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The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 8: Ethical Writings
This volume contains two major works of Jonathan Edwards: an unpublished text of a series of sermons he preached in 1738, known as Charity and Its Fruits, and his Two Dissertations: I. Concerning the End for Which God Created the World and II. On the Nature of True Virtue, published posthumously in 1765. Together these writings set out the principles of Edwards’ ethical reflections.
The text of the sermon series is drawn from three sources. The primary text is an early nineteenth-century transcription of Edwards’ sermon booklets now in the Andover-Newton Theological School’s collection. Passages published in Tyron Edwards’ 1852 edition, and partial transcriptions by Joseph Bellamy found in three fragments among his papers, have been used where the Andover copy is incomplete. The Bellamy fragments are reproduced in their entirety in a critical appendix, along with examples showing the editor’s use of the three sources in construing this definitive text for the Yale edition.
End of Creation and True Virtue, intended by Edwards to be read together, are shown here to be closely related to Edwards’ other writings. Paul Ramsey’s introduction points out that Edwards returned again and again to these topics in his Miscellanies, where he identifies penultimate versions of both treatises and traces the development of Edwards’ ideas. Thus the reader is able to follow Edwards’ most profound reflections about God and the moral dimensions of his creations.
This is one of the most wide-ranging theological and philosophical volumes projected in the Yale edition. The Editor’s Introduction gives a systematic analysis of the theological ethics to be found in these writings and of Edwards’ esteem for the splendor of common morality. Appendices exploring the “moral sense” school, “infused” virtue in Edwards and Calvin, and Edwards’ belief in the never ending increase of holiness and happiness in heaven complete the volume.
The text of the sermon series is drawn from three sources. The primary text is an early nineteenth-century transcription of Edwards’ sermon booklets now in the Andover-Newton Theological School’s collection. Passages published in Tyron Edwards’ 1852 edition, and partial transcriptions by Joseph Bellamy found in three fragments among his papers, have been used where the Andover copy is incomplete. The Bellamy fragments are reproduced in their entirety in a critical appendix, along with examples showing the editor’s use of the three sources in construing this definitive text for the Yale edition.
End of Creation and True Virtue, intended by Edwards to be read together, are shown here to be closely related to Edwards’ other writings. Paul Ramsey’s introduction points out that Edwards returned again and again to these topics in his Miscellanies, where he identifies penultimate versions of both treatises and traces the development of Edwards’ ideas. Thus the reader is able to follow Edwards’ most profound reflections about God and the moral dimensions of his creations.
This is one of the most wide-ranging theological and philosophical volumes projected in the Yale edition. The Editor’s Introduction gives a systematic analysis of the theological ethics to be found in these writings and of Edwards’ esteem for the splendor of common morality. Appendices exploring the “moral sense” school, “infused” virtue in Edwards and Calvin, and Edwards’ belief in the never ending increase of holiness and happiness in heaven complete the volume.
- GenresTheology
808 pages, Hardcover
First published September 10, 1989
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About the author
Jonathan Edwards
1,599 books523 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database named Jonathan Edwards.
Jonathan Edwards was the most eminent American philosopher-theologian of his time, and a key figure in what has come to be called the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s.
The only son in a family of eleven children, he entered Yale in September, 1716 when he was not yet thirteen and graduated four years later (1720) as valedictorian. He received his Masters three years later. As a youth, Edwards was unable to accept the Calvinist sovereignty of God. However, in 1721 he came to what he called a "delightful conviction" though meditation on 1 Timothy 1:17. From that point on, Edwards delighted in the sovereignty of God. Edwards later recognized this as his conversion to Christ.
In 1727 he was ordained minister at Northampton and assistant to his maternal grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. He was a student minister, not a visiting pastor, his rule being thirteen hours of study a day. In the same year, he married Sarah Pierpont, then age seventeen, daughter of Yale founder James Pierpont (1659–1714). In total, Jonathan and Sarah had eleven children.
Stoddard died on February 11th, 1729, leaving to his grandson the difficult task of the sole ministerial charge of one of the largest and wealthiest congregations in the colony. Throughout his time in Northampton his preaching brought remarkable religious revivals.
