August 12, 2013 Sam Logan: The Theological Aesthetics of Jonathan Edwards, by WRF Board Member Kin Yip Louie  

NOTE:  The book was published by Pickwick Publications (Wipf and Stock) of Eugene, Oregon, in 2013, and is a part of the Princeton Theological Monograph Series.  It may be purchased directly from the publisher  [ https://wipfandstock.com/pickwick_publications ].

There are two “Forewords” to this book, one of them by WRF International Director, Dr. Samuel Logan.

Dr. Logan’s “Foreword” is below.   

Jonathan Edwards’s Treatise on Religious Affections is surely one of the most important books ever written by a human being.  This is true for many reasons, not least the fact that, in this book, Edwards does a masterful job of answering the question, “What makes a person a Christian?”  And for those who would become Christians, or who would live like Christians, or who would seek to lead others to Christ, it is hard to imagine a more significant question.

Within the Treatise on Religious Affections, one of the fundamental of all of Edwards’s ideas appears in   Section Two of Part III where Edwards discusses this proposition: “The first objective ground of gracious affections is the transcedently excellent  and amiable nature of divine things, as they are in themselves; and not any conceived relation they bear to self or self-interest.”  Here is what he says:

Whereas the exercises of true and holy love in the saints arise in another way. They do not first see that God loves them, and then see that he is lovely, but they first see that God is lovely, and that Christ is excellent and glorious, and their hearts are first captivated with this view, and the exercises of their love are wont from time to time to begin here, and to arise primarily from these views; and then, consequentially, they see God's love, and great favor to them.[49] The saint's affections begin with God.  [Emphasis added.]

Throughout this section (and, in fact, throughout all of Part III of the Affections), the words “beauty,” “beautiful,” “lovely,” and their synonyms appear over and over again.  And in every case, they appear as keys for identifying truly gracious affections.  The unique “special grace” enjoyed by Christians is the gift of seeing God as “beautiful.”  Satan himself knows the truths about God, probably as well as or better than the most orthodox theologians.  But God does not appear beautiful to Satan and that makes all the difference.

This aesthetic approach to understanding the fundamental nature of Christian experience carries over into many of Edwards’s other works where the terms “fit” or “fitness” or “proportion,” as well as “beauty,” define critically important concepts.  From his sermons on “justification,” where Edwards uses “natural fitness” and “moral fitness” to define the essential difference between justification and sanctification to “The Nature of True Virtue,” where Edwards uses “fitness” to describe “the last end for which God made all things,”  Edwards’s approach to theology is decidedly aesthetic.  Without an understanding and appreciation of the aesthetic dimension of Edwards’s theology, the reader will inevitably miss or misunderstand the most important points that Edwards has to make.

This general point has been recognized by many scholars, as Dr. Louie points out in his “Introduction” below.  But, as he also points out, the fully theological nature of Edwards’s aesthetics has been largely ignored, a fact that would have been distressed Edwards himself.  As stated in the quotation above, it is the perception of God’s beauty, not the beauty of any created thing or person, that was uppermost in Edwards’s mind.  Without that dimension, the very reason and ground of the beautiful disappears.

Dr. Louie’s work seeks to correct this lacuna in Edwards scholarship.  And, in my opinion, he does a superb job.

I trust that those who read this book will find the incredible and majestic beauty of the God whom Edwards worshipped both clear and compelling.

Dr. Samuel Logan

International Director

The World Reformed Fellowship This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.wrfnet.org