Editor’s Note: This continues Rev. Dr. Phil Corr’s contributions on the Life of Jonathan Edwards, America’s first theologian and - by many estimates - still the best. As people in the United Church of Christ discern their future, it may be wise to return to one of the UCC’s unheralded “firsts” - the theological thought of Jonathan Edwards to draw strength, find a renewed identity as reformation Christians, and, most importantly renew our identities as those who delight ourselves through worship and service in the perfections of the Triune God in whom Jonathan Edwards delights .
By Phil Corr (c) 2007
Jonathan Edwards was not an ivory tower theologian. Instead, he was in the trenches, serving God by serving people. He certainly had orthodoxy (right belief). He also engaged in “orthopraxy” (right action). Both in a regular pastorate and on the colonial frontier, Edwards both proclaimed God’s truth and wrote about its working out in the lives of humanity and the world of the intellect.
God used his servant Jonathan Edwards to not only be a participant in what has come to be called “The Great Awakening”; he also used him to be a chronicler and an interpreter of this massive movement of God’s Holy Spirit.
There had been a localized precusor during the early part of the 1730’s. Then in 1738, God poured out His Holy Spirit upon Edwards and his Northampton congregation. Edwards was not a spectacular preacher in his delivery. As a matter of fact, he lamented being chained to his handwritten notes that he held up close to his near-sighted eyes.
Nevertheless, God granted a season of revival in Massachusetts, the colonies, in Great Britain and other places around the world. There were many critics and skeptics. So God raised up Jonathan Edwards to faithfully report and identify what were true workings of God’s Spirit and what were spiritual counterfeits.
Edwards shows his keen observational ability as he combines orthodoxy and orthopraxy in recognizing the Great Awakening as a laboratory displaying a glorious theological truth. As C. G. Coen relates on page 19 of his critical introduction to Edwards A Surprising Work of God (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Yale Press, volume 4, “ ‘The beginning of the late work of God in this place… was so circumstanced that I could not but look upon it as a remarkable testimony of God’s approbation of the doctrine of justification by faith alone.’”
His combination of the theoretical and experiential is found in the titles of his writings concerning the Great Awakening. The first one has to do with the “smaller” awakening: A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls…
After the Great Awakening, Edwards wrote The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God. Applied to that uncommon Operation that has lately appeared on the Minds of many of the People of this Land: With a particular Consideration of the extraordinary Circumstances with which this Work is attended. You have to love those 18th century titles that tell us so much!
Next comes Some Thoughts Concerning the present Revival of Religion in New England, And the Way in which it ought to be acknowledged and promoted, Humbly offered to the Public, in a Treaties on that Subject. In Five Parts; Part I. Showing that the Work that has of late been going on in this Land, is a glorious Work of GOD. Part II. Showing the Obligations that all are under, to acknowledge, rejoice in and promote this Work, and the great Danger of the contrary. Part III. Showing in man instances, wherein the subjects, or zealous promoters, of this Work have been injuriously blamed. Part IV. Showing what things are to be corrected or avoided, in promoting this work, or in our behavior under it. Part V. Showing positively what ought to be done to promote this work.
After leaving Northampton, Jonathan Edwards served on the western frontier of Massachusetts. During that time he again combined orthodoxy with orthopraxy. He served two congregations: British colonial settlers and Native Americans. Edwards served both assiduously and fairly, giving both his most thorough attention.
And yet, during his time in Stockbridge, he found time to write major treatises. Marsden writes in his biography that Edwards’ “heart was most often in his work as a writer.” Marsden writes a little later that for Edwards, “studying was another kind of worship.”
With regard to one treatise, Marsden writes that “Edwards’ full title summarizes the position he was refuting as a keystone of modern thought: A Careful and Strict Enquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of That Freedom of Will, Which is Supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency, Virtue and Vice, Reward and Punishment, Praise and Blame. A natural follow up to that treatise was The Great Christian Doctrine of Original Sin.
The above matters only scratch the surface of Edwards’ study and writing on many topics. But the point of this essay is that Edwards was not an either/or. Instead, he was a both/and. He practiced what he preached. He lived what he taught. May we do the same!
Phil Corr’s work on the web can be seen at: haystack06.org and fccofcc.com
