Pastor and People

Jonathan Edwards: A Life

Publisher: Triliteral LLC - Yale
Author: Marsden, George M.
ISBN-10: 0300105967 | ISBN-13: 9780300105964

Introduction

Jonathan Edwards by George Marsden is a captivating biography of one of America’s greatest thinkers, theologians, and preachers. Chronicling the life of this New England pastor, Marsden takes the reader into the 18th century making the sights and sounds of the era come alive. Through the eyes of a Northampton pastor, Marsden paints a picture of Edwards’s conversion, ascent to the pulpit, family and home life, and private journey as a child of God. A reader will come away from this book being encouraged and challenged to discipline oneself in matters of spiritual reflection for the sake of the glory of Christ and His kingdom.

Summary

Jonathan Edwards is a fascinating character of Puritan heritage and background. Beginning with his rearing in the godly home of his father Timothy and mother Esther, Edwards learned the disciplines and practices that he would use for the rest of his life. He came to “a new sense of things” early in life and told his father of his experiences. Jonathan recalled that he was “pretty much affected” by this conversation, and when it ended he walked into the fields for contemplation. “And as I was walking there,” he reported, “and looked up on the sky and clouds; there came into my mind, a sweet sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God, that I know not how to express.” From that point forward Edwards began his journey into the things of Christ.

After his college training at Yale and a brief pastorate at a young Presbyterian congregation in New York, he joined his grandfather Solomon Stoddard in the church of Northampton. Marsden writes, “While grandson and grandfather agreed on most subjects, the most difficult transition for Jonathan was the much-debated question of conversion and communion to working in his grandfather’s domain.” This debate would cause Edwards to loose his pastoral position in years to come. His marriage to Sarah in July 1727 was a step signaling the young assistant’s transition to adult and authoritative status. After his grandfather’s death Jonathan assumed the senior pastor role in the Northampton church giving him many years of ministry and labor among the people.

The years of 1740-41 brought a spiritual awakening in New England that swept from Boston and along the eastern seaboard. Marsden says, “As revival fires were sweeping from Boston throughout New England during the spring, Edwards was enjoying a relatively modest though gratifying awakening among the young people of Northampton.” After the revival years were ended Edwards published one of his greatest works, Religious Affections which appeared in 1746. Affections grew from a sermon series Edwards preached in his own church examining the proper place of affections in the Christian life. This exposition remains the most widely read and admired of his theological works.

After many years of fruitful ministry and labor among the people of Northampton some in the church began to question Edwards regarding who he would admit to the Lord’s Table. Not following his grandfather’s belief that unregenerate and regenerate members may partake of the Lord’s Supper, Edwards was asked to leave the church. In his farewell sermon, preached July 1, 1750, Edwards firmly reminded his congregation of such an eternal perspective, which had been the central motif of his ministry.

After the ‘communion controversy’ ended his pastoral charge in Northampton, Edwards moved his ‘sizable’ family to Stockbridge where he would pastor and minister to the Indians. During that pastorate Edwards was asked to become a college president in Princeton where he would remain until his death on March 22, 1758.

Evaluation

Marsden sets the stage for the reader of this biography by developing the reality of life in the 18th century. He is not afraid to put on display the vulnerabilities, failures, and successes of Edwards as a pastor. In the midst of numerous writing and preaching what one sees at the core of Edwards’ outlook is a rigorously unsentimental view of love. Marsden says, “This attitude is especially difficult to appreciate for those who sensibilities have been shaped by the sentimentality of succeeding eras.” Edwards begins with the premise that the Trinitarian God is essentially loving and creates the universe in order to share that love with others. Yet God permits real and terrible evil in that universe; it is in a state of war because of Satan’s rebellion against God. “Those on the side of evil in this warfare hate true love and what is ultimately good” Marsden says. For the Christian who was to be untied with Christ, life remained a struggle of the deepest contrasts. Edwards resolved the highs and lows of his own spiritual experiences into the lessons of this tough-minded theological heritage that did not flinch at the discomforts of a lifetime of struggles, even for the regenerate. As Edwards expressed in one of the most revealing early entries in his “Shadows of Divine Things” notebook:

“Roses grow upon briers, which is to signify that all temporal sweets are mixed with bitter. But what seems more especially to be meant by it, is that true happiness, the crown of glory, is to be come at in no other way than by bearing Christ’s cross by a life of mortification, self-denial and labor, and bearing all things for Christ.”

This theme of love dominates Edwards life and pastorate as he preaches, writes and thinks on the beauty and love of God in Christ. Through the Great Awakening, communion controversy, and various frontier struggles Edwards kept his mind and heart completely focused on the love of Christ which he would enjoy more completely when he beheld Christ in the beauty of Heaven. The theme of love in Edwards is what dominates Marsden’s biography. This theme is what should dominate the life of any pastor and man of God. It should be the driving force that keeps his mind and heart focused on the glory of Christ.

One of the best and most informative chapters in this biography is entitled, “The Unfinished Masterworks”. As Edwards set off for Princeton in January 1758 he had to resign himself to the reality that it might be God’s will that he not finish the two “great works” he had described in his letters to the college trustees. It continues to be a mystery as to what two “great works” he was referring to in his letter. Marsden outlines the works of Edwards in the chapter giving particular emphasis to his Harmony of the Old and New Testaments as well as his Body of Divinity. The notebooks he carried with him to Princeton would fill many thousand pages when published. The writing side of Edwards consumed his time and energy as he wrote everything down that came to his mind. This is an important aspect that needs to be emphasized in the personal lives of modern pastors. Edwards sets for us the perfect example of a disciplined man devoted to all things concerning Christ.

Marsden shows the modern reader what happens to a man who is truly devoted to kingdom matters. He may be ridiculed by his own family, he may be fired from his own pastorate, and even die an early death but he will have an impact upon history that is unparallel. Marsden begins chapter 30 by saying, “Edwards spent his whole life preparing to die.” Should this not be the focus of every believer of Christ? Edwards shows us how to live, how to preach, how to write and how to be a loving pastor and servant of Christ.

Conclusion

Jonathan Edwards helps to bridge the gap between the Edwards of the students of American culture and the Edwards of the theologians. Marsden takes seriously the thought of Edwards in regards to the larger Christian tradition. This biography will give the reader a wider look at 18th century life and thought. It will answer questions as to what was going on in the intellectual and cultural advance surrounding Jonathan Edwards and his ministry. This author would highly recommend this biography as one not to be overlooked in the study of Jonathan Edwards.