Travel with Jonathan Edwards
Michael Haykin
Day One Publications
128 pages, £10.00
ISBN: 978-1-84625-390-4
This book covers a number of themes. It is a tourist guide; a summary of the Edwards era regarding revival and church history; a source of key lessons in Calvinistic theology; and a brief biography of Jonathan Edwards.
Those who have not read about Edwards before will find this a useful introduction, not least because of its many photographs and prints of important historical sites. For those readers already familiar with this pastor/preacher/theologian, this book will be useful for planning a church history tour of New England.
The last chapter was my personal favourite, because it covered ‘The legacy of Edwards’. This chapter opens with these words: ‘Edwards regarded himself as a British subject and New England as part of a transatlantic British society’ (p.107). Historians today would rarely bring out this aspect, because he is regarded simply as an American preacher by most.
There is a photograph of Edwards’ grave, which has a Latin inscription saying that Edwards was ‘an eminent theologian with scarcely an equal … a strong and invincible defender of the Christian faith’ (p.116).
Edwards continues to divide church opinion, but, before we criticise him, we should ask ourselves where the strong and invincible defenders of the Christian faith are today. Edwards made 70 personal resolutions and these are definitely worth reading (pp. 122-126).
For UK ministers especially, who would like to understand more about this man’s theology in connection to the church, there is a conference to be held in Durham in February 2014 (www.edwardsconference.org).
Kevin Bidwell
Sheffield
