Five from Jonathan Edwards

I recently finished reading George Marsden‘s biography of Jonathan Edwards, Jonathan Edwards: A Life. Edwards is one of the premier thinkers of early colonial America and a pillar of American Calvinism influenced by the English Puritans. For more on Edwards, you can read a biography here. For Edwards’ influence on a contemporary pastor, read John Piper’s comments here.

Here are five things that stuck with me through the reading of this book.

1. Conflict will come in ministry: Jonathan Edwards is recognized as one of the most brilliant minds of early America. Even so, he was run out of his church after serving faithfully for 24 years because of disagreements about communion and how to confront sin publicly in the church. Conflict is unavoidable in local church ministry.
2. Know who you are; don’t try to be someone else: Marsden offers an interesting comparison of Edwards to famed English revivalist George Whitefield. While pointing out the similarity of values and goals between these two pastors, he contrasts their stark differences of personality and ministry approach. Jonathan Edwards was an intellectual introvert through and through. Whitefield was a flamboyant revivalist. Edwards chose to minister out of his uniqueness instead of attempting to imitate anyone else. Edward’s distinct contribution to American history and larger church history flowed from his own sense of uniqueness.
3. Keep an eternal perspective: Throughout his many endeavors, Jonathan Edwards was always trying to grasp what God was doing not just for the present but also for how the present moment fits into God’s greater kingdom purposes for eternity. Too often, we limit our perspective to the here and now when we should seek a wider eternal view on our life and setting.
4. Death Comes Unexpectedly: Jonathan Edwards’ life, like many in colonial America, was marked by death. For Edwards that meant losing children and friends to death at unexpected times. It also meant that death came upon him as he was launching into the next, and possibly most prestigious, phase of his career as President of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton). But death came to Edwards within a few months of his installation of Princeton. In a world where we seek to prolong our lives as much as possible, we do well to learn from Jonathan Edwards on how to live in preparation for dying well.
5. Leave a legacy, even if it is misunderstood: Because of his views on death and life, Edwards did his utmost to leave a legacy, although he wouldn’t have said it in those terms. He wrote works that have endured and lived a life worth emulating, even though he was often misunderstood. A later President of Yale predicated that Edwards’ works “will pass into transient notice perhaps scarce above oblivion” (498). While that was true momentarily, the strength of his work endures as much as the life he lived because of his great intellect and perspective beyond his own time.