Sovereign Beauty: Jonathan Edwards and the Nature of True Virtue

Abstract

RECENT DECADES have witnessed a new appreciation of contribution of Jonathan Edwards to American thought and culture. The originality of his religious and ethical position has attracted a spectrum of scholars, now that it is freed from cramped interpretations of his New England successors and consistent Calvinism of nineteenth century. James M. Gustafson terms him the greatest theologian in American history and William A. Clebsch ranks him with Ralph Waldo Emerson and William James as prime fashioners of a distinctively American spirituality. Roman Catholic thinkers who are investigating distinctively American resources to offset traditional dependence upon European thought would do well to begin with this Puritan pastor from eighteenth-century Massachusetts. Perry Miller and Alan Heimert situated Edwards in intellectual tradition of Locke and Newton and in religious upheaval of Great Awakening. Joseph Haroutunian followed controversy between Edwards' successors and dissatisfied New England divines who became first Unitarians. A more recent stage of criticism has concentrated on his distinctive philosophical and theological positions and has brought these insights to bear upon contemporary discussions of religious psychology, human freedom, ethics, and aesthetics. John E. Smith, Paul Ramsey, and Roland Delattre have been joined by Douglas Elwood, Conrad Cherry, and Harold Simonson in this rediscovery of his works' theological depth, a depth undreamt of by those whose only exposure to Edwards has come through dolorous rhetoric of Sinners in Hands of an Angry God. The one item of Edwards' voluminous production which these commentators have found most difficult to interpret is his essay The Nature of True Virtue. This philosophical consideration of relation of religion and morality dates from last stage of his life and was