The Relationship Between God’s Nature, God’s Image in Man, and Freedom in the Philosophy of Jonathan Edwards

Authors

  • Marco Barone

Keywords:

Philosophy, American Religious History

Abstract

In his enlightening article on G. W. Leibniz’s view of human freedom, Jack Davidson says that, for the German philosopher, “God is the paradigm of freedom, and we are only free in so far as we are like him.” For Leibniz, we develop our concept of freedom by taking God’s freedom as a model. Then, we compare the state of our freedom to that of God, and our freedom is genuine to the extent it reflects God’s freedom.

However, Davidson also says that Leibniz is, as far as he knows, the only thinker “whose analysis of human freedom is essentially predicated upon the divine image doctrine.” In this essay, I would like to show that Jonathan Edwards’ doctrine of human nature and freedom is grounded on and framed by his doctrine of God’s nature and freedom through the divine image. The first section will expound the New Englander’s view of God’s nature to the extent that our discussion on free-agency is concerned. In the second section I will outline Edwards’ view of human nature and its faculties, and will show that, through his use of the doctrine of God’s image in humankind, human free-agency reflects God’s free-agency. The conclusion will offer some considerations on this Edwardsean approach to the issue of freedom.

 

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