Of course, Jonathan Edwards was greatly in tune with this emphasis on the new birth, especially seen in his sermon “A Divine and Supernatural Light,” which points to “a new sense of divine things” that comes about through the illuminating work of God’s Spirit upon the soul of an individual. This “new sense” awakens the soul to see things as they really are, namely the majesty and glory of God, the beauty of Christ and his work, and the truth of Scripture and teachings of the Christian religion. Edwards was also no stranger to awakenings, having gone through several “stirrings” and times of “harvest” both in his father’s church in East Windsor and his grandfather’s church in Northampton. Edwards himself pastored through a brief awakening in 1734-35 in Northampton, half a decade before nearly all of the English colonies were caught up in religious fervor.

After 1735, however, many of Edwards’s parishioners went through periods of backsliding, an evident sign to Edwards that the Holy Spirit was drawing back his influence on the congregation. This prompted Edwards to embark on several sermon campaigns, including the “Charity and its Fruits” sermons, a series on the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, and the sermon series on a “History of the Work of Redemption.” These work little effect among the town and Edwards begins to examine more closely the nature of Christian obedience and behavior, realizing that he may have overemphasized the “divine light” aspect of conversion, not giving sufficient attention to the “divine living” aspect of the Christian life and sanctification. Edwards’s treatise on Religious Affections, published in 1746, a few years after the awakenings of 1740-42, displays a much more balanced approach as he meticulously works these ideas out.

The entire game would change, however, with the arrival of a young, charismatic preacher named George Whitefield. Experiencing some success as a preacher in England, Whitefield comes over to the colonies and sets society on fire by sparking a wide series of awakenings throughout the colonies, resulting in the period known as the Great Awakening. Not everyone was caught up in this movement, however, with many clergy denouncing charismatic excesses and a perceived tendency toward antinomianism that seemed to follow the awakenings as they swept through the land. This sparked controversies between Old Lights, those critical of the awakenings, and New Lights, awakening supporters, causing further upheaval.

Edwards attempted to plow a middle road, championing the revivals as a true work of the Spirit of God, but also warning against the few excesses that were reported and observed. He criticizes New Lights for being un-Christian and un-Scriptural at times, and Old Lights for a stale theology and tradition-driven (as opposed to Scripture-driven) critiques of new approaches to preaching, evangelism, and ministry in general. Though Whitefield would be the most successful awakening preacher of the era, Edwards would also find success, largely away from his congregation at Northampton, this being the period where he (in)famously preached “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” at Enfield, Connecticut.

Much more could be said about the Great Awakening, and especially Edwards’s awakening writings (Religious Affections sparked a fascinating and wonderful discussion in the class), but that was the gist of what we discussed in class today.

After formal class and discussion time, we were surprised with another guest lecture, this time by Dr. Walter Kimnach. Dr. Kimnach served as the general editor for the six sermon volumes in the Yale Works of Jonathan Edwards project, personally editing volumes 10 and 25 himself (just as a sidenote, anyone interested in Edwards’s sermons and preaching should absolutely read Dr. Kimnach’s introduction to volume 10). Dr. Kimnach, naturally, spoke to us about Edwards’s methods as a preacher, particularly in how he structured his sermons, beginning formally with Scripture, then moving to an explanation of the doctrine in view, and concluding with a lengthy application section.

With that, the third day of instruction ended, but there was much more to come. Up next: a trip to the Beinecke Library, home to the largest Jonathan Edwards manuscript collection. A geek’s dream come true!

When I was trying to come up with a title for the site, I wanted something that best captured the whole of Jonathan Edwards’s life and ministry. Unfortunately, when most people today think of Edwards they would probably say that, according to the stated criteria, I should have named the site “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” One of the greatest tragedies in the American educational system today is the treatment of Edwards in high school English and college introductory literature courses. Typically, all students know of Edwards from these courses is Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God presented as the archetypal milieu of 18th century New England. Even worse, as was the case in a friend’s experience, some classes do not even read Sinners in its entirety, instead reading only the infamous spider passage. The result is scores of students having an incredibly skewed view of Edwards and his theology, colonial American society, and colonial American literature.

A better choice than Sinners, perhaps, is A Divine and Supernatural Light which you can read in its entirety here. This sermon is a wonderful example of the theological themes and trends that characterized the first half of the 18th century in colonial New England, a society so enraptured in the ebbs and flows of evangelical awakenings. Famous in its own right, though not to the degree of Sinners, this sermon speaks about the beauty and sweetness of God in who he is and how he saves humans from his wrath. The “divine light” that Edwards speaks of is “immediately imparted to the soul by God,” and consists in “a true sense of the divine excellency of the things revealed in the Word of God, and a conviction of the truth and reality of them, thence arising.”

This “new sense of divine things,” as Edwards describes it elsewhere, is of utmost importance in his overall theological system. Just as one cannot fully know or comprehend the sweetness of honey without tasting it, neither could one fully know or understand the beauty, loveliness, holiness, majesty, etc. of God without the awakening of the soul that comes through the Holy Spirit’s imparting the divine and supernatural light to that soul. One could certainly have some sort of knowledge of God without this light, what Edwards called “speculative knowledge,” but that knowledge would be insufficient for producing the sort of saving relationship that Edwards so desired all to possess.

The ideas found in this sermon would continue to be expounded upon and used by Edwards throughout his life, finding their fullest treatment in Edwards’s magisterial A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections. Much more than Sinners, A Divine and Supernatural Light offers a glimpse into the truly pastoral and aesthetic side of Edwards’s thought and writings, the meticulous nature that characterized many of his greatest arguments, and a broader sense of what was going on and being discussed culturally at the time of its preaching and publication. If only high schools and introductory college courses would teach this sermon, rather than a horribly imbalanced version of Sinners!

489. FAITH OR SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE.

Preamble to the Discourse on Faith, or Spiritual Knowledge. There are these two ways, in which the mind may be said to be sensible that anything is good or excellent: (1) When the mind judges that anything is good or excellent, as by the agreement of mankind is called good or excellent, viz. that which is most to general advantage, and that between which and reward there is a suitableness, or that which is agreeable to the law of the country or law of God. ‘Tis a being merely convinced in judgment that a thing is, according to the meaning of the word, “good,” as the word is generally applied. (2) The mind is sensible of good in another sense, when it is so sensible of the beauty and amiableness of the thing, that ’tis sensible of pleasure and delight in the presence of the idea of it. This kind of sensibleness of good carries in it an act of the will, or inclination, or spirit of the mind, as well as the understanding.

Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 13, The “Miscellanies:” Entry Nos. a–z, aa–zz, 1–500, ed. Thomas A. Schafer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 533.