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The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 3: Original Sin
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- GenresTheologyAnthropology
464 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1758
About the author
Jonathan Edwards
1,668 books538 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database named Jonathan Edwards.
Jonathan Edwards was the most eminent American philosopher-theologian of his time, and a key figure in what has come to be called the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s.
The only son in a family of eleven children, he entered Yale in September, 1716 when he was not yet thirteen and graduated four years later (1720) as valedictorian. He received his Masters three years later. As a youth, Edwards was unable to accept the Calvinist sovereignty of God. However, in 1721 he came to what he called a "delightful conviction" though meditation on 1 Timothy 1:17. From that point on, Edwards delighted in the sovereignty of God. Edwards later recognized this as his conversion to Christ.
In 1727 he was ordained minister at Northampton and assistant to his maternal grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. He was a student minister, not a visiting pastor, his rule being thirteen hours of study a day. In the same year, he married Sarah Pierpont, then age seventeen, daughter of Yale founder James Pierpont (1659–1714). In total, Jonathan and Sarah had eleven children.
Stoddard died on February 11th, 1729, leaving to his grandson the difficult task of the sole ministerial charge of one of the largest and wealthiest congregations in the colony. Throughout his time in Northampton his preaching brought remarkable religious revivals.
Yet, tensions flamed as Edwards would not continue his grandfather's practice of open communion. Stoddard believed that communion was a "converting ordinance." Surrounding congregations had been convinced of this, and as Edwards became more convinced that this was harmful, his public disagreement with the idea caused his dismissal in 1750.
Edwards then moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, then a frontier settlement, where he ministered to a small congregation and served as missionary to the Housatonic Indians. There, having more time for study and writing, he completed his celebrated work, The Freedom of the Will (1754).
Edwards was elected president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in early 1758. He was a popular choice, for he had been a friend of the College since its inception. He died of fever at the age of fifty-four following experimental inoculation for smallpox and was buried in the President's Lot in the Princeton cemetery beside his son-in-law, Aaron Burr.
Jonathan Edwards was the most eminent American philosopher-theologian of his time, and a key figure in what has come to be called the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s.
The only son in a family of eleven children, he entered Yale in September, 1716 when he was not yet thirteen and graduated four years later (1720) as valedictorian. He received his Masters three years later. As a youth, Edwards was unable to accept the Calvinist sovereignty of God. However, in 1721 he came to what he called a "delightful conviction" though meditation on 1 Timothy 1:17. From that point on, Edwards delighted in the sovereignty of God. Edwards later recognized this as his conversion to Christ.
In 1727 he was ordained minister at Northampton and assistant to his maternal grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. He was a student minister, not a visiting pastor, his rule being thirteen hours of study a day. In the same year, he married Sarah Pierpont, then age seventeen, daughter of Yale founder James Pierpont (1659–1714). In total, Jonathan and Sarah had eleven children.
Stoddard died on February 11th, 1729, leaving to his grandson the difficult task of the sole ministerial charge of one of the largest and wealthiest congregations in the colony. Throughout his time in Northampton his preaching brought remarkable religious revivals.
Yet, tensions flamed as Edwards would not continue his grandfather's practice of open communion. Stoddard believed that communion was a "converting ordinance." Surrounding congregations had been convinced of this, and as Edwards became more convinced that this was harmful, his public disagreement with the idea caused his dismissal in 1750.
Edwards then moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, then a frontier settlement, where he ministered to a small congregation and served as missionary to the Housatonic Indians. There, having more time for study and writing, he completed his celebrated work, The Freedom of the Will (1754).
Edwards was elected president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in early 1758. He was a popular choice, for he had been a friend of the College since its inception. He died of fever at the age of fifty-four following experimental inoculation for smallpox and was buried in the President's Lot in the Princeton cemetery beside his son-in-law, Aaron Burr.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 7, 2018
I’ll be honest: this was probably the most difficult book I’ve ever read. It not only is long, but it is Edwards-dense, and it is heady.
