Edwards the Exegete

Reviews / Votes

Doug Sweeney has graced us with a long awaited contribution to Edwards's studies and early American religion... Sweeney's attempt to wrangle reflection on Edwards's approximately 1200 sermons, as well as his scriptural exegesis elsewhere, into a book of just over 200 pages is masterfully achieved... Suffice to say, this book is a landmark in Edwards's studies. * Rhys S. Bezzant, Trinity Journal * Sweeney has done the great service of poring over all Edwards' work on scripture in order to help his modern readers understand how he used these texts. His documentation in the endnotes is meticulous. The result is a clear and compelling contribution to the literature that all future interpreters of Edwards will have to take into account. * Oliver D. Crisp, Scottish Journal of Theology * A very impressive achievement. Sweeney provides fresh understanding and appreciative insight into Edwards' enchanted world of Scripture. Edwards saw all of reality as infused with spiritual meaning. So God's special revelation in Scripture was not only the perspicuous key to everything else, it was also packed with countless cryptic spiritual connotations. * George Marsden, author of Jonathan Edwards: A Life * This book is a major contribution to scholarship that evidences a deep and refined knowledge of Edwards' thought and presents a penetrating analysis of the reading of Scripture in a vast array of Edwards' works. Sweeney identifies Edwards' location in the Protestant exegetical tradition and ably sets his work into the context of intellectual life of the mid-eighteenth century. * Richard A. Muller, P.J. Zondervan Professor of Historical Theology, Emeritus, Calvin Theological Seminary * Don't be fooled-this book is not about grammar or verb declensions. With leading figures from church history as conversation partners, Sweeney elegantly unpacks crucial issues of biblical interpretation in Edwards' ministry. Big theological topics alternate with discussion of Edwards' exposition of books of the Bible, demonstrating Sweeney's prodigious eye to detail and his capacious understanding of Edwards' world. This book isn't about syntax, but something more powerful: the transforming Word of God. * Rhys Bezzant, author of Jonathan Edwards and the Church * As a study of Edwards's treatises and popular discourses, Sweeney's work is without equal. The way Edwards read Scripture and viewed all of life 'infused with spiritual meaning', as set against the backdrop of Enlightenment intellectualism and popular influence, enriches our appreciation for the Christ-centered model of exegesis Edwards worked hard to establish and impart to future generations of pastor-teachers. * James M. Garretson, The Banner of Truth * This study fills a significant lacuna. Much has been written about Edwards' life and times, his theology, and philosophy. But so far we did not have a comprehensive study of what Edwards himself would have regarded as the foundation of everything else: his biblical exegesis. Drawing widely from the Edwards corpus, Sweeney offers us a highly learned and nuanced but also very readable account of Edwards' multifaceted engagement with Scripture in the context of the early Enlightenment. * Jan Stievermann, Professor of the History of Christianity in the U.S., Heidelberg University * Doug Sweeney has written what will probably be the definitive work on this aspect of Edwards ... doubtless the single most important book on this subject for a number of years to come. * English Churchman * Douglas Sweeney's Edwards the Exegete is a rich and illuminating study of Jonathan Edwards's biblical exegesis. Sweeney carefully untangles Edwards's exegesis by drawing on a plethora of printed and manuscript sources. * Russell Newton, Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology *