THEOLOGICA Wratislaviensia Vol. 7 · 2012 THEOLOGICA Wratislaviensia Vol. 7 · 2012 JJJooonnnaaattthhhaaannn EEEdddwwwaaarrrdddsss Editor: Joel Burnell Ewangelikalna Wy¿sza Szko³a Teologiczna Evangelical School of Theology Wroc³aw 2012 Editorial Board: Editor-in-Chief: Wojciech Szczerba Assistant Editor: Piotr Lorek Managing Editor: Sławomir Torbus Editor: Joel Burnell Review procedure: Articles in this volume were double-blind peer reviewed. Copy-Editing: Joel Burnell Kenneth Minkema Layout: Artur Pacewicz Webpages: www.ewst.edu.pl www.theologica.ewst.pl Requests for subscriptions: Ewangelikalna Wy¿sza Szko³a Teologiczna ul. Œwiêtej Jadwigi 12 50-266 Wroc³aw e-mail: [email protected] Copyright by EWST 2012 ISSN 1734-4182 ISBN 978-83-60567-08-1 Table of Contents A Word from Editor . 7 EDWARDS, HISTORY AND THEOLOGY IN CONTEXT Gerald McDermott — Jonathan Edwards and the Future of Global Christianity . 13 Philip Fisk — The Theological Backdrop to Divine Knowledge at Harvard and Yale: From William Ames to Jonathan Edwards . 21 Adriaan Neele — Edwards: Trajectories in Biblical Exegesis . 51 Jan Stievermann — Studying the History of American Protestantism through Jonathan Edwards: Versions of ”America’s Theologian” at Mid-Century . 69 Willem van Vlastuin — A Retrieval of Edwards’ Concept of Free Will . 93 EDWARDS AND THE WORD Gerald McDermott — Theology in the Hands of a Literary Artist: Jonathan Edwards as Preacher . 115 Wojciech Kowalewski — Jonathan Edwards: Kaznodzieja misyjny i przebudzeniowy . 129 Michaª Choi«ski — A Cognitive Approach to the Hermeneutics of Jonathan Edwards’s Sermons . 141 Anna Svetlikova — Jonathan Edwards’ Typology as Language . 159 6 Table of Contents EDWARDS AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE Gerald McDermott — The Affections and the Human Person: Edwards on Religious Experience . 175 Kenneth Minkema — Talk of Experience: Jonathan Edwards on Religious Speech . 185 Gerald McDermott — Sorting out the Genuine from the Counterfeit: J. Edwards on Testing the Spirits . 199 Rhys Bezzant — Singly, Particularly, Closely: Edwards as Mentor . 205 Joel Burnell — Jonathan Edwards Meets Dietrich Bonhoeffer: True Religion or Non-Religious Christianity . 225 THEOLOGICA WRATISLAVIENSIA t. 7. 2012 A Word from Editor Volume 7 marks the second time that a volume of Theologica Wratislaviensia is dedicated to the legacy of a single individual. Volume 5 was a no-brainer; Die- trich Bonhoeffer’s works have been the subject of popular interest and scholarly research in Poland since a translation of his selected texts (Wybór pism, SIW Znak, ed. Anna Morawska) first appeared in 1970. The choice of Jonathan Edwards for this volume is not so obvious. Although Jonathan Edwards is widely regarded as America’s leading theologian and philosopher, to date little scholarly research on Edwards has been done in Poland, due in part to the lack of Polish translations of his major works, along with the scarcity of secondary source material available in the holdings of Polish university libraries. Yet despite the lack of resources and resulting research, Polish interest in Ed- wards is surprisingly high. When Kenneth Minkema, Director of the Jonathan Ed- wards Center at Yale University (JEC-Yale), first contacted the Evangelical School of Theology in Wrocław (EWST) about opening a center in Poland to promote re- search into Edwards’ life and work, we learned from him and his colleague Adri- aan Neele that Poland regularly ranks second in the world in monthly hits on the JEC-Yale website. Since the establishment at EWST of the Jonathan Edwards Center-Poland (JEC- Poland) in 2009, our goal has been to promote interdisciplinary research and dis- cussion of Edwards’ legacy. In addition to the acquisition of primary and sec- ondary materials placed in the Jonathan Edwards’ collection in the EWST library, JEC-Poland undertook the translation into Polish of the Jonathan Edwards Reader (Yale University Press, 1995, Smith, Stout and Minkema, eds.), scheduled for pub- lication by EWST in Spring, 2014. The International Jonathan Edwards Confer- ence, organized by EWST in June 2011, gathered scholars from four continents 8 Joel Burnell and eight countries, representing 15 universities and 6 international Jonathan Ed- wards Centers. We feel confident that Volume 7 of Theologica, which grew in part out of the papers presented at the 2011 conference, will help stimulate new and increased interest in Edwards by scholars, church leaders and laypersons alike, both in Poland and abroad. The articles we offer here to our readers are organized into three groups, re- flecting the highly interdisciplinary nature of Edwardsian research. The first sec- tion, “Edwards, History and Theology in Context”, contains five texts, beginning with Gerald McDermott’s keynote address from the 2011 conference. McDermott argues that Edwards provides a unique basis for dialogue between Catholics and Protestants, between Eastern and Western Christianity, between charismatics and non-charismatics, as well as between liberals and conservatives. Rather than speaking of Jonathan Edwards as “America’s theologian”, McDermott concludes that, “it may be appropriate [...] to begin thinking of him as a global theologian for twenty-first-century Christianity.” The remaining articles in this group reflect this forward-looking trajectory. Philip Fisk and Adriaan Neele first show how Ed- wards, living in 18th century Colonial America, creatively drew on and adapted the views of major European 17th century theologians from the Reformed and Puritan traditions. Next, Jan Stievermann brings us closer to the 21st century by illustrating the possibilities of using Edwards’ thought, or more specifically its changing national and international reception, as an interpretive lens for study- ing the “diverse traditions and trajectories” of American Protestantism. Stiever- mann’s perspective as a historian will be of particular interest to students and scholars working in the area of American studies. Finally, Willem van Vlastuin truly goes “where no Edwards’ scholar has gone before”, drawing on theology, philosophy and neuroscience in an interdisciplinary exploration of determinism and free will. Section two, “Edwards and the Word”, is headed by another McDermott paper, presented in 2011 at Jagiellonian University in Kraków (Institute of English Stud- ies, Department of the History of English and American Literature). “Theology in the Hand of a Literary Artist: Jonathan Edwards as Preacher”, which discusses the setting of Edwards’ sermons, the stages of his preaching career, his goals as a preacher and his “incomparable use of imagery”, is followed by three papers by young Central European scholars, all of which explore in more depth various aspects of Edwards’ use of the spoken and written word. Wojciech Kowalewski’s article, written primarily for Polish readers who are new to Edwards’ work, an- alyzes selected sermons by Edwards, with a focus on his impact as a revivalist A Word from Editor 9 and missionary preacher. In “Rhetorical Hermeneutics of Edwards’ Sermonic Im- agery”, Michal Choiński employs cognitive poetics for the analysis of Jonathan Edwards’ sermons. Anna Svetlikova closes this section with “Jonathan Edwards’ Typology of Language”, suggesting that the promise and the pitfalls of Edwards’ understanding and use of typology “highlight issues which resonate with certain concerns of postmodern critical theory.” The final group of five papers appears under the theme of “Edwards and Re- ligious Experience”, a topic that is introduced by another McDermott article, “Af- fections and the Human Person”. Ken Minkema picks the theme up from there, discussing Edwards’ critique of members of his own congregation as well as the larger revival movement of his day, “who dwelt on ‘talk of experiences’ rather than on practice or behavior.” The final McDermott paper, delivered as a public lec- ture during the interdenominational service organized by EWST at the Pentecostal Church (Antioch Fellowship), which closed the 2011 Conference in Wrocław,presents the reliable and unreliable signs of true spirituality, as described by Edwards in Reli- gious Affections. The final two papers share an element of critique. Rhys Bezzant re- examines the oft-repeated stereotype that Edwards the pastor was more adept as a preacher than a mentor, arguing that while that may indeed be the case, neverthe- less his sermons and letters show he was genuinely committed to mentoring the next generation. Joel Burnell concludes this volume by comparing Edwards’ view of “true religion” and Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s proposal for “non-religious Christian- ity”, suggesting that a more in-depth study of their respective approaches will discover more similarities than differences. It is with pleasure then that we present Volume 7 of Theologica Wratislavien- sia to our readers. It contains articles of interest to those familiar with Edwards and to those who are new to his work, to scholars and pastors, to teachers and students—regardless of whether their chosen discipline or area of expertise is English philology or philosophy, rhetoric or religion, literature or history, Ameri- can studies or theology. As the participants in the 2011 International Conference in Wrocław experienced firsthand, Jonathan Edwards offers much to interest, attract and enrich us all. Dr. Joel Burnell Chair of Theology Department Evangelical School of Theology (Wrocław, Poland) Director of the Jonathan Edwards Center-Poland (JEC-Poland) [email protected] 10 Joel Burnell Editor’s note: Three of Gerald