Douglas A Sweeney
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Keywords:
Religion, Biblical Exegesis
Abstract
Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) lived in a world strangely different from our own, a world imbued, often enchanted, by the contents of the Bible. Most of his family members, friends,congregants, and correspondents, both at home and back in Britain, would have identified the Bible as their most important book, the one they knew and loved the best, indeed their favorite source of information, inspiration, and insight into the nature of reality. Frequently it frightened them. They took its stories and warnings about the jealousy, wrath, and judgment of God as awesome matters of fact. However, it usually also succored them. They staked their very lives upon its promise of salvation, grace, and mercy to the penitent, its words of consolation to the anxious and oppressed, and its guidance for those who sought to live in a way that pleased the Lord
