The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University
Cotton Mather, one of the leading intellectuals of colonial America, has often been overshadowed by his younger Puritan contemporary, Jonathan Edwards. Now, however, the publication of this first edition of Mather's magnum opus in the area of biblical knowledge focuses fresh attention on early New England's second most prodigious intellect. Mather's commentary takes the form of questions and answers on the whole biblical canon. The edition, prepared by an international team of experts in early American studies, will consist of ten volumes published over the course of a decade. This first volume introduces the project and offers Mather's comments on Genesis. This work will be treasured by students of American church history, colonial-era Puritanism, Christian responses to the Enlightenment, American intellectual development, and the history of biblical interpretation. It is a must-have acquisition for research libraries covering these disciplines.
"From these entries emerges a Mather of erudite learning, immersion in the Scriptures, and deep piety. This edition will be of great use to scholars and specialists, pastors and lay readers alike."--Harry S. Stout, Yale University
For additional information: Biblia Americana
New Book
Hall. Richard A.S., ed. The Contribution of Jonathan Edwards to American Culture and Society: Essays on America’s Spiritual Founding Father. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2008. Pp. xi + 355 + Appendixes.
To borrow a line from Annie Dillard, “the flood of fire” of the tercentenary obervations of Edwards’ birth has abated, but we are “still spending the power.” Not entirely abated. Witness the new volume that brings together resources from events held at First Churches in Northampton in that very busy year. From the conference, we have eighteen papers on a wide variety of topics, touching on, among other things, Edwards as a political philosopher and as an interpreter of nature, his place in American philosophy, and in transatlantic metaphyics and and theology. If volumes commemorating the bicentenary of Edwards’ birth, not to mention Edwards family reunions in the nineteenth century, were characterized by the addition of poetry (of questionable quality, alas), this volume is characterized by the addition of fascinating musical scores composed and performed for the tercentenary—fitting, given Edwards’ emphasis on music and aesthetics. Four different pieces, classical and jazz, are presented here. The volume concludes with the program of a conference on “Edwards and the Environment” from 2007, the proceedings of which we hope to see published, as well as a gallery of images from the 2003 gathering.
We are pleased to announce the publication on August 25, 2009 of the volumes 1, 2, and 4 of The Works of Jonathan Edwards by Yale University Press
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Three Volumes of The Works of Jonathan Edwards to be Published in a New Modern Paperback Edition
by Yale University Press
“The Jonathan Edwards Project is the first of its
kind—a comprehensive, exhaustive effort to produce an online archive of all of
Edwards’ sermons, treatises, letters and musings to serve the needs of anyone
who cares to know the man. To date, no other university or institute has
attempted to transcribe, computerize and then post online the complete works of
any one historical figure. . . . Though he may never attain the rock-star
status of George Washington,
with the Yale project, Edwards will live forever.”
—Adrian Brune, Hartford Courant
New Haven — Yale University Press is pleased
to announce the publication on August 25, 2009 of volumes 1, 2, and 4 of The
Works of Jonathan Edwards in a modern paperback edition for the first time.
Ken Minkema, Executive Editor of The Works of
Jonathan Edwards and Director of the Jonathan
Edwards Center at Yale University says, “The reprinting of these key volumes of The
Works of Jonathan Edwards in paperback will prove a real boon to the growing readership
of Edwards around the world.”
Jonathan
Edwards (1703-1758), pastor, revivalist, Christian philosopher, missionary, and
college president, is widely regarded as North America’s greatest
theologian. These early volumes
contain Edwards’s Inquiry on the Freedom of the Will, A Treatise Concerning
Religious Affections,
and his revival tracts including A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work
of God, Distinguishing Marks of the Work of the Spirit of God, and Some Thoughts
Concerning the Revival, along with classic introductions by Paul Ramsey, John E.
Smith, and C.C. Goen. Among the best-selling volumes of the Yale Edwards
Edition, and presenting many of Edwards’s most important and enduring
treatises, these new paperback versions will make Edwards affordable and
accessible to the many sorts of readers who continue to consult and study “America’s
Theologian.”
About
The Works of Jonathan Edwards Series:
The Works of Jonathan Edwards was initially conceived by renowned literary historian Perry Miller in
1953. Its aim was to publish a modern critical edition of Edwards’ published
and unpublished works, issued in book form by Yale University Press. Twenty-six
volumes, along with A Jonathan Edwards Reader (1995) and The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader (1999), have been released.
The Yale Edition of The Works of Jonathan Edwards occupies a special place in the larger world of American
scholarship. Over the past several decades it has emerged as the single most
sustained, scholarly, editorial undertaking in the United States alongside the
Founding Fathers papers projects. It is the only one of its scope in the field
of American religious history.
The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale is pleased to announce JE Centers in Africa, Australia and Poland.Strategic partnerships have been established with the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, Ridley Melbourne Mission & Ministry College, Melbourne, Australia and the Evangelical School of Theology, Wroclaw, Poland.
