Encounters with God: An Approach to the Theology of Jonathan Edwards

207 Pages·1998·13.33 MB·English

by  Michael J. McClymond

Encounters with God
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Encounters with God
An Approach to the Theology of
Jonathan Edwards
Michael J. McClymond
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1998
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Copyright © 1998 by Michael J. McClymond
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McClymond, Michael James, 1958-
Encounters with God : an approach to the theology of Jonathan
Edwards / Michael J. McClymond.
p. cm.—(Religion in America scries)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN o-i9~5"822-7
i. Edwards, Jonathan, 1703-1758. I. Title. II. Series: Religion
in America series (Oxford University Press)
BX726o.E3M.33 1998
23o'.58'o92—dc2i 97-9358
135798642
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Preface
In one of his memorable analogies, Jonathan Edwards compared the course of
history to a "large and long river, having innumerable branches" that follow
"diverse and contrary courses" yet finally "unite at last and all come to the same
issue."1 The same image might be applied to this book. Though its chapters
originated at different times and in relative independence from one another, they
come together to form a new picture of Edwards as a religious thinker. My aim
in this book has been to delineate a new paradigm for understanding Edwards's
theology. Doctoral research introduced me to the imposing body of Edwards's
writings and the equally imposing body of secondary studies—some three thou-
sand books, articles, and stray references, as tabulated in the two-volume bibli-
ography by M. X. Lesser.2 Yet my early studies of Edwards's The Mind and End
of Creation (summarized in chapters 2 and 4) seemed a bare torso and left me
unsatisfied. I wanted to develop a picture of Edwards based on a wider scrutiny
of the texts.
During the last decade, Yale University Press has accelerated its output in the
series The Works of Jonathan Edwards, and now an extensive and rapidly growing
set of texts exists in a splendid, critical edition. Yet relatively little has been done
recently to provide a broader and better portrait of Edwards as a religious thinker.
Few scholars have attempted to make connections across Edwards's corpus, and
some of those who made the attempt have done so by reading into Edwards ideas
derived from contemporary thinkers. Generally speaking, the best recent research
is highly focused and rarely inquires into the connections between Edwards the
historian, the philosopher, the ethicist, the typologist, the preacher, and so on.
By contrast I have sought to uncover these connections, while attempting to be
scrupulously faithful to Edwards's texts in their specific literary and historical
contexts.
As I studied Edwards's writings I found my interpretations clustering around
two themes—spiritual perception and apologetics—and found that these two
could not really be discussed in isolation from one another. Edwards's conception
vi Preface
of religious experience as a form of perception was, in effect, an apology for the
Christian faith and a response to the Enlightenment's challenge to see with one's
own eyes and not rely on external authority. Conversely his apology for the Chris-
tian faith—more often implicit than explicit—amounted to a new way of seeing, an
effort to rethink intellectual traditions so that the reality and activity of God could
become visible in them and through them. To adapt and extend the river analogy,
one might say that spiritual perception is the Blue Nile and apologetics the White
Nile of Edwards's thought, two major tributaries of one river.
Perhaps this study can serve as an impetus toward rethinking the basic con-
tours of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Christian thought. Beginning with
the European Enlightenment, or more specifically the deist controversy in En-
gland, theologians of varying shades were increasingly concerned to demonstrate
the credibility of Christianity vis-a-vis the claims of reason. Christian thinkers
during the period from 1700 to 1900 might be located at either the top or the
bottom of the following diagram:
Apologetics, Response -< >- Rational Argumentation,
to Modernity Logical or Empirical
Proofs
Spiritual Perception -* *- Faith, Inwardness, or
(i.e., a spiritual way Subjectivity
of seeing the world)
Theological conservatives responded to the Enlightenment with logical and em-
pirical arguments on behalf of faith. They are represented in the top half of the
diagram. Theological romantics, represented in the bottom half, repudiated the
whole enterprise of proving Christianity. A sea change occurred in the early part
of the nineteenth century, as the latter group rejected objective and rational ar-
gumentation as a basis for defending the faith in the post-Enlightenment context.
Coleridge declared himself weary of the very phrase "evidences of Christianity,"
and insisted that people needed to "look into their own souls" and not look
without for proof of God's reality (see chapter 6). Schleiermacher in Germany,
much like Coleridge in the English-speaking world, did much to promote the
notion that religion consists in a unique spiritual perception of the world that
has little to do with empirical evidences, historical conjectures, or rational ar-
guments. On the other side of the divide, William Paley and other theological
conservatives continued the tradition of rational apologetics through the nine-
teenth and early twentieth centuries.
One of the most interesting things about Edwards is how he breaks the pat-
tern. The diagram must be redrawn to describe him:
Preface Vii
Apologetics, Response Rational Argumentation,
to Modernity Logical or Empirical
Proofs
Spiritual Perception > Faith, Inwardness, or
(i.e., a spiritual way Subjectivity
