The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 5: Apocalyptic Writings
Overview
This edition presents the first text of Jonathan Edwards’ private commentary on the book of Revelation. Written over a period of thirty-five years, Edwards’ notebook reveals his lifelong fascination with apocalyptic speculation—including its bizarre aspects—and his persistent conviction concerning the usefulness of the visions in the life of the Christian church.
In this volume is also published the first complete edition (since the eighteenth century) of the Humble Attempt (1748)—the call for united prayer that was Edwards’ response to the decline in religious fervor after the Great Awakening. In his introduction and commentary, Stephen J. Stein examines the development of Edwards’ apocalyptic interests in light of the situation in the eighteenth century, showing also how Edwards’ private judgments on the book of Revelation affected his personal and theological activity. Together the texts and the introduction illuminate a hitherto inadequately explored facet of Edwards’ religious thought.
Top Highlights
“The future promised advancement of the kingdom of Christ is an event unspeakably happy and glorious.” (Page 337)
“would return to his church, and grant the tokens and fruits of his gracious presence,” (Page 316)
“Calvin was the most guarded of all the reformers in his attitude toward the Apocalypse. He stood firmly in the Augustinian line, rejecting chiliasm, eschatological calculations, and millenarian fanaticism. The Revelation was the only book of the Bible on which he did not write a commentary.” (Page 3)
“are truly and properly waiting for, and earnestly expecting that event.” (Page 346)
“We find it common in the prophecies of the Old Testament, that when the prophets are speaking of the favors and blessings of God on the Jews, attending or following their return from the Babylonish captivity, the Spirit of God takes occasion from thence to speak of the incomparably greater blessings on the church, that shall attend and follow her deliverance from the spiritual or mystical Babylon, of which those were a type; and is, as it were, led away to speak almost wholly of these latter, and vastly greater things, so as to seem to forget the former.” (Page 314)
About Stephen J. Stein
Stephen J. Stein is Chancellors’ Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University.