This edition presents the first text of Jonathan Edwards' private commentary on the book of Revelation. Written over a period of thirty-five years, Edwards' notebook reveals his lifelong fascination with apocalyptic speculation (including its bizarre aspects) and his persistent conviction concerning the usefulness of the visions in the life of the Christian church.
In this volume is also published the first complete edition (since the eighteenth century) of the Humble Attempt (1748)-the call for united prayer that was Edwards' response to the decline in religious fervor after the Great Awakening. In his Introduction and commentary, Stephen J. Stein examines the development of Edwards' apocalyptic interests in the light of the situation in the eighteenth century, showing also how Edwards' private judgments on the book of Revelation affected his personal and theological activity. Together the texts and the Introduction illuminate a hitherto inadequately explored facet of Edwards' religious thought.
With this volume, the Yale edition of the Works of Jonathan Edwards inaugurates the publication of Edwards' major manuscripts. Here, and in subsequent volumes, the massive body of Edwards' manuscripts materials (including letter, sermons, and Miscellanies) will be made available for the first time.
Stephen J. Stein is associate professor of religious studies at Indiana University.

This volume presents for the first time a comprehensive, readable, and annotated text of the key typological notebooks of Jonathan Edwards: "Images of Divine Things," "Types Notebook," and Miscellany 1069, "Types of the Messiah." These three works illustrate the way the eminent eighteenth-century theologian developed his theory of typological exegesis, a theory that helped him to understand the relationship between the Old and New Testaments and to comprehend the correspondence between the natural and the spiritual worlds.

Edwards' theories of typology have long fascinated scholars from a variety of fields and have dominated literary studies of his work. These documents illuminate Edwards' epistemology and show clearly his involvement in contemporary philosophical and exegetical trends. Introductions to the documents place Edwards' typology within the context of his period, describe his typological practices, clarify some of the complex problems posed by his ambiguous use of the types throughout his career, and discuss his philosophical defenses of typologizing against the claims of materialists, deists, and rationalists.

Interpreting the Great Awakening of the eighteenth century was in large part the work of Jonathan Edwards; whose writings on the subject defined the revival tradition in America. Moving from sensitive descriptions of "the Surprising work of God" in conversion to a consuming quest for the essence of true religion, and threading his way through mounting controversies over "errors in doctrine and disorders in practice," Edwards sought to locate an authentic core of evangelical experience, to define it in terms of biblical faith and psychological insight, and to defend it against both overheated zealous and rationalistic critics. The tracts that unfold his thoughts, presented here (with related correspondence ) for the first time in accurate critical texts, document a movement so significant for the American character that it has been called "our national conversion."
In a carefully researched introduction, C.C. Goen identifies the "Arminian threat" to which the Northampton pastor responded at the onset of the Awakening, and traces Edwards' understanding of vital religion as it developed in the ambiguous context of revivalism. Mr. Goen's study also illuminates little-known aspects of A Faithful Narrative and describes the haphazard way in which that important work reached its eager audience.
C.C. Goen, author of Revivalism and Separatism in New England, 1740-1800 (1962), is professor of church history at the Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.

The controversy over human deprivation which raged throughout the eighteenth century was no mere intramural squabble among theologians but an important phase of the evolution in Western man's estimate of his nature and potentialities. By the time Jonathan Edwards entered the lists to champion the hated doctrine of original sin, he saw himself as not only defending a particular dogma but also combating an increasingly dominant drift of opinion which had already engulfed much of Europe and was encroaching dangerously upon America.
John Taylor's treatise was perhaps the boldest and most impressive assault on the doctrine which more than any other contradicted the Enlightenment view of man, and it haunted Edwards throughout all the pressing duties and personal hardships of the years just before and during his sojourn at Stockbridge. Ultimately, he was able to develop a thorough rebuttal of Taylor which focused on three major issues: the fact and nature of original sin, its cause and transmission, and God's responsibility for man's sinfulness.
First published in 1758, The Great Christian Doctrine of Original Sin Defended went though at least 13 separate editions and was included in all collected editions of Edwards' works. The text of the first edition has now been brought into accord with the principles of the Yale Edition, making full use of all relevant manuscript materials. Mr. Holbrook's comprehensive Introduction and annotations provide detailed information about the sources, development, and reception of the work.
Clyde A. Holbrook is William H. Danforth Professor of Religion at Oberlin College.

This final volume in The Works of Jonathan Edwards publishes for the first time Edwards' "Catalogue," a notebook he kept of books of interest, especially titles he hoped to acquire, and entries from his "Account Book," a ledger in which he noted books loaned to family, parishioners, and fellow clergy. These two records, along with several shorter documents presented in the volume, illuminate Edwards' own mental universe while also providing a remarkable window into the wider intellectual and print cultures of the eighteenth-century British Atlantic. An extensive critical introduction places Edwards' book lists in the contexts that shaped his reading agenda, and the result is the most comprehensive treatment yet of his reading and of the fascinating peculiarities of his time and place.



This volume contains Edwards' most mature and persistent attempt to judge the validity of the religious development in eighteenth-century America known as the Great Awakening. In developing criteria for such judgment he attacked at the same time one of the fundamental questions facing all religion: how to distinguish genuine from spurious piety? The Awakening created much bitter controversy; on the one side stood the emotionalists and enthusiasts, and on the other the rationalists, for whom religion was essentially a matter of morality or good conduct and the acceptance of properly formulated doctrine. Edwards, with great analytical skill and enormous biblical learning, showed that both sides were in the wrong. He attacked both a "lifeless morality" as too pale as to be the essence of religion, and he rejected the excesses of a purely emotional religion more concerned for sensational effects than for the inner transformation of the self, which was, for him, the center of genuine Christianity.

This inaugural volume in The Works of Jonathan Edwards is his major contribution to theology and stands as a leading document on Calvinist thought. Mr. Ramsey's introduction provides a fresh analysis of Edwards' theological position, includes a study of his life and the intellectual issues in the America of his time, and examines the problem of free will in the philosophical context of today and in connection with Leibniz, Locke, and Hume.

Edwards' Life of David Brainerd is a rare, almost forgotten document depicting life in pre-Revolutionary America during the period when religious enthusiasm swept the colonial frontier. From 1743 to 1747 Brainerd had been a missionary to the Indians. Riding alone, thousands of miles on horseback, he kept a journal of daily events that he continued until the week before he died, at the age of twenty-nine, in Edwards' house.
Published in 1749, the Life of Brainerd became a spiritual classic in its own time. As the first popular biography to be published in America, it went through numerous editions and has been reprinted more frequently than has any other of Edwards' works. But what has not until now been known is that Edwards made drastic alterations in the original text. He shaped the narrative events to fit his own needs, presenting Brainerd as an example of a man who by example and deed opposed the rationalist, Arminian stance. Because the Yale edition is the first to print that portion of Brainerd's manuscript that survives, set in parallel columns with Edwards' text, these alterations can readily be discerned.
This edition of The Life of David Brainerd, the first complete, fully annotated edition ever to be compiled, includes related correspondence as well as an endpaper map of Brainerd's travels. The editor's introduction describes the place of Brainerd's diary in Edwards' life and thought, and provides ample historical background.

This volume presents the complete texts of twenty-three sermons preached by Jonathan Edwards during the first years of his career. The sermons, which have never been printed before, document one of the least explored periods of this eminent theologian's life and thought. Fully annotated, they are accompanied by an editor's preface that combines new information with fresh readings of related texts, such as the "Diary" and "Personal Narrative."

The volume includes a general introduction that puts Edwards's thirty-five years of writing and preaching into a broad literary and historical context. Based on the study of his entire sermon corpus-including over seventy printed sermons and twelve hundred sermon manuscripts-as well as related notebooks, letters, and treatises, the introduction enables readers to understand the elaborate network of working papers through which Edwards evolved his thought, as well as the critical function of the sermon in testing and developing expression of that thought. The introduction also explores the literary context of Edwards's writing, especially relating to the theory and practice of homiletics.

This book presents previously unpublished manuscript sermons from a crucial yet little-known period in Edwards's life: the years between the completion of his Master's degree at Yale College and the death of Solomon Stoddard, his famous grandfather and predecessor at Northampton, Massachusetts. These sermons, constituting the second in a projected series of six sermon volumes, highlight the intellectual and professional development of the young Edwards through his pastorate at Bolton, Connecticut, his Yale tutorship, and his colleagueship at Northampton.

In his introduction, Kenneth P. Minkema weaves together the details of Edwards's emerging career with the concerns expressed in the sermons. He shows how Edwards addressed local and provincial concerns as well as the great theological debates of his day, and how he struggled to work out the implications of his innovative concept of "excellency" and to develop his definition of conversion as a "spiritual light."

From these sermons emerges an unparalleled portrait of a rapidly maturing Edwards seeking to give shape to his theological vision.

Throughout his ministerial career, Jonathan Edwards filled a series of private notebooks with writings on a wide variety of theological topics, numbering his entries-some 1,400 of them-in sequence. This book, the second of four volumes devoted to these "Miscellanies," contains entries written during the decade of the 1730s, from July 1731 to approximately January 1740, the eve of the Great Awakening. They record the development of Edwards' thought as he first emerged as a public spokesperson for orthodox Calvinism, assumed a leadership role in colonial New England church politics, and acquired an international reputation as an evangelist for his role in the revivals in the Connecticut River Valley of 1734 and 1735.

Edwards used the "Miscellanies" as a repository for ideas that he intended to develop in future sermons and treatises, and these entries contain the seeds of such contemporaneous works as Justification by Faith Alone and The History of the Work of Redemption. These entries also record how the Connecticut Valley revivals influenced Edwards' thoughts on such important theological topics as the significance of perseverance, the nature of spiritual knowledge, justification by faith alone, the rationality of the Christian religion, the history of the work of redemption, and conversion and the religious life.

The sermons and discourses in this volume chart the rise and decline of the Great Awakening in Jonathan Edwards's parish in Northampton, Massachusetts, and beyond. A leading figure of the revival period, Edwards delivered potent and wide-ranging sermons during the years 1739-42. In this volume the transcript of the original manuscript of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is reproduced for the first time, along with the text of its first printed edition.

This volume gathers together for the first time all known extant letters of Jonathan Edwards, along with his major personal writings. For more than three decades George S. Claghorn has scoured America, Great Britain, and Scotland for letters and documents by and about Edwards. The result is an unparalleled compendium of 235 letters—including 116 never before published or never reprinted since Edwards’s death—and four autobiographical texts—Edwards’ meditation "On Sarah Pierpont," his future wife, and "Diary," "Resolutions," and "Personal Narrative."

These letters and personal writings reveal the private man behind the treatises and sermons. They trace his relations with parents, siblings, college classmates, friends, and family, as well as with political, religious, and educational leaders of his day. New documents include Edwards’ only known statement on slavery and letters on the Indian mission at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, that display Edwards’ interest in native Americans and his efforts on their behalf. These writings show the human face of Edwards as he applied theological and philosophical insights to the events of his daily life. They provide an unprecedented resource for understanding the man, his times, and his personal connections.


This volume concludes the series of private theological notebooks that Jonathan Edwards kept from his late teens to the end of his life. It covers the years from 1751 to 1758, a period during which he faced a variety of difficult challenges while working at the Stockbridge Indian mission and served a short-lived presidency at Princeton, then known as the College of New Jersey. In these entries Edwards grapples with modern naturalism, critiques "generous doctrines," and attempts to bolster Reformed thought in the face of the Enlightenment.

Jonathan Edwards achieved the greatest sustained mastery of the sermon form between January 1734 and December 1738, a time in which he also kindled his first revival. The Northampton revival spread to neighboring towns and villages, as did Edwards's renown. And the sermons of these years exhibit not only splendid rhetoric but also figural intricacies and tonal nuances that reveal his maturity as a writer.

During this period Edwards delivered probably four hundred sermons and lectures. Of the fewer than half that survive, some extend the reach of the previous dozen years of his ministry, others engage speculative theological issues, others touch on pastoral life, and still others deal with conversion and, in time, declension. Edwards also wrote a full account of the Northampton revival, A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God, which was published in 1737 in London and Edinburgh and within a year was reprinted there, issued in Boston in three printings, and translated into German. In addition, near the end of the period Edwards put together Discourses on Various Important Subjects, five sermons about the Awakening and the only gathering of sermons he saw through the press.

This wide-ranging volume covers the final fifteen of the thirty-three years that Jonathan Edwards preached and includes some of his greatest sermons—including his Farewell Sermons to his Northampton congregation. The period is defined by Edwards' inventive strategies to improvise during the delivery of his sermons. Considering dependence on the written text in the pulpit to be a serious failing, he devised a double-columned, outlined format for his sermon manuscripts and continued to use it for the rest of his life. Sermons from this period also include those preached to Mahican and Mohawk Indians at the mission post of Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Edwards’ various writings of 1743–58 map the complex terrain of his spiritual, intellectual, and professional life after the Great Awakening. He deals with topics ranging from the spiritual role of youth in the community to the struggles over communion in his Northampton congregation to the war with the French and their Indian allies.

In 1730, Jonathan Edwards acquired a book-like, leather-bound manuscript containing an interleaved printed edition of the King James Version of the Bible. Over the next three decades, Edwards proceeded to write in the manuscript more than five thousand notes and entries relating to biblical texts (though paradoxically he called the manuscript his "Blank Bible"). Only a fraction of the entries has ever been published. This volume presents a complete edition of the "Blank Bible" accompanied by an informative introduction, multiple appendices, and an extensive index.
This volume, perhaps the most unusual in Edwards' oeuvre, brings to light more clearly than ever before the full scope of his creative investment in biblical studies.

In 1739 Jonathan Edwards preached a series of thirty sermons in his church at Northampton, Massachusetts-sermons based on one scriptural passage, Isaiah 51:8. Apparently Edwards later intended to develop this discourse into a major treatise construing God's redemption of the world as the most basic doctrine of theology. Unfortunately, he died before he could undertake this project. The sermon series, however, was later transcribed and then published in Edinburgh in 1774. There were numerous editions in Britain and the United States, and it was enormously influential in popular evangelical circles of the nineteenth century. This edition presents a modern, authoritative text that firmly establishes the place of Work of Redemption in the literary and historical tradition of puritan New England.
The text is based upon a new transcription of the original preaching booklets in which Edwards wrote out his sermons. In this sense, it restores an earlier and more authentic, if less polished, version of the work than the one that was edited and issued after Edwards' death. As a critical edition it presents Edwards' Redemption Discourse for the modern reader with appropriate annotations and references.
This volume includes a substantial introduction that places the composition of the sermons in the context of the period and discusses the reception and influence of the many editions of the published version. The introduction also interprets the place of this particular work in Edwards' thought more generally, de-emphasizing the historical interests he has been alleged to have shown in it and emphasizing instead the ambitious theological program which it represented. Accordingly, this volume presents this major treatise in a fresh light and suggests new lines of inter-connection with other elements of his work.
John F. Wilson is Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion at Princeton University.

This volume contains two major works of Jonathan Edwards: an unpublished text of a series of sermons he preached in 1738, known as Charity and Its Fruits, and his Two Dissertations: I. Concerning the End for Which God Created the World and II. On the Nature of True Virtue, published posthumously in 1765. Together these writings set out the principles of Edwards' ethical reflections.
The text of the sermon series is drawn from three sources. The primary text is an early nineteenth-century transcription of Edwards' sermon booklets now in the Andover-Newton Theological School's collection. Passages published in Tyron Edwards' 1852 edition, and partial transcriptions by Joseph Bellamy found in three fragments among his papers, have been used where the Andover copy is incomplete. The Bellamy fragments are reproduced in their entirety in a critical appendix, along with examples showing the editor's use of the three sources in construing this definitive text for the Yale edition.
End of Creation and True Virtue, intended by Edwards to be read together, are shown here to be closely related to Edwards' other writings. Paul Ramsey's introduction points out that Edwards returned again and again to these topics in his Miscellanies, where he identifies penultimate versions of both treatises and traces the development of Edwards' ideas. Thus the reader is able to follow Edwards' most profound reflections about God and the moral dimensions of his creations.
This is one of the most wide-ranging theological and philosophical volumes projected in the Yale edition. The Editor's Introduction gives a systematic analysis of the theological ethics to be found in these writings and of Edwards' esteem for the splendor of common morality. Appendices exploring the "moral sense" school, "infused" virtue in Edwards and Calvin, and Edwards' belief in the never ending increase of holiness and happiness in heaven complete the volume.