Sin and Evil in Jonathan Edwards’s Theology
The Oxford Handbook of Jonathan Edwards* has recently been published, a project headed by Douglas A. Sweeney and Jan Stievermann, the coeditors of the book. This volume provides a valuable foray into Edwards studies by an array of scholars, including George Marsden, Kenneth Minkema, Michael McClymond—and that’s just the contributors from the M category.
I had the privilege of participating in this project by writing the essay on sin and evil in Edwards’s theology. Here’s a snippet of the beginning of the chapter:
“There is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any one moment, out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God” (WJE22:405). This doctrine comes from Jonathan Edwards’s (1703–58) most famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. With its intense, frightening imagery of the moment before an individual enters into eternity, this sermon captures many key themes in Edwards’s doctrine on sin and evil—God’s just wrath against sin, God’s sovereignty over all creatures, the precarious state of sinners in their sin, the dread of punishment that awaits unrepentant sinners, and the hope of new life in Christ.
Sinners also highlights one of the main contexts where Edwards declared his doctrine: from the pulpit. This New England preacher developed his doctrine of sin and evil in his theological and exegetical notebooks, with entries on original sin as early as 1729 (Guelzo, 54), and his decades of reflecting on sin and evil culminated in his treatise Original Sin, which he completed before his death in March 1758 and which was published later that year. These varying contexts illuminate Edwards’s world and the people he engaged with on the topic of sin and evil. Edwards was a preacher who proclaimed this doctrine for the eternal benefit and spiritual arousal of his people. He was a pastor who sought to encourage and counsel troubled parishioners. He was a philosopher who wrestled with exegetical knots and theological conundrums as he engaged in the eighteenth century’s intellectual shifts. This essay seeks to understand what Edwards believed about sin and evil, why he held to these convictions, and how his context shaped this doctrine in his mind.
My chapter appears in part 2 of the book, one of four parts, with the following breakdown of topics:
Part 1: Edwards’s Background, Sources, and Context
Chapter 1: Family Life, by Ava Chamberlain
Chapter 2: Parish Ministry, by Harry S. Stout
Chapter 3: Historical and Ecclesiastical Contexts, by George Marsden
Chapter 4: Edwards in the Context of International Revivals and Missions, by David W. Kling
Chapter 5: Sources of Edwards’s Thought, by Peter J. Thuesen
Part 2: Edwards’s Intellectual Labours
Chapter 6: Ontology, by William J. Wainwright
Chapter 7: Epistemology, by Paul Helm
Chapter 8: The Nature of God and the Trinity, by Kyle C. Strobel
Chapter 9: The Person of Christ, by S. Mark Hamilton
Chapter 10: Pneumatology, by Robert W. Caldwell III
Chapter 11: Revelation, by Stephen R. C. Nichols
Chapter 12: Federalism and Reformed Scholasticism, by Willem van Vlastuin
Chapter 13: Creation and Predestination, by Phillip Hussey and Michael McClymond
Chapter 14: History, Providence, and Eschatology, by Jan Stievermann
Chapter 15: Sin and Evil, by David P. Barshinger
Chapter 16: Anthropology, Affections, and Free Will, by Seng-Kong Tan
Chapter 17: Ecclesiology and Sacraments, by Rhys Bezzant
Chapter 18: Ethics, by Elizabeth Agnew Cochran
Chapter 19: Aesthetics, by William Dyrness and Christi Wells
Chapter 20: Imagination and Hermeneutics, by Kathryn Reklis
Chapter 21: The Natural Sciences and Philosophy of Nature, by Avihu Zakai
Chapter 22: Idealism and Aetiology, by Sebastian Rehnman
Part 3: Edwards’s Religious and Social Practices
Chapter 23: Spirituality and Devotion, by Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe
Chapter 24: Biblical Exegesis, by Robert E. Brown
Chapter 25: Writing and Preaching Sermons, by Kenneth P. Minkema
Chapter 26: Education, by Esmari Potgieter
Chapter 27: Missions, by John A. Grigg
Chapter 28: Ministry to the Bound and Enslaved, by John Saillant
Chapter 29: Politics and Economics, by Mark Valeri
Part 4: Edwards’s Global Reception
Chapter 30: North America, by James P. Byrd
Chapter 31: Britain and Europe, by Jonathan Yeager
Chapter 32: Edwards’s Place and Importance in Anglo-American Literature, by Sandra M. Gustafson
Chapter 33: Asia, by Dongsoo Han
Chapter 34: Australia, by Stuart Piggin
Chapter 35: Africa, by Adriaan C. Neele
Chapter 36: Latin America, by Heber Carlos de Campos, Jr.
Chapter 37: Edwards Studies Today, by Douglas A. Sweeney
For those interested in digging deeply into specific aspects of Edwards or for finding out the current state of Edwards studies, The Oxford Handbook of Jonathan Edwards* offers a storehouse of information.