am even more disinclined to agree with some of the implications they see for Edwards’s thought. The authors are fairly explicit in suggesting that Edwards’s views erode moral responsibility and implicate Edwards inextricably with the classic “problem of evil” for theism. Though I appreciate the challenges that they pose here, I’m not sure that Edwards’s account of God and human freedom is as problematic as they make out.
But as any good book does, this book clearly encourages thought and invites discussion. As a fairly advanced introduction to Jonathan Edwards’s thought, I think this scores highly in that regard.
January 25, 2020
Great read...challenging, helpful, and thorough. I particularly gleaned a lot from the chapters on Edwards’ views of the trinity, salvation, and anthropology. Overall, Crisp and Strobel appeared to exegete Edwards more so than defend him, so the picture of his theology came out complex, enlightening, but also filled with tension worth exploring.
Definitely makes me want to read Edwards a bit more, which I assume is the mark of a good introduction.👍🏼
Definitely makes me want to read Edwards a bit more, which I assume is the mark of a good introduction.👍🏼
September 20, 2018
Extremely helpful in understanding the primary source readings of JE. Like many 18th century writings, they take a while for a 21st century reader to get used to the style of language.
April 13, 2021
Great introduction to Edwards!
July 20, 2025
Don't be deceived by the title - this is a difficult read, and intellectually demanding.
Kyle and Strobel have done a good job in covering the scope of Edwards' writing.
The philosophical chapters are especially difficult and Edwards' supposed unorthodoxies, chiefly the claims of his panentheism in "continuous creation", remain open for debate. The fact that the authors are quite dogmatic about this is one criticism.
My other criticism is that several chapters feel in themselves quite repetitive. For example, in making a point the author will assert something, quote Edwards, assert the same point again, and then again with further quotes, which only works when it is made from several sufficiently different angles or perspectives.
The later chapter on beauty, participation and love, was my favourite.
Kyle and Strobel have done a good job in covering the scope of Edwards' writing.
The philosophical chapters are especially difficult and Edwards' supposed unorthodoxies, chiefly the claims of his panentheism in "continuous creation", remain open for debate. The fact that the authors are quite dogmatic about this is one criticism.
My other criticism is that several chapters feel in themselves quite repetitive. For example, in making a point the author will assert something, quote Edwards, assert the same point again, and then again with further quotes, which only works when it is made from several sufficiently different angles or perspectives.
The later chapter on beauty, participation and love, was my favourite.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews