https://jestudies.yale.edu/index.php/journal/issue/feedOnline Journal2023-12-16T08:47:24-08:00The Editorskenneth.minkema@yale.eduOpen Journal Systems<div>The <a href="http://edwards.yale.edu">J<em>onathan Edwards Center at Yale University</em></a> supports and encourages thoughtful discussions that deal with all facets of Edwards’ fascinating body of work, including historic trajectories, early modern context, his life and thought, and global legacies, from a variety of perspectives. The<em> </em>online journal <strong><em>Jonathan Edwards Studies </em></strong>(JES) an interdisciplinary professionally refereed digital publication,<em> </em>invites graduate students, young scholars, clergy, seminarians, and other readers of Edwards to submit their articles, book reviews, notes, and documents to the editors for review and online publication. Comments on the reviewed articles will be sent to the author. Once each Spring and Fall, the editors will select appropriate items for the <em>JES </em>online publication.</div>https://jestudies.yale.edu/index.php/journal/article/view/677Editorial2023-12-14T06:40:04-08:00Kenneth Minkemaedwards@yale.edu<p>Welcome to the 2023 issue of <em>Jonathan Edwards Studies.</em> This issue presents four articles that speak to ongoing issues in the appraisal of Edwards' thought. </p>2023-12-16T00:00:00-08:00Copyright (c) 2023 Online Journalhttps://jestudies.yale.edu/index.php/journal/article/view/709A Living Spring Perpetually Springing": Jonathan Edwards’ Natural Imagery, Onto-Types, and the Rise of Ecotheology2023-12-16T08:26:30-08:00Lisanne Winslowedwards@yale.edu<p>In this spiritually alluring quote from the last sermon of <em>Charity and Its Fruits</em>, “Heaven Is a World of Love,” Edwards paints a luxurious word picture describing the vibrancy of life eternal shared with God. The vocabulary Edwards uses in just this one passage alone draws rich and familiar imagery from nature in phrases such as, “a living spring perpetually springing,” “a flame which never decays,” “a river which ever runs, and is always clear and full,” and “a garden of love.” These poetic descriptors lift the spirit to an elevated state of faith and hope</p>2023-12-16T00:00:00-08:00Copyright (c) 2023 Online Journalhttps://jestudies.yale.edu/index.php/journal/article/view/711Jonathan Edwards and His World of Harmony2023-12-16T08:28:26-08:00Joseph T. Cochranedwards@yale.edu<p>Edwards numerous reflections on natural philosophy and philosophical theology are scattered across his occasional writings, which include his commonplace notebooks, sermon-notebooks, and published treatises. By occasional writings, I refer to Edwards’ knack to record his reflections on the occasion upon which they came to him, as well as his impulse to speak and publish on the issues of the day, on the occasion that those issues arose and required a public response for the sake of his culture and society. In this way, Edwards functioned as a public intellectual.</p>2023-12-16T00:00:00-08:00Copyright (c) 2023 Online Journalhttps://jestudies.yale.edu/index.php/journal/article/view/713“Joy unspeakable”: Thomas Foxcroft and the Contingency of Early Evangelicalism2023-12-16T08:30:44-08:00Tucker Adkinsedwards@yale.edu<p>Thomas Foxcroft (d. 1769) ministered to the people of Boston’s venerable First Church for over five decades. While he originally intended to seek ordination in the Church of England, his time studying at Harvard College convinced him to serve in New England’s Congregational establishment. Just three years after graduating and leaving Cambridge, the Boston church voted on March 6, 1717 that “Reverend Mr Foxcroft be called to settle in the office work of the Gospel Ministry among us.” For more than forty years of his fifty-two-year pastorate, he served First Church alongside Charles Chauncy (d. 1787)—one of colonial America’s most outspoken detractors of the Whitefieldian awakenings and their misguided emphasis on “terrors of Conscience, agonies and Convulsions of Soul.” Despite the intense antirevivalism of his clerical companion, however, Foxcroft became one of New England’s most prominent evangelical networkers and publicists</p> <p> </p>2023-12-16T00:00:00-08:00Copyright (c) 2023 Online Journalhttps://jestudies.yale.edu/index.php/journal/article/view/715A Brilliant Baptist Luminary: Jonathan Maxcy and the Light of New Divinity Theology as Reflected in His Sermons2023-12-16T08:33:00-08:00Michael R. Cooper Jr.edwards@yale.edu<p>The Edwardsean tradition, beginning with Jonathan Edwards and carried forth by his followers, had a unique influence on religious and social life between the two Awakenings. Like the Presbyterians and Congregationalists, Baptists also felt the ripple effects. Baptists were shaped by the Edwardsean tradition on both sides of the Atlantic. In particular, Baptists in the Southern states were formed by Edwardseanism. As Obbie Tyler Todd writes, “With the help of Jonathan Edwards and the Edwardseans, they delivered the faith of their Baptist ancestors to the brave new Southern world.” One Edwardsean Baptist wielded a considerable influence, the “brilliant luminary,” Jonathan Maxcy (1768-1820).</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> Noll writes, “A sustained curve of rising membership does appear among the Baptists in New England and on the southern frontier.” Mark Noll, <em>America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln</em> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 162. For a historical sketch of the Baptist movement, also see Thomas S. Kidd and Barry Hankins, <em>Baptists in America: A History</em> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015); and Anthony L. Chute, Nathan A. Finn, and Michael A. G. Haykin, <em>The Baptist Story: From English Sect to Global Movement</em> (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2015).</p> <p><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2">[2]</a> Various works have mentioned this influence: Michael A. G. Haykin, “Great Admirers of the Transatlantic Divinity: Some Chapters in the Story of Baptist Edwardsianism,” in <em>After Jonathan Edwards: The Courses of the New England Theology</em>, ed. Oliver D. Crisp and Douglas A. Sweeney (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 197-207; Gregory A. Wills, “The SBJT Forum: Overlooked Shapers of Evangelism,” <em>The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology </em>3, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 87-91. As they relate particularly to Edwardsean revivalism, see these two chapters: Michael A. G. Haykin, “The Lord is Doing Great Things, and Answering Prayer Everywhere”: The Revival of the Calvinistic Baptists in the Long Eighteenth Century” and Tom J. Nettles, “Baptist Revivals in America in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,” in <em>Pentecostal Outpourings: Revival and the Reformed Tradition</em>, ed. Robert Davis Smart, Michael A. G. Haykin, and Ian Hugh Clary (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2016). See also Tom J. Nettles, “Edwards and His Impact on Baptists,” <em>Founders Journal</em> (Summer 2003): 1-18. In particular, scholars have explored the Edwardsean influence in Andrew Fuller: see Chris Chun, <em>The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards in the Theology of Andrew Fuller, </em>Studies in the History of Christian Traditions 162 (Boston: Brill, 2012); Ryan Rindels, <em>Andrew Fuller’s Theology of Revival: Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility in Spiritual Renewal </em>(Eugene OR: Pickwick Publications, 2021); Obbie Tyler Todd, <em>A Baptist at the Crossroads: The Atonement in the Writings of Richard Furman 1755-1825</em> (Eugene OR: Pickwick Publications, 2021).</p> <p><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3">[3]</a> Obbie Tyler Todd, <em>Southern Edwardseans: The Southern Baptist Legacy of Jonathan Edwards</em> (Gottingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2022). The inspiration and content of this article draws heavily from Todd’s groundbreaking research.</p> <p><a href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4">[4]</a> Todd, <em>Southern Edwardseans, </em>29.</p> <p><a href="#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5">[5]</a> Romeo Elton, <em>The Literary Remains of the Rev. Jonathan Maxcy, D. D.</em> (New York: Published by A. V. Blake, 1844), 20.</p>2023-12-16T00:00:00-08:00Copyright (c) 2023 Online Journal