Yale Press recently published three of the Works of Jonathan Edwards volumes in paperback. This is a very welcome move in that it makes some of the more important volumes in the series much more affordable. Over the years, many have complained about the steep price of the hardback editions, most of which clock in at around $100 each. The new paperback editions, however, can be had for $20 or less. Here are the volumes that are available and their publisher descriptions:

Volume 1: Freedom of the Will – This inaugural volume in The Works of Jonathan Edwards is his major contribution to theology and stands as a leading document on Calvinist thought. Mr. Ramsey’s introduction provides a fresh analysis of Edwards’ theological position, includes a study of his life and the intellectual issues in America during his time, and examines the problem of free will in the philosophical context of today and in connection with Leibniz, Locke, and Hume.

Volume 2: Religious Affections – This volume contains Edwards’ most mature and persistent attempt to judge the validity of the religious development in eighteenth-century America known as the Great Awakening. In developing criteria for such judgment he attacked at the same time one of the fundamental questions facing all religion: how to distinguish genuine from spurious piety? The Awakening created much bitter controversy; on the one side stood the emotionalists and enthusiasts, and on the other the rationalists, for whom religion was essentially a matter of morality or good conduct and the acceptance of properly formulated doctrine. Edwards, with great analytical skill and enormous biblical learning, showed that both sides were in the wrong. He attacked both a “lifeless morality” as too pale as to be the essence of religion, and he rejected the excesses of a purely emotional religion more concerned for sensational effects than for the inner transformation of the self, which was, for him, the center of genuine Christianity.

Volume 4: The Great Awakening – Interpreting the Great Awakening of the eighteenth century was in large part the work of Jonathan Edwards; whose writings on the subject defined the revival tradition in America. Moving from sensitive descriptions of “the Surprising work of God” in conversion to a consuming quest for the essence of true religion, and threading his way through mounting controversies over “errors in doctrine and disorders in practice,” Edwards sought to locate an authentic core of evangelical experience, to define it in terms of biblical faith and psychological insight, and to defend it against both overheated zealous and rationalistic critics. The tracts that unfold his thoughts, presented here (with related correspondence ) for the first time in accurate critical texts, document a movement so significant for the American character that it has been called “our national conversion.”

Hopefully Yale Press will publish the other volumes in paper as well, but this is a good start!

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book announcements, freedom of the will, religious affections, works