The establishment of these JE Centers is a significant expansion of Edwards scholarship and will serve widely both academia and the church. In recent years, a rapidly growing interest in Edwards as theologian has brought the man and his writings onto the world stage, pressing beyond the popular and more parochial image of Edwards primarily as American preacher and American historic figure. Increasingly, his writings are being consulted by religious leaders, pastors, and churches around the world, spurred by a growing recognition of the fervency and universality of the Edwards message and the acumen with which he appraised religious experience.
This interest in Edwards globally has been fuelled in part by the work of the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University, whose sole mission is to support inquiry into the life, writings, and legacy of Jonathan Edwards by providing resources that encourage critical appraisal of the historical importance and contemporary relevance of America’s premier theologian.
For local contact at the JE Center Africa, Australia and Poland, please vist our page International Centers.
The staff of the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University will present a week-long summer course examining the life, thought, and legacies of Jonathan Edwards, one of the great theologians in the Christian tradition and one of the most significant figures in American religious history.
The classroom portion of the course will feature lectures and discussions of common readings. There will be ample time allowed for questions and dialogue. Common readings will include selections from printed collections of Edwards’s writings and secondary sources. Also, the course will be integrated with the use of materials located in The Works of Jonathan Edwards Online.
Special features of the course will be a viewing of Edwards’s manuscripts at Yale’s Beinecke Library, and a day-long tour of sites in the Connecticut River Valley relating to Edwards and the Great Awakening. These sites include East Windsor (Edwards’s birthplace) and Enfield, Connecticut (where he preached Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God), and Northampton and Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the towns where he ministered for most of his career.
Readings
John Smith et al., eds., A Jonathan Edwards Reader
Douglas Sweeney and Allen Guelzo, eds., The New England Theology: From Edwards to Edwards Amasa Park
Participants can also utilize the Jonathan Edwards Center’s free website, edwards.yale.edu.
Schedule
Monday, 9-11:30
The Post-Reformation Era, Puritanism, and the Young Edwards
JE Reader, “Spider Letter,” “Of Being,” “Beauty of the World,” “The Mind,” “Diary,” “Resolutions,” “Apostrophe to Sarah Pierpont”
Online: A Biographical Sketch.
Tuesday, 9-11:30
Edwards the Theologian
JE Reader, “A History of the Work of Redemption,” “Freedom of the Will,” “Original Sin,” “Nature of True Virtue”
Online: Edwards as Theologian.
Wednesday, 9-11:30 a.m
The Great Awakening
JE Reader, “Faithful Narrative,” “Religious Affections,” “Personal Narrative”
Online: JEC Exhibit, “Billy Graham Preaches ‘Sinners."
1:30-3:00 p.m.
Edwards’s Manuscripts at Beinecke Library
Thursday, 9-11:30
Edwards’s American and Global Legacies
Douglas Sweeney and Allen Guelzo, eds., The New England Theology: From Edwards to Edwards Amasa Park (divide readings among class)
Online: Edwards’s Legacies.
Friday, 8-4
A Tour of Edwards and Great Awakening Sites.
For inquiries: please contact edwards@yale.edu
For registration: see Summer Course Information
Jonathan Edwards Classic Studies Series: Carl W. Bogue, Jonathan Edwards and the Covenant of Grace (Eugene:Wipf&Stock, 2009)
Twentieth century discussions of Edwards' covenant theology frequently named a tension in the purity of Edwards' Calvinism. Was his insistent teaching on the covenant of grace suggestive of incipient Arminianism, or was Perry Miller correct in asserting that Edwards rejected the covenant, with its abridging of God's freedom, by his categorical insistence on God's absolute sovereignty in salvation?
Bogue explores the breadth of Edwards' writing, including many unpublished manuscripts, and interacts with a broad spectrum of secondary works to demonstrate conclusively that Calvinism and the covenant of grace are entirely consistent and do not exclude one another. The covenant of grace is not a device of man acting autonomously; it is a provision of the eternal, sovereign, electing God. As set forth by Edwards, it is simply the way the sovereign God has committed Himself to carry out what He has decreed from all eternity pertaining to the redemption of sinners.
As part of the Scottish Homecoming year, the University of Glasgow is hosting a conference on the relationship between Jonathan Edwards, the colonial American theologian, and Scotland in the eighteenth and ninetheenth centuries, focussing on Edwards' involvement with Scottish revivalists, the Scottish phase of the Enlightenment, international missions, and related topics, as well as Edwards' legacy in Scotland. Organized with the assistance of the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University, this gathering aims to lead to a renewed appreciation of the fascinating and lasting association of Edwards and Scotland. For further particulars on the schedule of the conference and a listing of speakers and topics, please visit the link Jonathan Edwards Conference Scotland.
This collection of essays offers an introduction to Edwards's life and thought, pitched at the level of the educated general reader. Each chapter serves as a general introduction to one of Edwards's major topics, including revival, the Bible, beauty, literature, philosophy, typology, and even world religions. Each is written by a leading expert on Edwards's work. The book will serve as an ideal first encounter with the thought of "America's theologian."
Well then today is your lucky day! although some industrious souls have gone to great lengths to create their own version of Jonathan Edwards's Blank Bible (see here), the day has arrived where someone has done the work for you.
Zondervan has just announced the Noteworthy Collection of NIV and TNIV bibles, sporting blank right-hand pages after every left-hand page of text.