of seeing the world)
As the subsequent chapters show, Edwards formulated his notion of spiritual
perception not in distinction from rational argumentation but rather as a direct
response to the Enlightenment's challenge to provide proofs for God that were
not based on biblical texts, church traditions, or papal pronouncements. Thus
spiritual perception and rational argumentation are connected with a double-
pointed arrow. At the same time, Edwards developed an apology for Christianity
that reinterpreted metaphysics, ethics, history, and so forth, so that God's reality
became apparent in and through each of these disciplines. Even when engaged
in the most esoteric and abstract reasoning, he did not lose touch with the issue
of religious sensibility. Apologetics, in other words, was never a pen-and-paper
proof but rather an encounter with God. Thus apologetics is linked with faith or
inwardness in the diagram, and Edwards's distinctive theology emerges as a criss-
crossing of customary categories.
Acknowledgments are due to a number of individuals who were early influ-
ences and mentors. Sarah Maza set a high standard of excellence in her course
on modern European intellectual history at Northwestern University. Three oth-
ers deserve mention, representing the fields of classics, biblical studies, and phi-
losophy: Stuart Small of Northwestern University, D. A. Carson of Trinity
Evangelical Divinity School, and William Lane Craig of Talbot School of The-
ology. I got started with Edwards in a seminar taught by David Kelsey of Yale
Divinity School. My first in-depth research took place in a reading course with
W. Clark Gilpin, now Dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School. For
all-around excellence in teaching the history of Christian thought, I should men-
tion several professors at Yale University—Rowan Greer, George Lindbeck, Paul
Holmer, and the late Hans Frei—and several others at the University of Chi-
cago—Langdon Gilkey, David Tracy, Susan Schreiner, Brian Gerrish, and Bernard
McGinn. Special thanks are due to my dissertation committee members: W. Clark
Gilpin, Jerald Brauer, and Langdon Gilkey. I would particularly like to thank
Clark Gilpin for encouraging me to persist in efforts toward suitable academic
employment and a completed book manuscript.
Along with other workers in the vineyard, I owe an enormous debt to Thomas
Schafer, the dean of Edwards studies and a most helpful, accessible, and gracious
man. 1 thank him for sharing his knowledge with me so freely, and for allowing
viii Preface
me to examine his transcriptions of Edwards's Miscellanies at his house on the
north side of Chicago. It was an unlikely spot for such meetings, but whenever
I visited I was welcomed, schmoozed, feted, and further initiated into the mys-
teries of Edwardseana. To the students who enrolled in my seminar on Edwards
at Wheaton College, I send my thanks and add this wish: May they chance upon
this volume somewhere and find it an improvement on the lectures. I thank my
dear friend Charles Sikorovsky for reading the manuscript through at an early
stage, and for his many thought-provoking comments on it.
Numerous colleagues and friends at Westmont College, both inside and out-
side the Religious Studies Department, deserve to be mentioned here, especially
Bob and Lois Gundry, Jonathan Wilson, Bill Nelson, Ron Tappy (now of Pitts-
burgh Theological Seminary), Joseph Huffman (now of Messiah College), Jim
Taylor, and Warren Rogers. Westmont College granted me a summer stipend
that financed a trip to New Haven in 1991 to examine the Edwards manuscripts.
Ned Divilbiss processed an inordinate number of interlibrary loan requests over
the years, and showed as much interest and enthusiasm in my research as any of
my colleagues. I thank Stephen Crocco of Princeton Theological Seminary for
several helpful conversations, Wilson Kimnach of the University of Bridgeport
for encouragement and counsel in seeking a publisher, and Stephen Stein of
Indiana University for giving me the opportunity to present a paper at the 1994
conference in Bloomington. Harry Stout of Yale University, along with Ken Min-
kema and Doug Sweeney, deserve thanks for hosting me in New Haven in 1996
and for enlightening me regarding The Works of Jonathan Edwards.
Acknowledgments are due to Scottish Academic Press, Walter de Gruyter, and
the University of Chicago Press for granting permission to reprint articles that
appeared in the periodicals Scottish Journal of Theology, Zeitschrift fur neuere Theo-
logiegeschichte I Journal for the History of Modern Theology, and The Journal of
Religion. I especially thank Dick Crouter of Carleton College, editor of ZNThG/
JHMT, for publishing my essay on Edwards's End of Creation. Appreciation goes
to Barbara Holdrege of the University of California, Santa Barbara, for her col-
legiality and encouragement. Special thanks are due to Vicki Sullivan in Florida,
or wherever she is, for taking Sarah to the beach or park almost daily in the
summer of 1995, while I was transfixed at my word processor. I wish to acknowl-
edge and thank Kathryn for her friendship and support during our years together
and especially during my doctoral study.
Encounters With God is affectionately dedicated to my parents, James and Janet
McClymond, and to my daughter, Sarah.
San Diego, Californa M.J.M.
January 1998
Contents
List of Abbreviations xi
INTRODUCTION: Edwards as an "Artful Theologian" 3
i. APPREHENSION: Spiritual Perception in Jonathan Edwards 9
2 SPECULATION: The Theocentric Metaphysics of The Mind 27
3. CONTEMPLATION: The Spirituality of the Personal Narrative
and Diary 37
4. VALUATION: Ethics and Divinity in End of Creation 50
5. NARRATION: Drama and Discernment in History of Redemption 65
6. PERSUASION: Edwards as a Christian Apologist 80
CONCLUSION: The Religious Outlook in Edwards 107
Notes 113
Bibliography 161
Index 177