That being said, I truly did benefit from it. As with the other three Edwards books I have read this year (Freedom of the Will; Nature of True Virtue; End for Which God Created the World), in this work he once again shows his brilliance, invoking thoughts I’ve never thought before. For this reason, I do not regret one bit spending the weeks upon weeks digging into it. It wasn’t easy at times, but there was a handful of times that I not only understood what he was saying, but then was taken back by connections and thoughts I’d never had before.
The thesis of the book is that the doctrine of original sin is true, meaning, that every single person is born corrupt because of the continuance of the sinful nature of Adam being passed down through the race. To show this is true, he not only cites the Bible, but even more so he uses reasoning and common sense philosophy to show that it must be the case.
He shows how evidence shows the true corruption of mankind, and how we are not morally good or neutral. One of my favorite arguments he uses here is to show that man is clearly deeply corrupt in two ways: 1) idolatry and 2) stupidity concerning eternal things.
In the argument for idolatry, he basically is saying that we show our corruption by forsaking the living, good, satisfying God and trade him for images that don’t work (think Romans 1). This is good but more typical.
It is his argument about the stupidity concerning eternal things that caught my attention. In basic, he argues that it is incredible that so many people can say they believe in an eternal afterlife (as God has put this in man’s hearts), and yet live life with such little regard for it! His point is so true. People say they believe in everlasting something after, but then we live as if only the temporal matters! It shows that we are corrupted and don’t see rightly. Edwards argues this well.
He amazingly shows the depravity of infants, from the Bible especially. This was a section that was totally new and interesting to me as he traces the surprisingly many instances of infants being shown to be sinners in the Bible. Here’s a good example of Edwards knowing his Bible so well and connecting texts and stories in ways I never have.
He shows what the word ‘death’ means from Genesis 3, and then throughout the Bible, showing that we cannot take it to just mea physical death. This is probably the most ministry-applicable thing I will remember from this book. He shows how in the Hebrew and Greek thought, this idea of death truly meant not just physically, but spiritual death and loss of godly life. It’s a fascinating word study.
Then in the last third of the book, he just answers objections to the doctrine—objections that still exist today. And here is where I get sad that this book really isn’t in print anymore. Yes, it is hard to read, but Edwards’ answers to common objections (such as, mankind is overall good; or, it is unfair for God to have us be born as sinners; or, this makes begetting children a bad thing since they’ll be sinners; or, this makes our judgment of sin unfair; or, that this makes us unhappier, negative people) are so well thought and organized.
In these objections, the best was probably a whole chapter devoted to the idea that original sin is unfair and unjust. To defend this, he doesn’t just say that the Bible says so, but he gets into this whole argument about how it isn’t just imputing Adam’s sin to us, but that it is that God decided that all of humanity would have this oneness, and that after Adam sinned, mankind became corrupt and that corruption has continued ever since. There’s more to the argument (such as God’s continuance of things moment by moment), but it is well argued and he is right that it isn’t unjust of God at all.
Much more could be said about specific things like how he talks about the last judgment, about how people misuse the apostle Paul (in which he had some prophetic sounding rebukes that applied perfectly to not only those who deny original sin, but also the New Perspective on Paul today), and more.
But overall, a hard, but worthwhile read. Would I recommend it? Not necessarily, unless you struggle with believing that mankind is overall wicked, or unless you have a real feeling of unjust about the biblical doctrine of original sin. But I’m glad I read it. I’ll keep it on my shelf as a reference for the doctrine of sin and questions concerning the specific doctrine of original sin for sure.
That being said, I truly did benefit from it. As with the other three Edwards books I have read this year (Freedom of the Will; Nature of True Virtue; End for Which God Created the World), in this work he once again shows his brilliance, invoking thoughts I’ve never thought before. For this reason, I do not regret one bit spending the weeks upon weeks digging into it. It wasn’t easy at times, but there was a handful of times that I not only understood what he was saying, but then was taken back by connections and thoughts I’d never had before.
The thesis of the book is that the doctrine of original sin is true, meaning, that every single person is born corrupt because of the continuance of the sinful nature of Adam being passed down through the race. To show this is true, he not only cites the Bible, but even more so he uses reasoning and common sense philosophy to show that it must be the case.
He shows how evidence shows the true corruption of mankind, and how we are not morally good or neutral. One of my favorite arguments he uses here is to show that man is clearly deeply corrupt in two ways: 1) idolatry and 2) stupidity concerning eternal things.
In the argument for idolatry, he basically is saying that we show our corruption by forsaking the living, good, satisfying God and trade him for images that don’t work (think Romans 1). This is good but more typical.
It is his argument about the stupidity concerning eternal things that caught my attention. In basic, he argues that it is incredible that so many people can say they believe in an eternal afterlife (as God has put this in man’s hearts), and yet live life with such little regard for it! His point is so true. People say they believe in everlasting something after, but then we live as if only the temporal matters! It shows that we are corrupted and don’t see rightly. Edwards argues this well.
He amazingly shows the depravity of infants, from the Bible especially. This was a section that was totally new and interesting to me as he traces the surprisingly many instances of infants being shown to be sinners in the Bible. Here’s a good example of Edwards knowing his Bible so well and connecting texts and stories in ways I never have.
He shows what the word ‘death’ means from Genesis 3, and then throughout the Bible, showing that we cannot take it to just mea physical death. This is probably the most ministry-applicable thing I will remember from this book. He shows how in the Hebrew and Greek thought, this idea of death truly meant not just physically, but spiritual death and loss of godly life. It’s a fascinating word study.
Then in the last third of the book, he just answers objections to the doctrine—objections that still exist today. And here is where I get sad that this book really isn’t in print anymore. Yes, it is hard to read, but Edwards’ answers to common objections (such as, mankind is overall good; or, it is unfair for God to have us be born as sinners; or, this makes begetting children a bad thing since they’ll be sinners; or, this makes our judgment of sin unfair; or, that this makes us unhappier, negative people) are so well thought and organized.
In these objections, the best was probably a whole chapter devoted to the idea that original sin is unfair and unjust. To defend this, he doesn’t just say that the Bible says so, but he gets into this whole argument about how it isn’t just imputing Adam’s sin to us, but that it is that God decided that all of humanity would have this oneness, and that after Adam sinned, mankind became corrupt and that corruption has continued ever since. There’s more to the argument (such as God’s continuance of things moment by moment), but it is well argued and he is right that it isn’t unjust of God at all.
Much more could be said about specific things like how he talks about the last judgment, about how people misuse the apostle Paul (in which he had some prophetic sounding rebukes that applied perfectly to not only those who deny original sin, but also the New Perspective on Paul today), and more.
But overall, a hard, but worthwhile read. Would I recommend it? Not necessarily, unless you struggle with believing that mankind is overall wicked, or unless you have a real feeling of unjust about the biblical doctrine of original sin. But I’m glad I read it. I’ll keep it on my shelf as a reference for the doctrine of sin and questions concerning the specific doctrine of original sin for sure.
April 28, 2020
This isn’t really an exegetical defense of Original Sin as it is an extended book review on Dr Taylor’s works. There is some exegesis, and Edwards does make a few good comments on concreated holiness, but the real fireworks are at the end.
Identity with Adam: mankind has a “constituted connexion” with Adam as an acorn does with an oak (IV.II. n). Edwards acknowledges, but does not develop, a federal principle in Adam. In this same section Edwards affirms creationism as opposed to traducianism.
Edwards’ conclusion is that Adam’s posterity is one with him (IV.III). It is a “constituted oneness or identity.” This allows him to solve the problem of imputation. “By the law of union there is a communion and co-existence of acts” between Adam and his posterity (see note). That’s his imputation: “his posterity are viewed in the same place with their father.”
