The Great Work of Providence

Jonathan Edwards for Life Today

Rachel S. Stahle

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9781606084823
  9781498211307
• eBook ISBN:
  9781630874483
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

Even though Jonathan Edwards is arguably America's greatest theologian, the content and value of his work remains a mystery to most. Stahle systematizes and summarizes Edwards's biblically grounded thought in contemporary language and makes Edwards accessible to pastors, students, and church study groups. Edwards's conceptions of the Trinity are explained in detail and shown to be the basis for the rest of his theology, including his ideas about sin, salvation, holiness, the purpose of history, Scripture, revivals of religion, heaven and hell, and the church. Reflection and study questions are provided to enrich comprehension and demonstrate the relevance of Edwards's theology for contemporary life. The wealth of this Puritan's personal piety and intellectual brilliance is no longer beyond the reach of twenty-first century Christians.

1

The Trinitarian God, through Edwards’s Eyes

First Things First: Why Jonathan Edwards?

Recently I preached at a local church in place of a vacationing pastor and afterward was treated to lunch by two elders at a delightful mom-and-pop restaurant. I did not know them very well, so we spent a good amount of time asking and answering basic “get-to-know-you” questions. These ladies were generally aware of my background, but were curious about the topic of my doctoral dissertation. “Why did you pick Jonathan Edwards?” Good question.

I came to faith in Jesus Christ as a college sophomore and immediately had questions about . . . well, everything related to God, the Bible, and my conversion experience, which I quickly learned had been unusual. One of my college professors, Dr. Andy Hoffecker, suggested that I read Edwards’s writings about conversion and revival—and the rest, as the cliché goes, is history.1 I did not spend every waking moment reading Edwards, but kept returning to him from time to time on various topics as they arose during my maturation in faith. While I certainly studied other pastors and theologians, Edwards spoke to me in a way no one else did. My interest in his thoughts about revival was further piqued as my college joined others in experiencing widespread spiritual renewal. That interest in turn yielded my seminary master’s thesis about Edwards’s revival theology.

So doing a dissertation about Edwards may seem to some a quirky choice for a late twentieth-century female Presbyterian. But the ladies I enjoyed lunch with that Sunday came to see that this work has never been merely an intellectual curiosity, but a deeply personal venture to understand God and myself. Contrary to what many assume, what Edwards believed and had to say is profoundly relevant to Christians today—and that is why I revised and updated my doctoral dissertation to present this book to you. My hope is not just that you understand what Edwards believed and appreciate his brilliance. My desire is not just that you are moved by his intentionally biblical portrait of God, a grand God who is utterly lovely and beautiful. My hope above all is that this work will either stir you to new faith in Jesus Christ, or bring greater depth to the faith you have already been blessed with. Whatever the case, I know you will be challenged to evaluate what you believe, and why.

But really—how relevant can an eighteenth-century pastor-theologian, and a male WASP no less, possibly be for us today? I have had numerous friends tell me that they have tried to study Edwards and other Christian thinkers of his ilk. Their earnest attempts quickly turned to frustration and perplexity when they picked up the Puritan’s writings only to find that they are penned in archaic language comprising marathon sentences, and marathon paragraphs, with marathon lists of supporting Scripture passages . . . and it’s sometimes too much for even the most sincere student of religion or seeker of Truth.2

So what I have endeavored to do is to eliminate for you the foreignness of Jonathan Edwards’s language and writing style while bringing you to the heart of his ideas. For me his ideas, and indeed his entire theological system, have their own beauty—yes, ideas and theology can be beautiful in their symmetry, their faithfulness to Scripture, how well they honor God, and essentially how close they come to bringing us all to Truth. You may not agree with or understand everything you are about to read. But I assure you that in the end, you will have had an astounding new world opened for you—a world that is held gently and loved by God, all seen through Jonathan Edwards’s eyes.

“The Contemplation of Supreme Things”

On October 31, 1723, Jonathan Edwards composed a letter to Judge Paul Dudley that captured his reflections on “the wondrous and curious works of the spider.”3 Later dubbed the “Spider Letter,” it eventually became one of Edwards’s more famous writings chiefly because it demonstrates his ability to make meticulous observations about the world around him and derive from them principles about nature’s laws. In his comments we see the keen intellect of a thoughtful young scholar who at the age of twenty-three still possessed a child-like wonder at the most minuscule of life’s matters. We see the patience of an amateur scientist who must have spent hours watching his subjects being blown from limb to branch, spinning their webs “with that wonderful liquor with which their bottle tail is filled, that may so easily be drawn out so exceeding fine.”4 We may even muse at his being “very conversant” with these flying spiders, “these wondrous animals” many of us would rather avoid or squish than spend our time considering.5

Above all, we observe that in the “Spider Letter” Edwards is an avid seeker of God. He saw in all of history and nature the wisdom and goodness of the Creator in providing “for all the necessities, but also for the pleasure and recreation of all sorts of creatures, even the insects.”6 Edwards’s God is one who is intimately involved in every conceivable detail of existence down to the function and particles of the atoms, and who has designed and purposed all of reality for his own glory through the manifestation of his loving character.7

So the value of the “Spider Letter” for our purposes goes beyond its descriptions of biology, and even further beyond Edwards’s impressions of the work of God in t...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: The Trinitarian God, through Edwards’s Eyes
• Chapter 2: The Trinity Revealed through Creation
• Chapter 3: God’s Solution to the Problem of Sin
• Chapter 4: Personal Experience of God
• Chapter 5: The Religious Experience of Christ’s Church
• Chapter 6: Spiritual Renewal of the Church
• Chapter 7: The End of the World, and Beyond
• Chapter 8: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God?
• Bibliography