Scientific and Philosophical Writings (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 6 | WJE)
Overview
This volume contains two major manuscript notebooks of Jonathan Edwards—“Natural Philosophy” and “The Mind”—as well as a number of shorter manuscript writings connected with his scientific interests and philosophical development. Several of the shorter papers have not previously been published, notably Edwards’ letter on the “flying” spider (hither known only in a draft version), an essay on light rays, and a brief but important set of philosophical notes written near the end of his life. Wherever possible the works have been newly transcribed from manuscript originals. Wallace Anderson has collected, edited, and presented them here in a thoroughly authentic and readable text.
Each of the major works in this volume and each group of related writings are preceded by detailed discussion of manuscript sources and dates. In his introduction, Anderson makes these the basis for a revised account of the chronology of Edwards’ early writings and a deeper investigation of their biographical and historical context. Also included in the introduction are a new appraisal of Edwards’ efforts and achievements in science and an analysis of the developmental of his philosophical views. Anderson concludes from his research that Edwards was an enthusiastic—though untrained—investigator in the Newtonian tradition and that he grappled with the major metaphysical problems raised by this tradition. The papers reveal with special clarity the fertile and inquiring mind of our leading eighteenth-century philosopher-theologian.
Top Highlights
“These hidden beauties are commonly by far the greatest, because the more complex a beauty is, the more hidden is it” (Page 306)
“But God is proper entity itself, and these two therefore in him become the same; for so far as a thing consents to being in general, so far it consents to him.” (Page 337)
“So that we see that a world without motion can exist nowhere else but in the mind, either infinite or finite” (Page 206)
“We by this also clearly see that creation of the corporeal universe is nothing but the first causing resistance in such parts of space as God thought fit, with a power of being communicated successively from one part of space to another, according to such stated conditions as his infinite wisdom directed; and then the first beginning of this communication, so that ever after it might be continued without deviating from those stated conditions.” (Page 216)
“Let us suppose for illustration this impossibility, that all the spirits in the universe to be for a time deprived of their consciousness, and God’s consciousness at the same time to be intermitted. I say, the universe for that time would cease to be, of itself; and not only, as we speak, because the Almighty could not attend to uphold the world, but because God knew nothing of it. ’Tis our foolish imagination that will not suffer us to see.” (Page 204)
- Title: Scientific and Philosophical Writings
- Author: Jonathan Edwards
- Edition: Corrected edition
- Series: The Works of Jonathan Edwards
- Volume: 6
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Print Publication Date: 1997
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Philosophy › Collected works; Science › Collected works
- ISBNs: 0300022824, 9780300022827
- Resource ID: LLS:EDWARDS06
- Resource Type: text.monograph.collected-work
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T23:37:08Z
Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) is considered one of America’s greatest theologians. While attending Yale College, he encountered the same Calvinism that had influenced his own Puritan upbringing.
Three years after Edwards was ordained as a minister, the First Great Awakening began in his church, which prompted Edwards to study conversion and revival within the context of Calvinism. During the revival, Edwards preached his most famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” and penned many of his most popular works, including Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, and Life and Diary of the Rev. David Brainerd.
In 1757, Edwards reluctantly became president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton University), where he hoped to complete two major works—an expansion of his treatise on the history of redemption and a study of the harmony of the Old and New Testaments. The Works of Jonathan Edwards (26 vols.) is a massive collection containing five decades’ worth of study and scholarship on and from Edwards.