Yet, tensions flamed as Edwards would not continue his grandfather's practice of open communion. Stoddard believed that communion was a "converting ordinance." Surrounding congregations had been convinced of this, and as Edwards became more convinced that this was harmful, his public disagreement with the idea caused his dismissal in 1750.
Edwards then moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, then a frontier settlement, where he ministered to a small congregation and served as missionary to the Housatonic Indians. There, having more time for study and writing, he completed his celebrated work, The Freedom of the Will (1754).
Edwards was elected president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in early 1758. He was a popular choice, for he had been a friend of the College since its inception. He died of fever at the age of fifty-four following experimental inoculation for smallpox and was buried in the President's Lot in the Princeton cemetery beside his son-in-law, Aaron Burr.
Jonathan Edwards was the most eminent American philosopher-theologian of his time, and a key figure in what has come to be called the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s.
The only son in a family of eleven children, he entered Yale in September, 1716 when he was not yet thirteen and graduated four years later (1720) as valedictorian. He received his Masters three years later. As a youth, Edwards was unable to accept the Calvinist sovereignty of God. However, in 1721 he came to what he called a "delightful conviction" though meditation on 1 Timothy 1:17. From that point on, Edwards delighted in the sovereignty of God. Edwards later recognized this as his conversion to Christ.
In 1727 he was ordained minister at Northampton and assistant to his maternal grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. He was a student minister, not a visiting pastor, his rule being thirteen hours of study a day. In the same year, he married Sarah Pierpont, then age seventeen, daughter of Yale founder James Pierpont (1659–1714). In total, Jonathan and Sarah had eleven children.
Stoddard died on February 11th, 1729, leaving to his grandson the difficult task of the sole ministerial charge of one of the largest and wealthiest congregations in the colony. Throughout his time in Northampton his preaching brought remarkable religious revivals.
Yet, tensions flamed as Edwards would not continue his grandfather's practice of open communion. Stoddard believed that communion was a "converting ordinance." Surrounding congregations had been convinced of this, and as Edwards became more convinced that this was harmful, his public disagreement with the idea caused his dismissal in 1750.
Edwards then moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, then a frontier settlement, where he ministered to a small congregation and served as missionary to the Housatonic Indians. There, having more time for study and writing, he completed his celebrated work, The Freedom of the Will (1754).
Edwards was elected president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in early 1758. He was a popular choice, for he had been a friend of the College since its inception. He died of fever at the age of fifty-four following experimental inoculation for smallpox and was buried in the President's Lot in the Princeton cemetery beside his son-in-law, Aaron Burr.
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June 14, 2024
This review refers to one work in the above volume.
You can read this free here:
http://edwards.yale.edu/archive?path=...
SYNOPSIS INTRODUCTION
Jonathan Edwards’ A DISSERTATION CONCERNING THE END FOR WHICH GOD CREATED THE WORLD is a challenging work to comprehend. To follow his multilayered line of argument and philosophical terminology was strenuous and demanded complete mental attention, which this author could not always furnish. Therefore, my synopsis and summary is made as an admitted novice with a corresponding level of understanding. The work is divided into two chapters. In the first, Edwards argues from reason alone and inserts no proofs nor arguments from special revelation, the Scriptures. He undertakes this task with caution and humility, “I would, in the first place, soberly consider a few things, what seems rational to be supposed concerning this affair;—and then proceed to consider what light divine revelation gives us in it.”1 The second chapter, as mentioned in the preceding quote, is devoted to a defense from Scripture. What is Edwards thesis? In short, the answer is that God created the world with a singular ultimate end in mind--to bring glory to himself. Edwards summarized, “He [God] ultimately makes himself his end in creation.”2
CHAPTER ONE
Although chapter one is short Edwards takes the time to refute many substantive objections as well as introduce many convincing and logical arguments which perhaps originated with him. His thesis is based upon many premises which one must grant Edwards for validation. An argument that he makes early in chapter one is crucial to the acceptance or rejection of Edwards’ thesis. He writes, “For we may justly infer what God intends, by what he actually does;
because he does nothing inadvertently, or without design.”3 Edwards position and argument demands that God is absolutely sovereign and in complete control of everything in the universe either by intervention or permission. Edwards next important point is that God created the world in order to exercise and communicate his infinitely excellent character and intrinsic worth. He comments, “If the
world had not been created, these attributes never would have had any exercise.”4 In other words, God created the world not because he had any need or to fulfill some feeling of loneliness. He created the world out of His goodness and desire to manifest that goodness to intelligent, volitional creatures--humanity. Edwards summarizes why God created the world, “So if God both esteem and delight in his own perfections and virtues, he cannot but value and delight in the expressions and genuine effects of them. So that in delighting in the expressions of his perfections, he manifests a delight in himself; and in making these expressions of his own perfections his end, he makes himself his end.”5 As mentioned, it was not due to any need but a pure delight and love to express Himself.
