Edwards on the Will: A Century of American Theological Debate

Rating:
Summary: very educational and well written book
Review: I was first drawn to read this book after reading a review that Guelzo wrote about R.C. Sproul's book "Willing to Believe" in the publication "Christianity Today." I was impressed at Guelzo's command of the doctrine of free will and his criticisms of Sproul's book so I decided to see if Guelzo had himself written any books. I came across this book and decided to buy it.

Having finished it, I can say that this book is a fantastic book for anyone who would like to learn more about the history of religious thought in America. I believe, though I'm not certain, that this book is an adaptation of the Guelzo's PhD thesis. It certainly has a very scholarly feel, and is very well referenced. However, unlike some PhD theses adaptations, I found "Edwards on the Will" to be an engrossing read.

The book first lays out what Edwards taught, mostly drawing on the famous book "Freedom of the Will." Guelzo does a great job articulating the religious questions of the 1700s, particularly relating to the philosophers Hobbes and Locke. This is critical because "Freedom of the Will" was Edwards' response to the religious and philosophic challenges of his day.

I appreciated how clearly Guelzo shows that Edwards actually modified Calvinism in his defense against Hobbes. Too many people today seem to parrot that Edwards was a five-point Calvinist without really understanding the significance of what Edwards did. Edwards taught a difference between moral and natural ability -- this discrimination sparked a tremendous following as well as counter-reaction (cf James Dana). Edwards' followers, like Bellamy and Hopkins, carried some of Edwards ideas to their logical endpoints, including perfectionism, moral government views of atonement, and ecclesiastical separation, much to the chagrin of Old School Calvinism. In the book you will also learn about Nathaniel William Taylor, and his reformulation of Calvinism to respond to the Edwards' New Divinity. Both Edwards and Taylor contributed to the theology of later revivalists like Charles Finney, as Guelzo also nicely demonstrates.

In general, I would say that my understanding of American religious history is significantly greater after reading this book.

If you are a person who has thought a great deal about free will, you will really enjoy this book. If you haven't, this book probably is not for you. But today there seems to be a great deal of interest in free will yet there are a lot of books out there written by people who just don't know what they are talking about. Guelzo, on the other hand, clearly knows his subject very well. Honestly, with its scholarly integration of history and theology, I think I'd have to say that this book is the best religious history book that I've ever read.