Eudaimonia after Edwards: Or, What’s "New" about the New Divinity?

Abstract

The question, “What is new about the New Divinity?” has been asked by theologians and historians for almost two centuries now. The traditional answer has been that the “newness” of these theologians came from their claim to follow in the lineage of Jonathan Edwards and some of his original insights. The stress upon “New” was originally a term of derision that was eventually accepted as a party name. The question of originality mattered during the eighteenth century because the “new” Divinity was raising suspicions about possible theological heterodoxy.