Edwards pays a high price for his doctrine of imputation. Strictly speaking, nothing is imputed. If I do something, you don’t impute my doing the act to me. I simply did it. Likewise, since Edwards has identified Adam and his posterity, his posterity just as equally did the act. There is nothing to impute.
Edwards tries to get around these problems of identity by using analogies of body/soul, tree/acorn. He takes Locke’s theory of identity as “sameness of consciousness” and adds a new twist. Personal identity depends on a law of nature, namely the “sovereign will and agency of God” (p. 223 in the Banner of Truth edition). Here is his argument:
(1) Personal identity depends on God’s constitution.
(2) God continually upholds and preserves his creation.
(3) Our dependent existence is an “effect and must have some cause” and the cause is either an antecedent cause or the power of the creator.
(4) It cannot be an antecedent cause because no passive thing can create a cause in space and time that is greater than itself, and so must pass out of existence. If it is out of existence it cannot create a new cause.
(5) “Therefore, the existence of created substances, in each successive moment, must be the effect of the immediate agency, will, and power of God”.
(5*) New exertions of divine power are needed to keep things from dropping into nothing.
But isn’t Edwards simply saying that God upholds things every moment, and if God didn’t exist, they wouldn’t? No. He goes on to say:
(6) God is “causing its existence in each successive moment.” In fact, he says this is “altogether equivalent to an immediate production out of nothing, at each moment” (224).
Criticisms
There are some major problems with this. If God’s reconstituting humanity at each new moment does all the heavy lifting, then why is there any need for a metaphysical oneness with Adam? Couldn’t God just view it like that? Oliver Crisp points out that “Divine fiat is doing all the explanatory work” (Jonathan Edwards Among the Theologians 121). Further, it appears that not only is God recreating the world at every moment, he is creating sin at every moment. This is a fatal price to pay.
Unfortunately, I think JE paid too high a price. He must surrender either his view of Original Sin or his view of the Will. In the latter he said that each moment’s prior state was the cause of the next state. But here he seems to say that the antecedent cause has no real existence. If it doesn’t, then it can’t cause the next state, pace Freedom of the Will.
Oliver Crisp has raised yet a bigger problem: if God is recreating me each moment, and I am a sinful human, then is God creating evil and sin each moment?
Identity with Adam: mankind has a “constituted connexion” with Adam as an acorn does with an oak (IV.II. n). Edwards acknowledges, but does not develop, a federal principle in Adam. In this same section Edwards affirms creationism as opposed to traducianism.
Edwards’ conclusion is that Adam’s posterity is one with him (IV.III). It is a “constituted oneness or identity.” This allows him to solve the problem of imputation. “By the law of union there is a communion and co-existence of acts” between Adam and his posterity (see note). That’s his imputation: “his posterity are viewed in the same place with their father.”
Edwards pays a high price for his doctrine of imputation. Strictly speaking, nothing is imputed. If I do something, you don’t impute my doing the act to me. I simply did it. Likewise, since Edwards has identified Adam and his posterity, his posterity just as equally did the act. There is nothing to impute.
Edwards tries to get around these problems of identity by using analogies of body/soul, tree/acorn. He takes Locke’s theory of identity as “sameness of consciousness” and adds a new twist. Personal identity depends on a law of nature, namely the “sovereign will and agency of God” (p. 223 in the Banner of Truth edition). Here is his argument:
(1) Personal identity depends on God’s constitution.
(2) God continually upholds and preserves his creation.
(3) Our dependent existence is an “effect and must have some cause” and the cause is either an antecedent cause or the power of the creator.
(4) It cannot be an antecedent cause because no passive thing can create a cause in space and time that is greater than itself, and so must pass out of existence. If it is out of existence it cannot create a new cause.
(5) “Therefore, the existence of created substances, in each successive moment, must be the effect of the immediate agency, will, and power of God”.
(5*) New exertions of divine power are needed to keep things from dropping into nothing.
