Currently Reading

I’ve just started two books. One of them is George Marsden’s magisterial, Jonathan Edwards: A Life. I’m particularly interested in Edwards because, unlike Francis, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, et al, Edwards’s revival did not reify into an “-ism.” In other words, there is no Edwardsism. There is no First Edwardsian Church of Minneapolis. Why is that? It’s that question I seek to answer, for I hope and pray that there is never an Emergentism.

(Some will say that Driscoll/Piper/Mahaney represent the legacy of Edwards, but I think they represent only one stream of his legacy. Edwards was a Congregationalist, not a Baptist. We’ll see — it’s a long book.)

My favorite line so far:

“Jonathan Edwards is sometimes criticized for having too dim a view of human nature, but it may be helpful to be reminded that his grandmother was an incorrigible profligate, his great-aunt committed infanticide, and his great-uncle was an ax-murderer.”