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Coming of Age Among the Edwardsians: Taylor's Religious Horizons

Douglas A. Sweeney

in Nathaniel Taylor, New Haven Theology, and the Legacy of Jonathan Edwards

Sweeney reconstructs the New England religious culture that shaped the life of Taylor, and that derived much of its theological substance from the two distinctive foci of Edwardsian New Divinity: its ... More

Sweeney reconstructs the New England religious culture that shaped the life of Taylor, and that derived much of its theological substance from the two distinctive foci of Edwardsian New Divinity: its distinction between natural and moral ability, and its insistence on immediate repentance. With the establishment of the New Divinity “schools of the prophets,” men such as Joseph Bellamy, Charles Backus, and Nathanael Emmons influenced the next generation of Edwardsian preachers and leaders. The direct result of widespread Edwardsian preaching in New England was what could only be called an Edwardsian enculturation of Calvinist New England by the first third of the nineteenth century.Less

The Disseminator

Jonathan Yeager

in Enlightened Evangelicalism: The Life and Thought of John Erskine

This chapter explores the breadth of Erskine's role as a disseminator through the literature that he sent to America, Britain, and Europe. Erskine posted books to his correspondents for a variety of ... More

This chapter explores the breadth of Erskine's role as a disseminator through the literature that he sent to America, Britain, and Europe. Erskine posted books to his correspondents for a variety of reasons. Sometimes he received specific requests for material on a particular subject, as was often the case with Jonathan Edwards, or he might send the latest theological publications by authors with heterodox views to capable evangelical theologians like Joseph Bellamy with the intent that they write polemics as a response to these writings. Regardless of whether Erskine was working towards publishing the posthumous manuscripts of Jonathan Edwards, forwarding books to his friends, or filling the bare shelves of fledgling institutions such as the College of New Jersey, Yale, and Dickinson College, his goal was to enlighten his recipients to current works in print in order to strengthen evangelicalism.Less

Colonial Theologies in the Era of the Revolution

Mark A. Noll

in America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln

Before 1790, and despite the massive ideological changes sparked by the American Revolution, theology in America remained mostly in continuity with traditions from the Old World. The innovations ... More

Before 1790, and despite the massive ideological changes sparked by the American Revolution, theology in America remained mostly in continuity with traditions from the Old World. The innovations present in American theology up to 1790 resulted more from importing British and continental advances rather than from indigenous development in the American context.Less

The Moral Government of God: Jonathan Edwards and Joseph Bellamy on the Atonement

Oliver D. Crisp

in After Jonathan Edwards: The Courses of the New England Theology

This chapter examines the doctrines of atonement found in Edwards’s theology and that of his immediate disciple, Joseph Bellamy, the progenitor of the New Divinity governmental model of atonement. ... More

This chapter examines the doctrines of atonement found in Edwards’s theology and that of his immediate disciple, Joseph Bellamy, the progenitor of the New Divinity governmental model of atonement. The chapter argues that in developing their own position, the New England theologians did not deviate from Edwardsian theology. Rather, they fused certain elements within a basically Edwardsian scheme, particularly emphasis on the moral government of God in creation, to forge a novel account of the work of Christ. In other words, they innovated within a theological tradition. The resulting account of the work of Christ is worthy of much more serious consideration in the academic literature than it has hitherto enjoyed.Less

Jonathan Edwards on Education and His Educational Legacy

Kenneth P. Minkema

in After Jonathan Edwards: The Courses of the New England Theology

Jonathan Edwards was deeply involved in education, as a tutor at Yale College, with catechists in his congregation at Northampton, with Indian children at Stockbridge, and as president of the College ... More

Jonathan Edwards was deeply involved in education, as a tutor at Yale College, with catechists in his congregation at Northampton, with Indian children at Stockbridge, and as president of the College of New Jersey. He also took aspiring ministerial candidates into his home, teaching them theology. From this central pedagogical impulse, Edwards’s own students, most famously Samuel Hopkins and Joseph Bellamy, used a “mentor’s” model for rusticating ministerial students and building “schools of the prophets” of a home-grown variety. New Divinity men and women became teachers, professors, and presidents of educational institutions, training new missionaries in particular. With the mainstreaming of the New England Theology, however, divisions arose within the movement over the true meaning and inheritors of Edwards’s legacy; feuds broke out among institutions, including breakaway schools such as the East Windsor Seminary. After the movement dissolved, some educators carried the torch of Edwardsianism into the twentieth century.Less

Jonathan Edwards, the New Divinity, and Cosmopolitan Calvinism

Mark Valeri

in After Jonathan Edwards: The Courses of the New England Theology

This chapter describes the relationship between Jonathan Edwards and his earliest followers, New Divinity men such as Joseph Bellamy and Samuel Hopkins. Surveying recent studies of Edwards, it ... More

This chapter describes the relationship between Jonathan Edwards and his earliest followers, New Divinity men such as Joseph Bellamy and Samuel Hopkins. Surveying recent studies of Edwards, it contends that he forged what can be called the evangelical Calvinist tradition by shaping Calvinist doctrine to Enlightenment moral discourses fixed on reason, right sentiment, and the social conventions of politeness. New Divinity preachers developed Edwards’s thought in a contest with rational critics of Calvinism on one hand and radical evangelical groups on the other. The result was a distinction between a type of evangelicalism that maintained cosmopolitan standards of social propriety and moral benevolence over and against a separatist and enthusiastic strain in the evangelical movement. The New Divinity accordingly allied itself with established religious conventions, albeit with an evangelical agenda, while other evangelicals developed a theological mind-set that challenged widespread notions of reason, responsibility, and politeness.Less

Birth of a Theologian: The Early Life of Nathaniel Taylor

Douglas A. Sweeney

in Nathaniel Taylor, New Haven Theology, and the Legacy of Jonathan Edwards

This chapter briefly outlines the Taylor family history, including Nathaniel William Taylor's puritan roots in New England. Although Nathaniel William Taylor's grandfather and family patriarch, ... More

This chapter briefly outlines the Taylor family history, including Nathaniel William Taylor's puritan roots in New England. Although Nathaniel William Taylor's grandfather and family patriarch, Nathanael Taylor, was a prominent Old Calvinist, Nathaniel William Taylor's religious horizons were expanded under the tutelage of Azel Backus, the prominent New Divinity preacher and successor to Joseph Bellamy's pulpit in Bethlehem, Connecticut. Backus molded the young Taylor's mind – as well as his piety and his preaching style – after the Edwardsians.Less

Selective Readings: Edwards and the New Divinity

Michael J. McClymond and Gerald R. McDermott

in The Theology of Jonathan Edwards

Although there are numerous difficulties in identifying Edwards's theological legacy, the first distinct group of followers to emerge was referred to as the New Divinity. From the outset, there was ... More

Although there are numerous difficulties in identifying Edwards's theological legacy, the first distinct group of followers to emerge was referred to as the New Divinity. From the outset, there was significant opposition to Edwardsean theology from Arminians and from liberalizing Congregationalists (or Old Lights). Appropriating and adapting Edwards's theology proved to be problematic not only because of the complexity of ideas, but also because of a lack of access to his materials. Ultimately the New Divinity authors moved beyond Edwards by heightening human responsibility, rejecting imputation, and removing the distinction between moral inability and natural ability. Despite these changes, these Edwardseans venerated Edwards and believed that his legacy should endure. Edwardsean teaching underlay much of nineteenth-century evangelical expansion in missions, antislavery (abolitionism), education, and social reform.Less

Theological Dispute, 1750–1858

Bruce Kuklick

in A History of Philosophy in America: 1720-2000

From 1750–1850, a philosophical theology rooted in the work of Jonathan Edwards dominated speculative thought in America. A group of Edwards's students, followers of ‘New Divinity,’ were led by ... More

From 1750–1850, a philosophical theology rooted in the work of Jonathan Edwards dominated speculative thought in America. A group of Edwards's students, followers of ‘New Divinity,’ were led by Joseph Bellamy, Samuel Hopkins, and Nathaniel Emmons, who defended both God's sovereignty and human free will. They eventually professionalized in schools of theology led by Charles Hodge at Princeton, and, at Yale by Nathaniel William Taylor, a brilliant innovator and expositor of ideas that injected Scottish realism into theological debate.Less

Introduction

Oliver D. Crisp and Douglas A. Sweeney

in After Jonathan Edwards: The Courses of the New England Theology

The Introduction to the volume sets out the background to the New England Theology, its development, and its importance. It also includes an outline of each chapter of the book.

Summarizing God’s Law

Joseph Bellamy

in Early Evangelicalism: A Reader

This chapter presents excerpts from Joseph Bellamy's 1750 book True Religion Delineated; or, Experimental Religion, As Distinguished from Formality on the One Hand, and Enthusiasm on the Other, Set ... More

This chapter presents excerpts from Joseph Bellamy's 1750 book True Religion Delineated; or, Experimental Religion, As Distinguished from Formality on the One Hand, and Enthusiasm on the Other, Set in a Scriptural and Rational Light. Bellamy is considered one of the most important evangelical theologians of the eighteenth century. Along with Samuel Hopkins, he became a disciple of Jonathan Edwards and progenitor of the “New Divinity” movement. In True Religion Delineated, Bellamy outlined the intricacies of obedience to the law, which he believed true Christianity depended on. He wanted to convince his readers that God's moral law, established before creation, remained alive, even after the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.Less