America's Theologian: A Recommendation of Jonathan Edwards

by Robert W. Jenson

A great deal has recently been written about Jonathan Edwards. Most of it, however, does not make central Edwards's own intention to speak truth about God and the human situation; his systematic theological intention is regarded merely as an historical phenomenon. In this book, Robert Jenson provides a different sort of interpretation, asking not only, "Why was Edwards great?" but also, "Was Edwards right?" As a student of the ideas of Newton and Locke, Jenson argues, Edwards was very much a figure of the Enlightenment; but unlike most other Americans, he was also a discerning critic of it, and was able to use Enlightenment thought in his theology without yielding to its mechanistic and individualistic tendencies. Alone among Christian thinkers of the Enlightenment, Edwards conceived an authentically Christian piety and a creative theology not in spite of Newton and Locke but by virtue of them. Jenson sees Edwards's understanding as a radical corrective to what commitment to
the Enlightenment brought about in American life, religious and otherwise. Perhaps, Jenson proposes, recovery of Edwards's vision might make the mutual determination of American culture and American Christianity more fruitful than it has yet been.

Genres: Theology, Biography

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Robert W. Jenson was a student of Barth's theology for many years, and his doctoral dissertation at the University of Heidelberg earned Barth’s approval as an interpretation of his writings. A native of Wisconsin, Dr. Jenson attended Luther College in Iowa and Luther Theological Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, before studying at Heidelberg where he was awarded his Doctor of Theology, summa cum laude. After doing graduate work at the University of Basel he returned to the United States. He taught theology for many years at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg and St. Olaf College. Dr. Jenson also served as Senior Scholar for Research at the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, NJ. He died in 2017.

Reviews

[James Horgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This intriguing but complex work is as much a treatise in philosophy as it is in theology. The author was a Lutheran but is sympathetic to the Reformed theology of Edwards. That said, there are points where Edwards seems recast as the proto-Barth or proto-Pannenberg. These readings seem anachronistic as it is unlikely Edwards would have approved of the theologies of either of these men.

The work is systematically structured around topics in Edwards' theology. Each chapter is broken into short sections and concludes, helpfully, with reflections on how Edwards speaks into contemporary American church life and society.

Some of Edwards' writings are themselves philosophical and complex and there is no getting away from the challenges this produces when we seek to understand them. For the most part Jenson is helpful in explaining the influences on Edwards and how he differed from them, though there are a few occasions when the argument was lost on me.

A useful read, though perhaps 'America's Puritan Philosopher' would have been a more honest title.

[Gerald Greene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting quotes:

page 10 75% of population of American colonies were puritan background
page 56 in 1660 2nd generation of Puritan believers were marginal members
page 101 in "Sinners In the Hands of an Angry God" he states that God is arbitrary.
page 145 Original sin is defined as a "propensity."