The most prominent objection against Edwards thesis is that a God who has Himself as His chief end is a selfish God. Edwards’ reply is that this objection is due to an illegitimate transfer of anthropomorphic categories to the Divine. An individual person should never view himself above others, if he is a Christian. But contrastingly, God, by definition, must be viewed by Himself as above every creature because they are indeed his creation. He must value himself infinitely more worthy and glorious than His creatures. Though a human may create or contribute something of greater value than himself to society, a Holy God could never create something of greater value or worth than Himself. In sum, God’s ultimate end in creating the world is doxological. God loves Himself because He exclusively is infinitely worthy of that love.
CHAPTER 2
In this chapter Edwards shifts from the exclusive realm of reason and intellect to the sphere of Scripture as special revelation. His central proposition in this chapter is that of the entire dissertation; the ultimate end of God is Himself, summed up in the phrase the glory of God. He explains and expounds many texts of Scripture in defense of his thesis. Edwards persuasively argues his case in this work. However, he may overstate it in the first sentence of this chapter, “It is manifest, that the Scriptures speak, on all occasions, as though God made himself his end in all his works.”6 Many texts in Scripture imply the end is the name or glory of God. Edwards suggests that “God’s name and his glory, at least very often, signify the same thing in Scripture.”7 So, although it may appear that there are different ends for which God created the world, upon study one will conclude that the name of God and the glory of God both are different ways of referring to the ONE end of God in creating the world. Edwards makes it clear that there are not many ultimate ends but one.8
CONCLUSION
God’s purpose, end and singular ultimate consequence of creating the world was to bring glory to Himself. The creator is the ultimate end not the creature.
=================
2 Chapter 1, sec. 3, p. 15.
3 Chapter 1, Sec. 1, p. 11.
4 Ch. 1, sec. 2, p. 11.
5 Ch. 1, Sec. 3, p. 14.
6 Ch. 2, sec. 1, p. 2. Some people who agree with Edwards’ conclusions would say that on some occasions in Scripture it is not manifest that God himself is the end.
7 Ch. 2, sec. 5, p. 28.
8 Ch. 2, sec. 7, p. 30.
You can read this free here:
http://edwards.yale.edu/archive?path=...
SYNOPSIS INTRODUCTION
Jonathan Edwards’ A DISSERTATION CONCERNING THE END FOR WHICH GOD CREATED THE WORLD is a challenging work to comprehend. To follow his multilayered line of argument and philosophical terminology was strenuous and demanded complete mental attention, which this author could not always furnish. Therefore, my synopsis and summary is made as an admitted novice with a corresponding level of understanding. The work is divided into two chapters. In the first, Edwards argues from reason alone and inserts no proofs nor arguments from special revelation, the Scriptures. He undertakes this task with caution and humility, “I would, in the first place, soberly consider a few things, what seems rational to be supposed concerning this affair;—and then proceed to consider what light divine revelation gives us in it.”1 The second chapter, as mentioned in the preceding quote, is devoted to a defense from Scripture. What is Edwards thesis? In short, the answer is that God created the world with a singular ultimate end in mind--to bring glory to himself. Edwards summarized, “He [God] ultimately makes himself his end in creation.”2
CHAPTER ONE
Although chapter one is short Edwards takes the time to refute many substantive objections as well as introduce many convincing and logical arguments which perhaps originated with him. His thesis is based upon many premises which one must grant Edwards for validation. An argument that he makes early in chapter one is crucial to the acceptance or rejection of Edwards’ thesis. He writes, “For we may justly infer what God intends, by what he actually does;
because he does nothing inadvertently, or without design.”3 Edwards position and argument demands that God is absolutely sovereign and in complete control of everything in the universe either by intervention or permission. Edwards next important point is that God created the world in order to exercise and communicate his infinitely excellent character and intrinsic worth. He comments, “If the
world had not been created, these attributes never would have had any exercise.”4 In other words, God created the world not because he had any need or to fulfill some feeling of loneliness. He created the world out of His goodness and desire to manifest that goodness to intelligent, volitional creatures--humanity. Edwards summarizes why God created the world, “So if God both esteem and delight in his own perfections and virtues, he cannot but value and delight in the expressions and genuine effects of them. So that in delighting in the expressions of his perfections, he manifests a delight in himself; and in making these expressions of his own perfections his end, he makes himself his end.”5 As mentioned, it was not due to any need but a pure delight and love to express Himself.
