After Jonathan Edwards: The Courses of the New England Theology. Edited by Oliver D. Crisp and Douglas A. Sweeney. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. xviii + 348 pp. $99.00 cloth; $35.00 paper.

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)After Jonathan Edwards: The Courses of England . Edited by Oliver D. Crisp and Douglas A. Sweeney . York : Oxford University Press , 2012. xviii + 348 pp. $99.00 cloth; $35.00 paper.Book Reviews and NotesThis collection of seventeen essays is presented as a corrective to a position first articulated almost a ago by Joseph Haroutunian in Piety Versus Moralism: The Passing of England (New York: Henry Holt, 1932), a classic text that contributed in large part to twentieth-century resurgence of interest in academic study of Jonathan Edwards. Taking my copy of this text from shelf, where it had most likely rested unopened since graduate school, I was surprised to discover on flyleaf strong signature of influential Presbyterian theologian himself. I also easily located in its introduction a strong statement of view essays in After Jonathan Edwards aim to counter: seen from perspective of theology of Edwards, writes Haroutunian, the history of England is history of a degradation (xxii).Coined in nineteenth century, term New England Theology refers to a theological tradition whose diverse members promoted a style of evangelical Calvinism that, although doctrinally distinctive, claimed allegiance to thought of Jonathan Edwards. Following Haroutunian, growth of this theological tradition has commonly been framed not as development, but as decline. As collection's editors, Oliver D. Crisp and Douglas A. Sweeney, observe, the England theology is a tale of ever more arid and abstruse metaphysical theorizing on basis of an original, and intellectually dynamic, Edwardsian deposit (5). Contrary to this declension narrative, they assert this tradition is the most significant and enduring Christian theological school of thought to have originated in United States (4). The essays in this volume support this contention by considering not only development and importance of England in nineteenth-century America but also international reach of its theological vision.The collection is divided into three sections. The first places intellectual and theological concerns of Edwards's immediate successors, called Divinity, in a larger context. The essays written by Mark Valeri and James P. Byrd draw interesting connections between this theological school and issues of broader historical concern. Valeri shifts attention from doctrine to method by arguing that a distinguishing feature of Edwardsian thought was its promotion of the culture of gentility that defined rules of Anglo-American social discourse during second half of eighteenth century (18). Byrd explores theological roots of Edwardsian anti-slavery activism, which at times placed Divinity in conflict with genteel England society. Crisp's essay, by contrast, stands out for directly challenging a central element of declension thesis, development of a governmental doctrine of atonement, which Haroutunian considered symptomatic of degraded moralism of England theology. To undermine this claim Crisp argues that the seeds of England governmental view of atonement were sown by Edwards himself, and that precedents exist for this view in earlier Reform thought (78).The essays in volume's second section are each devoted to prominent representatives of England Theology, from Samuel Hopkins to Edwards Amasa Park. …