Works of Jonathan Edwards: Writings on the Trinity, Grace, and Faith, The

The Works of Jonathan Edwards: Writings on the Trinity, Grace, and Faith. Edited by Sang Hyun Lee. The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 21. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. xii + 566 pp. 0 $0 950 .0 00 (cloth).

The Yale edition of The Works of Jonathan Edwards is almost complete. Twenty-seven volumes are projected to be completed in the early part of this decade. This volume, the twenty-first, appears in an auspicious year, 2003, the 300th anniversary of the birth of Edwards, described by earlier generations of American scholars as "the greatest American philosopher." Perhaps in anticipation of this anniversary, a steady stream of publications is continuing to bring new insights into the "sage of Northampton." This scholarly interest has exposed previously neglected dimensions of his thought and raised the possibilities of critical reappropriations of his theology, or at least his method, in these postmodern times. The neglected dimensions include recognizing that he was not simply restating reformed thought, whether John Calvin's, Francois Turretin's, or even Petrus van Maastricht's. Rather, he was creatively doing theology in his New England context, working out his reformed thought by placing his inherited Augustinianism in critical conversation with, and appropriation of, early Enlightenment thought, because he had a prescient comprehension of the implications of rationalism for Christian faith. Thus, for example, works by Robert E. Brown and (American Episcopalian) Gerald R. McDermott expose and analyze-in slightly differing contexts, and of course on differing subjects-Edwards's critical appropriation of select enlightenment themes and methods.

More problematic has been the relevance of Edwards's theology and ethics for the present. Indeed, so haunting have been the cultural aftershocks of the "sermon that New England would never forget," namely "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," preached at Enfield, Massachusetts, in 1741, that many people, including scholars, have avoided exploring the theological inheritance that Edwards left to us, his rather unwilling descendants.

Sang Hyun Lee of Princeton Theological Seminary has placed us all in his debt, not only by ably editing this volume, but also by providing a most thorough and insightful introduction. This volume contains Edwards's thought on the nature of God, God's love, and human faith, all newly edited, annotated, and enriched with appropriate commentary.

It is not widely known beyond the circle of scholars that Edwards understood God in surprisingly contemporary terms. Edwards sought to comprehend the divine largely in terms of a relationship of love and of beauty that draws humanity to God. His conception of beauty was defined in ways typical of the period: in terms of proportion, symmetry, contrast, comparison, and by relations, an experience of beauty which he illustrated by discussing the harmonious and pleasurable music of a choir, natural phenomena such as color, and the relationships among the human senses. In his "notebooks" he comments that humanity loves life because of the beauty that it provides. However, all these relations and all the beauty offered by the natural world and humanity are only secondaiy, pointing to what Edwards describes as "primary beauty." Such beauty also involves relations, but these are based not on necessity but on the exercise of the will, the ultimate form of which is love. Consequently, to experience beauty is to experience love. For Edwards, the source of all beauty and love is God. God is understood as Trinity, a society as it were of beauty and love, and in Augustinian terms, the Father is the "lover," the Son "the beloved," and the Spirit, the mnculum caritatis. Each person could also be understood not only relationally, but also in terms of beauty, as the beautifier, the beautiful, and as prime beauty. In a most interesting move, Lee has included previously unpublished material from the "controversies notebook" on "Efficacious Grace," "The Nature of True Virtue," and other smaller items, all of which offer much for understanding Edwards s larger works on faith and on grace. These will provide a richer understanding of Edwards, not as the terrifying preacher, but as the advocate of beauty and love, perhaps leading to a revitalized theological present. Even if Edwards s work on the nature of God is unacceptable today, then at least this volume and its introduction suggest ways in which his method can still be employed both in critiquing the postmodern philosophical and theological present and offering alternative formulations.

IAIN S. MACLEAN

James Madison University

Harrisonburg, Virginia

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