The "Miscellanies" 501-832 is part of a projected twenty-seven-volume Yale University Press edition of The Works of Jonathan Edwards. This is the first critical edition of Edwards's Works and will no doubt long remain the only one.
Each volume has been hallmarked by an editor's introduction that places its contents in its historical setting and in Edwards's thought, and then provides a critical analysis of both. These introductions have set the standard for Edwards scholars to follow. Ava Chamberlain's introduction is no exception. Her familiarity with Edwards's written corpus, ministerial legacy, and the scope of his oftentimes complex philosophical theology is exhibited in her remarkably helpful comments, through which she provides a condensed but accessible overview of this volume's major themes.
The "Miscellanies" are a series of nine original theological notebooks that record Edwards's intellectual development from a first entry in 1722 through to his last entry in 1758, the year of his death. This volume reproduces the entries from 1731-1740. It is the second of four volumes on these semi-private notebooks that Yale will publish.
More than just a repository for theological speculation, the "Miscellanies" are "a record of Edwards' affective inner life,…a life centered on God and not the self." Edwards's theocentrism gives coherence to the host of themes he explores, the most dominant of which are "justification by faith alone; spiritual knowledge, which includes both the 'new spiritual sense' and Christian practice; the rationality of the Christian religion; the history of the work of redemption; and conversion and the religious life."
These five themes reveal Edwards's relevance for contemporary discussions in soteriology, philosophical theology, and even apologetics. For instance, when treating the biblical idea of saving faith, he strives against neonomianism by defining "faith" not in causal or "conditional" terms but in a way that safeguards its forensic quality. He does this by linking the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the believer with the believer's preexisting union with Christ. Thus, Chamberlain explains, "Because the union with Christ, which occurs by faith, creates the ontological foundation necessary for imputation, it is fitting that the faithful are justified." This bold move affects nearly every aspect of Edwards's soteriology.
Regeneration-the ontological alteration of a human being-is nothing other than "the Spirit of Christ so uniting himself to the soul of man, that he becomes there a vital and holy principle." For Edwards, then, sanctification is not just a necessary correlate of regeneration, but also of justification-perseverance in sanctification is evidence of justification as well as regeneration, though it is ground of neither. A dozen or more entries record how Edwards came to these conclusions-conclusions that were to become foundational to his most notable treatises.
The numerous entries on "The History of the Work of Redemption" are also relevant because they correct John H. Gerstner's depiction of Edwards as the quintessential "classical" or "traditional" apologist. Edwards began his theological career endeavoring to provide a systematic "Rational Account of Christianity, or The Perfect Harmony between the Doctrines of the Christian Religion and Human Reason." But he abandoned that project just prior to the Great Awakening of 1740 to take up another that signaled a shift in his apologetical engagement with Enlightenment religion. As he came to see during the 1730s, conviction about Christianity's truth is ultimately grounded not in human reason but in the perception of divine "excellency" conveyed by the "new spiritual sense." This aesthetic vision is a mental state that is the consequence of union with Christ. The redeemed, therefore, have a "view" of the reality of spiritual things to which unregenerate skeptics have no access. As Chamberlain observes, "A purely rational defense of Christian doctrine would have required Edwards to use, as did the latitudinarians in their antideist polemic, the standard of rationality advocated by his opponents." In order to avoid this "tactical mistake" Edwards moved away from a systematic defense based upon rationality to a historical defense based upon biblical prophecy and the testimony of redemption history, that is, the history of the world "both sacred and profane."
Aside from its fascinating and surprisingly relevant content, what may generate a bit more interest in this handsome, sophisticated, and yet unfortunately expensive volume is the fact that while 103 of its more than 330 entries can be found in previously published sources, only 21 or so of them are available in the second volume of the familiar and widely circulated Banner of Truth edition. All told, it contains over 200 previously unavailable entries. Convenient indexes for biblical passages and general topics allow for ready referencing.
