A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards (Library of Religious Biography (LRB)) - Softcover

Marsden, George M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802802206 ISBN 13: 9780802802200

Publisher: Eerdmans, 2008

Synopsis

Jonathan Edwards is one of the most extraordinary figures in American history. Arguably the most brilliant theologian ever born on American soil, Edwards (1703–1758) was also a pastor, a renowned preacher, a missionary to the Native Americans, a biographer, a college president, a philosopher, a loving husband, and the father of eleven children.

George M. Marsden -- widely acclaimed for his magisterial large study of Edwards -- has now written a new, shorter biography of this many-sided, remarkable man. A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards is not an abridgment of Marsden's earlier award-winning study but is instead a completely new narrative based on his extensive research. The result is a concise, fresh retelling of the Edwards story, rich in scholarship yet compelling and readable for a much wider audience, including students.

Known best for his famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards is often viewed as a proponent of fire, brimstone, and the wrath of God. As Marsden shows, however, the focus of Edwards's preaching was not God's wrath but rather his overwhelming and all-encompassing love. Marsden also rescues Edwards from the high realms of intellectual history, revealing him more comprehensively through the lens of his everyday life and interactions. Further, Marsden shows how Edwards provides a window on the fascinating and often dangerous world of the American colonies in the decades before the American Revolution.

Marsden here gives us an Edwards who illumines both American history and Christian theology, an Edwards that will appeal to readers with little or no training in either field. This short life will contribute significantly to the widespread and growing interest in Jonathan Edwards.
 

About this title

About the Author

George M. Marsden is Francis A. McAnaney Profess Emeritus of History at the University of Notre Dame. Among his many books is Jonathan Edwards: A Life, named one of ten "Books of the Year" for 2003 by Atlantic Monthly and winner of the prestigious Bancroft Prize in history (2004) and the Grawemeyer Award in religion (2005).

Reviews

The author of the magisterial Jonathan Edwards (2003) has written an entirely new book for Eerdmans’ Library of Religious Biography. It’s a work of grace, lit by affection for the great clergyman and understanding of his place and time: prerevolutionary New England, considering itself more British than colonial, still an ecclesiastical regime, in which a parson held as much or more authority than any secular officeholder. A scion of ministers, Edwards was upper crust, yet he became the chief apologist of the Great Awakening, which challenged local pastors and encouraged democracy among church members. Astonishingly busy and productive, he had 11 children, wrote voluminously, directed missions to the Indians, and faithfully attended church conventicles. A rigorous Calvinist and a keen student of nature, he believed in a personal God whose love required reciprocal love from the believer, not least because of the glorious gift of Creation. Marsen calls him “a towering figure . . . of the first American revolution, the spiritual revolution of the awakening.” Reading his lovely précis of Edwards is believing that assessment. --Ray Olson

Edition details

• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802802206
• ISBN 13: 9780802802200
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176