Jonathan Edwards

The Other Jonathan Edwards: Selected Writings on Society, Love, and Justice

Commendation Quotes: A judicious and well-timed collection of primary sources, introduced well, which reveals for students, general readers, and interested Christian laity 'the other Jonathan Edwards, ' that is, the one whose life was dedicated to sharing the love of God, preaching social justice prophetically, and promoting peace, harmony, and the welfare of the needy in his own local communities and the eighteenth-century Anglo-American world. Biographical Note: Gerald McDermott is Jordan-Trexler Professor of Religion at Roanoke College and co-author of The Theology of Jonathan Edwards. Ronald Story is professor of history emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of Jonathan Edwards and the Gospel of Love (University of Massachusetts Press, 2012). Publisher Marketing: Widely regarded as perhaps America's greatest theologian, Jonathan Edwards still suffers the stereotype of hellfire preacher obsessed with God's wrath. In this anthology, Gerald McDermott and Ronald Story seek to correct that common view by showing that Edwards was also a compassionate, socially conscious minister of the first order. Through a selection of sermons and primary writings, McDermott and Story reveal an Edwards who preached love toward all humanity regardless of belief or appearance; who demanded private and public charity to the poor; who criticized hard-hearted business dealings as impious and socially destructive; and who condemned envy and status-seeking as anti-Christian and anti-community. This "other" Jonathan Edwards preached about grace and the love of God but also about responsive constitutional government, the iniquities of hypocrisy and corruption, and the nature of wise leadership. He acknowledged the need for national defense but left room for popular revolt from tyranny. He anticipated a millennial age of peace and prosperity and believed that people should live in the world as they would live through grace in heaven. Jonathan Edwards was, in sum, a worldly as well as spiritual reformer who resisted the materialistic, acquisitive, and individualistic currents of American culture. For these reasons, McDermott and Story think he may have lessons to teach us today.

Contributor Bio:  Edwards, Jonathan Jonathan Edwards was a Colonial New England ministerContributor Bio:  McDermott, Gerald Gerald R. McDermott is Professor of Religion at Roanoke College.