Faith, Work, and Economics
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 59, No. 2 - Spring 2017
Managing Editor: W. Madison Grace II
The Ecumenical Edwards: Jonathan Edwards and the Theologians. Edited by Kyle C. Strobel. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2015. 257 pages. Hardcover, $112.
The field of Jonathan Edwards-studies has become something of an academic industry. Kyle Strobel’s The Ecumenical Edwards: Jonathan Edwards and the Theologians is the most recent evidence of such. As Strobel’s second major academic work on Edwards in two years—the first being, Jonathan Edwards’ Theology: A Reinterpretation (New York: Bloomsbury, T&T Clark, 2014)—The Ecumenical Edwards is a collection of thirteen artfully written and thought-provoking essays that recommends Edwards’ “distinctly Reformed genius’”to traditions beyond Protestant evangelicalism (3). A rather unique move on Strobel’s part, the book brings together Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and other Protestants authors to write about Edwards in relation to the tradition. Far from making Edwards out to be a spokesman for these other traditions, as is sometimes the fate of theologians whose writings are as rich and varied as are Edwards’, Strobel and his fellow contributors display the great theological and philosophical treasures still to be discovered in what is a veritable treasure trove of Edwards’ seventy-three volumes of work.
Contributors to Strobel’s volume are not all the usual suspects, as one might not expect to find for a technical collection of essays of this sort. The Edwards fraternity, as it were, is comprised of a relatively small group of scholars. Smaller still is the group of Edwards scholars whose interest is the more constructive and speculative side of Edwards’ philosophical theology. That not all the usual suspects are present in Strobel’s volume is part of the reason that it sheds so much light on Edwards’ philosophical theology. This is certainly one of this volume’s strengths. In some cases, it also may be regarded as one of its weaknesses, and that, simply because some of its contributors appear less familiar with the highly nuanced secondary literature that so often accompanies Edwards’ more speculative theological endeavors. That said, this is at best a minor deficiency and does not detract from the cumulative value of the collection.
Strobel divides the work in two parts. Part one, entitled, “Comparison and Assessment,” contains a series of fascinating essays that puts Edwards in conversation with variety of theologians from differing traditions. The essays in part two, entitled, ‘Constructive Engagement for Current Conversations’, unfold much the same fashion as part one, with one important twist, namely, a clear focus on theological dividends that are to be cashed in on for contemporary constructive theologians.
Since this review cannot address all the essays, the value of Strobel’s work is perhaps best made clear by a consideration of two chapters in some detail. Consider first, Roman Catholic theologian, Matthew Levering’s, “Jonathan Edwards and Thomas Aquinas on Original Sin,” wherein he argues that the theological findings of both Edwards and Aquinas ought to bear persuasively on contemporary discussions of human origins, human solidarity, human sin, and redemption (147). In the case of Edwards, whom he uses as a sort of conceptual bridge to Aquinas, Levering draws attention to Edwards’ affirmation of two Christian dogmas: first, the sobering reality that mortality is God’s punitive assignment for human moral corruption, and second, that human freedom is the reason for Adam’s (and his progeny’s) culpability for moral corruption and sin: “What Adam’s sin does is to produce this propensity to sin in all humans; this propensity to sin is what Edwards means by an inherited or imputed condition of ‘original sin’” (140). It is at this point, that Levering’s argument pivots toward Aquinas’ account of human solidarity—the place where the bulk of what remains of the essay develops. With both precision and brevity, Levering unpacks some of the contours of Aquinas’ thought regarding both the nature and transmission of original sin, in the context of Christ’s redemption. According to Levering, Edwards and Aquinas are representatives of the theological continuities shared by two different traditions that confirm, in Levering’s thinking, important truths about the status of human relations to God in light of contemporary and contestable, scientific and historical research about human origins. Despite the appearance of his passing by a mountain of secondary literature related to Edwards’ doctrine of original sin—something I suspect was excised in order to keep the volume to a prescribed length—the most important of which has appeared in the last decade, Levering’s contribution goes a ways toward supporting the notion that Edwards ought to be regarded, with Aquinas, as among the most significant theologians in the history of the church, his traditional allegiances notwithstanding.
Next, consider Baptist theologian, Myk Habets’ “The Surprising Third Article Theology of Jonathan Edwards,” wherein Habets makes the case for Edwards being what he calls a ‘proto-Third article theologian’. So-called ‘Third article theology’ is a way of categorizing Trinitarian theology (First article theology having to do with theology that starts with the Father and Second article theology having to do with theology that starts with the Son) from a pneumatological perspective, a subject of recent focused interest in some quarters of Christendom. Habets’ argument rests on a strong footing on both primary and secondary support—his essay being among the strongest, most suggestive, and most Edwards-interactive essays in Stobel’s collection. Following a brief, insightful and helpful synthesis of what it means to do theology in a pneumatic posture, Habets takes up two underdeveloped elements of recent and exciting interest in Edwards-studies, his doctrine of Spirit-Christology and his doctrine of Theosis, in order to show Edwards’ unique qualification for being counted among Third article theologians. Habets’ conclusions leave the reader wanting more, suggesting that much more work is to be done in this area of Edwards’ thought.
These two essays are representative of a strong, technical, and nevertheless accessible volume of similar essays. There is no doubt that Strobel’s work belongs on the top shelf of the more recent and useful consultant works on Edwards, and for this reason ought to be no further from the reach than from Edwards’ works themselves. Similarly doubtless is that Strobel’s future contributions will continue to provoke as much interest in Edwards-studies as has The Ecumenical Edwards. Finally, and with hope, the team at Ashgate publishing will continue being the go-to vehicle for some of the highest quality and most interesting printed works in theology on the market.