But isn’t Edwards simply saying that God upholds things every moment, and if God didn’t exist, they wouldn’t? No. He goes on to say:
(6) God is “causing its existence in each successive moment.” In fact, he says this is “altogether equivalent to an immediate production out of nothing, at each moment” (224).
Criticisms
There are some major problems with this. If God’s reconstituting humanity at each new moment does all the heavy lifting, then why is there any need for a metaphysical oneness with Adam? Couldn’t God just view it like that? Oliver Crisp points out that “Divine fiat is doing all the explanatory work” (Jonathan Edwards Among the Theologians 121). Further, it appears that not only is God recreating the world at every moment, he is creating sin at every moment. This is a fatal price to pay.
Unfortunately, I think JE paid too high a price. He must surrender either his view of Original Sin or his view of the Will. In the latter he said that each moment’s prior state was the cause of the next state. But here he seems to say that the antecedent cause has no real existence. If it doesn’t, then it can’t cause the next state, pace Freedom of the Will.
Oliver Crisp has raised yet a bigger problem: if God is recreating me each moment, and I am a sinful human, then is God creating evil and sin each moment?
July 27, 2013
Didn't realize what I was getting into when I started this, and apparently it's a brilliant treatise about a whole host of doctrinal issues relating to the fall of man. An absolutely mind-shattering work, Edwards tackles a number of theological problems I wouldn't dare to, simply on account of their requiring extraordinary knowledge and genius.
Ever wondered how Adam could have sinned in the Garden of Eden, if he didn't have a sin nature?
Ever wondered why Adam's sin necessarily impacted all his descendents?
Ever wondered whether children are innocent upon birth, and go to heaven if they die?
If these are the kinds of questions that bother you when you think about the Bible, you MUST read this book. Dense, powerful, OVERWHELMINGLY proven by Scripture... Jonathan Edwards may very well have been the greatest theologian who ever lived, and certainly one of the finest philosophers.
Ever wondered how Adam could have sinned in the Garden of Eden, if he didn't have a sin nature?
Ever wondered why Adam's sin necessarily impacted all his descendents?
Ever wondered whether children are innocent upon birth, and go to heaven if they die?
If these are the kinds of questions that bother you when you think about the Bible, you MUST read this book. Dense, powerful, OVERWHELMINGLY proven by Scripture... Jonathan Edwards may very well have been the greatest theologian who ever lived, and certainly one of the finest philosophers.
October 5, 2008
Not an easy read, but standard for Edwards. E provides useful arguments for responding to attacks against original sin, but the best parts of the book are when he's probing into philosophical depths on the nature of things, such as how are we all connected? Is there a "oneness" out there that ties us all together? How does God relate to us as individauls and as a part of humanity as a whole?
Great thought on these and other topics, especially towards the end of the book (mostly in Section IV).
Great thought on these and other topics, especially towards the end of the book (mostly in Section IV).
March 6, 2014
It amazes me that a Christian would not hold to the doctrine of original sin. Even more amazing is that a Christian would still hold that view after reading Edwards' treatise on the subject. From both a philosophical and biblical perspective, Edwards presents a thorough case for the doctrine as he graciously tears his opponents arguments to shreds.
April 19, 2014
Edwards lays out an extremely strong defense of the doctrine of original sin using Scripture and an observation of the universal wickedness of people. This book, though old, deals with some of the objections brought up today. So, it is very relevant for today. If you can handle the heavy lifting, read this book.
July 29, 2014
Pieces of Dr. Taylor of Norwich were flying everywhere. Great Defense of Augustinnian view of Sin, and the Reformed development of the same.
Edwards, as always, delivers some very interesting perspectives to the work by considering many profound realities like "continuous creation."
Edwards, as always, delivers some very interesting perspectives to the work by considering many profound realities like "continuous creation."
January 16, 2012
Incredibly insightful. Profoundly prophetic. Devastatingly deductive. Completely comprehensive. Soundly scriptural.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews