1st Edition

Jonathan Edwards and the Metaphysics of Sin

By Oliver D. Crisp Copyright 2005
    156 Pages
    by Routledge

    156 Pages
    by Routledge

    Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is widely regarded as America's greatest philosopher-theologian. In the last half century there has been a resurgence of interest in Edwards' work from historians, theologians and philosophers, aided by the publication of the Yale edition of Edwards' Works. Edwards' thinking on sin has long been a mystery to scholars trying to fit his thought into the traditional categories of Reformed theology. What this study shows is that Edwards' theory of sin was an original contribution to philosophical theology, which can only be understood when read on its own terms as a philosophical theory about the nature of sin, its origin and transmission. This constitutes a substantial contribution to the literature on Edwards and, more broadly, to philosophical theology in general.

    Contents: Introduction; The divine decrees; Adam's fall; The authorship of sin; The secret and revealed will of God; Temporal parts and imputed sin; Inherited guilt; The problem with occasionalism; Appendix: the imputation of Christ's righteousness; Bibliography; Index.

    Biography

    Oliver D. Crisp is Professor of Systematic Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He was Reader in Theology at the University of Bristol. He is the author of Retrieving Doctrine: Explorations in Reformed Theology (Paternoster and IVP Academic, 2010); God Incarnate: Explorations in Christology (T&T Clark, 2009); Divinity and Humanity: The Incarnation Reconsidered (Cambridge University Press, 2007); An American Augustinian: Sin and Salvation in the Dogmatic Theology of William G. T. Shedd (Paternoster, 2007); and Jonathan Edwards and the Metaphysics of Sin (Ashgate, 2005). He is also the editor of A Reader in Contemporary Philosophical Theology (T&T Clark, 2009), and has co-edited Analytic Theology: New Essays in the Philosophy of Theology with Michael C. Rea (Oxford University Press, 2009) and Jonathan Edwards: Philosophical Theology, with Paul Helm (Ashgate, 2003). He is the author of over forty essays and articles in symposia and professional journals on systematic and philosophical theology.

    'The great New England philosopher and theologian would not fail to have been impressed by Oliver Crisp's philosophical engagement with a central theme of his thought. Crisp's sympathetic treatment of Edwards's concept of sin is thorough, insightful and scrupulously fair.  A book of the highest standard which will be of great interest to any philosophical theologian.' Paul Helm, Professor Emeritus of the History and Philosophy of Religion, King's College, London and J. I. Packer Professor of Philosophy and Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, Canada ’Crisp's meticulous investigation of this topic has considerable significance for current interest in analytic philosophical theology and the continuously growing body of literature on the theology of Jonathan Edwards. ...Crisp's short book will challenge readers from virtually any disciplinary perspective to look far more carefully at what Edwards actually said than they are likely to have done. This is a worthy achievemnet in 146 pages.... scholars, and certainly this reviewer, are in Crisp's debt for his challenging investigation of the issues at stake.’ Religious Studies