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The Quest for the Spiritual Sense: The Biblical Hermeneutics of Jonathan Edwards

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Stephen J. Stein
Stephen J. Stein
Affiliation:
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47401
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Extract

It is an irony and something of an enigma that the Bible, one of the shaping forces in the theological development of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), has largely been ignored in the assessments of this colonial divine. Edwards himself acknowledged its influence, especially during his youthful years. “I had then,” he wrote, “and at other times, the greatest delight in the holy Scriptures, of any book whatsoever.” From his meditation on its pages he derived great personal pleasure as well as guidance and substance for his preaching. His enthusiasm for scriptural study never failed. Six months before his death he disclosed to the trustees of the College of New Jersey that he had undertaken two major exegetical projects with the hope of publishing “an explanation of a very great part of the holy scripture; which may…lead the mind to a view of the true spirit, design, life and soul of the scripture, as well as to their proper use and improvement.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 70 , Issue 1-2 , April 1977 , pp. 99 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1977

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References

* The author wishes to thank the National Endowment for the Humanities for a fellowship in 1974-1975 which made possible the research for this essay. An earlier version was read at the annual meeting of the American Society of Church History at Atlanta in December 1975.

1 Jonathan Edwards's “Personal Narrative” in Samuel Hopkins, The Life and Character of the Late Reverend Mr. Jonathan Edwards (Boston: Kneeland, 1765), reprinted in Levin, David, ed., Jonathan Edwards: A Profile (New York: Hill & Wang, 1969) 32.Google Scholar

2 Letter of Oct. 19, 1757 (Levin, Edwards, 77).

3 Levin, Edwards, 40–41. See also p. 82 for additional comments on Edwards's biblical interests.

4 Dwight, Sereno E., ed., The Works of President Edwards: With a Memoir of His Life (10 vols.; New York: Converse, 1829–1830) 1. 58.Google Scholar

5 See ibid., 9. 113–563.

6 Miller, Perry, “Jonathan Edwards on the Sense of the Heart,” HTR 41 (1948) 123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Much of the literature published in the last twenty-five years has taken its lead from Miller, Perry (Jonathan Edwards [New York: Sloane, 1949])Google Scholar who reflects little interest in the biblical influences upon Edwards. Turnbull, Ralph G. (Jonathan Edwards, The Preacher [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1958])Google Scholar discusses the subject but lacks critical distance. The same is true of the more recent volume by Simonson, Harold, Jonathan Edwards: Theologian of the Heart (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974).Google Scholar The best statement on the Bible in Edwards's thought is Cherry, Conrad, “Word and Spirit” (The Theology of Jonathan Edwards: A Reappraisal [Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1966] 44–55).Google Scholar Cherry approaches Edwards as an heir of and spokesman for the Calvinist tradition. William A. Clebsch hints at the significance of the Bible in his recent study on Edwards, (American Religious Thought: A History [Chicago: University of Chicago, 1973] 11–56).Google Scholar Perry Miller did display an interest in Edwards's use of images; see the introduction to his edition of Images or Shadows of Divine Things by Jonathan Edwards (New Haven: Yale University, 1948)Google Scholar; see also the essay by Lowance, Mason I. Jr,, “'Images or Shadows of Divine Things' in the Thought of Jonathan Edwards,” Typology and Early American Literature (ed. Bercovitch, Sacvan; Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1972) 209–44.Google Scholar

8 Theological Miscellanies” (Manuscripts, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library: Yale University, New Haven) no. 160. Hereafter this series is cited as “Miscellanies,” and individual entries are identified by number, not page. The texts of the “Miscellanies” quoted in this essay are from typescripts prepared by Thomas A. Schafer of McCormick Theological Seminary, an editor on the Yale edition of The Works of Jonathan Edwards. Here and elsewhere in this article, manuscript citations have been edited by the author in accordance with the general editorial principles of the Yale edition.

9 E.g., see “Miscellanies,” 127, 181, 358, 359, 514, 582, 979, 1170, 1126, 1239, 1304, and others including some cited below.

10 “Miscellanies,” 129.

11 Ibid., 350.

12 Ibid., 1297.

13 Ibid., 350.

14 Ibid., 837. Edwards probably intended to publish his reflections on the nature of revelation in his contemplated “Rational Account of Christianity.” See his outline of the proposed “Rational Account” (Manuscript, Beinecke Library).

15 Edwards, Jonathan, Religious Affections, ed. Smith, John E., The Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven: Yale University, 1959), 2. 287Google Scholar; see also 266–70.

16 Ibid., 143.

17 Ibid., 144–45.

18 See my essays, “A Notebook on the Apocalypse by Jonathan Edwards,” The William and Mary Quarterly 3rd ser., 29 (1972) 623–34Google Scholar; and “Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards on the Number of the Beast: Eighteenth-Century Speculation about the Antichrist,” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 84 (1975) 293–315.Google Scholar The text of Edwards's “Notes on the Apocalypse” (Manuscript, Beinecke Library) is available in Apocalyptic Writings, ed. Stein, Stephen J., The Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven: Yale University, 1977), 5. 95–305.Google Scholar Below “Notes on the Apocalypse” is cited as “Apocalypse.”

19 See Edwards's discussion of Revelation 13 in “Apocalypse,” 110–13.

20 “Miscellanies,” 61.

21 Ibid., 72.

22 See Edwards's discussion of Revelation 16 in “Apocalypse,” 115–18.

23 “Miscellanies,” 535.

24 Dwight, Works, 1. 70.

25 “Notes on Scripture” (Manuscripts, Beinecke Library) was published as described above; see n. 5. A small number of the entries in the “Blank Bible” (Manuscript, Beinecke Library) were published in the limited edition by Grosart, Alexander B. (Selections from the Unpublished Writings of Jonathan Edwards, of America [Edinburgh: Ballantyne, 1865]).Google Scholar

26 See the “Catalogue” (Manuscript, Beinecke Library), compiled throughout Edwards's lifetime, for examples.

27 “Letter of Oct. 19, 1757 (Levin, Edwards, 76–77). Edwards's project must be distinguished from the series of sermons on the work of redemption delivered in 1739 and published posthumously (A History of the Work of Redemption [ed. John Erskine; Edinburgh: Gray, 1774]).

28 Letter of Oct. 19, 1757 (Levin, Edwards, 11).

29 The Marrow of Theology (trans. & ed. Eusden, John D.; Boston: Pilgrim, 1968) 188.Google Scholar For a traditional view of the Reformation hermeneutic, see Farrar, Frederic W. (History of Interpretation [New York: Dutton, 1886] 307–54),Google Scholar and Hans W. Frei for an insightful discussion of “Precritical Interpretation” (The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative: A Study in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Hermeneutics [New Haven: Yale University, 1974] 17–50).Google Scholar

30 “Blank Bible,” 826.

31 Ibid., 162.

32 “Miscellanies,” 863.

33 “The Importance and Advantage of a Thorough Knowledge of Divine Truth,” The Works of President Edwards (4 vols.; New York: Leavitt, 1849)4.3, 14.Google Scholar Cited below as Worcester reprint.

34 Ibid., 4.

35 Edwards's “Personal Narrative,” Levin, Edwards, 36.

36 Smith, Works, 2. 271.

37 Ibid., 280–81.

38 Worcester reprint, 4. 4; and Smith, Works, 2. 275. See “Miscellanies,” 782, published by Perry Miller in the essay cited above, n. 6.

39 “Miscellanies,” 204.

40 Ibid., 408.

41 Edwards's “Personal Narrative,” Levin, Edwards, 32.

42 “Blank Bible,” 95.

43 Ibid., 721.

44 Ibid., 459.

45 Ibid., 296.

46 “Miscellanies,” 119.

47 Ibid., 691.

48 Ibid., 362.

49 “Blank Bible,” 71.

50 “Miscellanies,” 1139.

51 “Blank Bible,” 256.

52 Religious Affections, ed. Smith, Works, 2. 278.

53 “Miscellanies,” 851. For an illustration of the multiple meaning found in Scripture by Edwards, see my article “Jonathan Edwards and the Rainbow: Biblical Exegesis and Poetic Imagination,” The New England Quarterly 47 (1974) 440–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar