A Translation of Edwards for Today
An Infinite Fountain of Light: Jonathan Edwards for the Twenty-First Century, George Marsden. Downers Grover: IVP Academic, 2023. Hardcover, 164 pages.
Some have described Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) as North America’s greatest theologian of all time. Certainly he was prolific, profound, and, at times, creative. His influence continues, especially through popularizers like John Piper. A reputable Edwards scholar, historian George Marsden is also responsible for raising his profile. Among other writings, he’s authored not just one but two biographies on Edwards, one longer and one shorter.
One of the problems with Edwards is his language. As an eighteenth-century English writer, Edwards was at times wordy and opaque. Marsden observes that Edwards often needs translators for today and he aims to be one such translator in this volume.
Marsden does two main things in An Infinite Fountain of Light. First, he helps us understand Edwards in his own context. He does that in an engaging way via two of Edwards’ famous contemporaries, Benjamin Franklin and George Whitefield. The second thing he does is to help us understand some key points of Edwards’ theology and how they bear on us today.
With regard to the latter, Marsden explains Edwards’ understanding of the beauty of God. For Edwards, this wasn’t something to be considered merely in an intellectualistic way. Contemplating the beauty of God, as he is revealed in nature and in Scripture, is meant to lead us to what Edwards called “religious affections.” Writes Marsden, “The affections he is thinking of are most essentially the sort of love for a person that brings joy unspeakable” (p.106). God’s beauty is something to be experienced. Edwards aptly compares it to the difference between hearing about the sweetness of honey and actually tasting it for yourself.
The author acknowledges some of the issues with Edwards. Most notably, Edwards probably owned slaves, even though he was “explicitly antiracist” (p.14). But there are other issues which remain unmentioned. There is an ongoing debate in Reformed circles about the degree to which Edwards can be described as Reformed. In his Systematic Theology, Princeton theologian Charles Hodge (1797-1878) expressed concerns about a pantheistic tendency in Edwards’ theology. Herman Bavinck (1854-1921) wrote in his Reformed Dogmatics about Edwards aiding “the cause of Pelagianism.” In our own day, more than one or two Reformed theologians have cautioned us about Edwards’ doctrine of justification and the mystical bent of his pietism. Edwards can’t and shouldn’t be ignored, but Reformed readers should be aware of some of his theological missteps.
At the beginning of An Infinite Fountain of Light, Marsden writes that “Looking to the most profound insights of Christians from another era can be an especially helpful way to gain perspective on our own needs in our own era” (p.3). Edwards was a theologian of gargantuan stature with plenty of profound insights. Marsden succeeds in translating some of those insights to a language we can all understand.
Originally published in Clarion 73.12 (September 20, 2024)