The most prominent objection against Edwards thesis is that a God who has Himself as His chief end is a selfish God. Edwards’ reply is that this objection is due to an illegitimate transfer of anthropomorphic categories to the Divine. An individual person should never view himself above others, if he is a Christian. But contrastingly, God, by definition, must be viewed by Himself as above every creature because they are indeed his creation. He must value himself infinitely more worthy and glorious than His creatures. Though a human may create or contribute something of greater value than himself to society, a Holy God could never create something of greater value or worth than Himself. In sum, God’s ultimate end in creating the world is doxological. God loves Himself because He exclusively is infinitely worthy of that love.
CHAPTER 2
In this chapter Edwards shifts from the exclusive realm of reason and intellect to the sphere of Scripture as special revelation. His central proposition in this chapter is that of the entire dissertation; the ultimate end of God is Himself, summed up in the phrase the glory of God. He explains and expounds many texts of Scripture in defense of his thesis. Edwards persuasively argues his case in this work. However, he may overstate it in the first sentence of this chapter, “It is manifest, that the Scriptures speak, on all occasions, as though God made himself his end in all his works.”6 Many texts in Scripture imply the end is the name or glory of God. Edwards suggests that “God’s name and his glory, at least very often, signify the same thing in Scripture.”7 So, although it may appear that there are different ends for which God created the world, upon study one will conclude that the name of God and the glory of God both are different ways of referring to the ONE end of God in creating the world. Edwards makes it clear that there are not many ultimate ends but one.8
CONCLUSION
God’s purpose, end and singular ultimate consequence of creating the world was to bring glory to Himself. The creator is the ultimate end not the creature.
=================
2 Chapter 1, sec. 3, p. 15.
3 Chapter 1, Sec. 1, p. 11.
4 Ch. 1, sec. 2, p. 11.
5 Ch. 1, Sec. 3, p. 14.
6 Ch. 2, sec. 1, p. 2. Some people who agree with Edwards’ conclusions would say that on some occasions in Scripture it is not manifest that God himself is the end.
7 Ch. 2, sec. 5, p. 28.
8 Ch. 2, sec. 7, p. 30.
February 15, 2020
Five stars for Charity and Its Fruits, four stars for The End for Which God Created the World, three stars for The Nature of True Virtue.
September 12, 2015
This volume contains Edwards's sermons, Charity and Its Fruits, The End for Which God Created the World, and The Nature of True Virtue. Charity and Its Fruits I read about 12 years ago to great profit. The End for Which God Created the World I have read several times. I am convinced of the rightness of Edwards's biblical and philosophical argumentation. God's glory is the great end of God in all things. I just recently red The Nature of True Virtue. I agree with Edwards's forceful argument that there is no true virtue apart from love for God (while also recognizing with Edwards a certain degree of goodness that unbelievers can practice). On the other hand, the argument that greater amounts of love are due to those with greater degrees of being and that God is thus most deserving as Being in general seems to run into difficulties. Though I do not think Edwards intended a pantheistic meaning to Being in general at all, such phrasing lends to that misunderstanding. In addition, our moral obligations in Scripture do not seem to be tied to degree of being.
January 22, 2013
Arguably, Edward's most significant work.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews