Forgotten Edwards

This fresh interpretation of Jonathan Edwards Jr. is situated deep in primary sources and archival work. Banks's work points the way to a new appreciation of Edwards, Jr., and provides a standard for stripping away the tired, old interpretations of the New Divinity as impersonal metaphysicians who cared more about doctrinal coherence than piety, revival, and pastoral care. While recognizing minor differences between Edwards Jr. and his famous father, Banks shows us that they shared far more in comman than is generally recognized. - Robert W. Caldwell III, Professor of Church History, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Jonathan Edwards Jr. (1745-1801) is well-known for his governmental theory of the atonement; however, aside from a biography produced in 1978 not much has been done to interact with his thinking on other theological matters. Further, he is often portrayed as a metaphysical preacher who drove away his congregation with cerebral abstractions. Accordingly, this received caricature also describes Edwards Jr. as distorting the Edwardsean legacy through theological innovation. This negative caricature of Edwards Jr. was produced by the early liberalism of the Civil