Beauty and Sensibility in the Thought of Jonathan Edwards: An Essay in Aesthetics and Theological Ethics.

Davidson, Edward H.; Delattre, Roland Andre

doi:10.2307/2923960

Cited by 7 publications

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Jonathan Edwards on Men and Trees, and the Problem of Solidarity

Weddle

1974

H. Theolo. Review

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This essay addresses the problem of the relation between membership and moral responsibility in the interpretation of the doctrines of original sin and atonement by Jonathan Edwards. Focusing on his image of a tree and its branches to typify the solidarity of men as sinners (“in Adam”) and as saints (“in Christ”), I will argue that Edwards defines the “nature” of man in organic and historical terms which modify significantly both the biological images of infection and regeneration in the Augustinian-Calvinist tradition and the juridical terms of federal headship in Puritan covenant theology. Edwards defines “membership” in the race of Adam, as well as in the body of Christ, as a form of participation in a history which is decisively shaped by the disposition of its organizing figure. Yet, in formulating the doctrines of original sin and atonement, Edwards is careful to maintain the balance between disposition as a generic characteristic and action as an individual responsibility. Edwards' theory of solidarity, informed by a sense of history as the medium of ethical relationship, is an instructive attempt to clarify the relation between curse and disobedience, as well as that between grace and faithfulness.

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Jonathan Edwards on Men and Trees, and the Problem of Solidarity

Weddle

1974

H. Theolo. Review

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Aesthetics and Ethics: Jonathan Edwards and the Recovery of Aesthetics for Religious Ethics

Delattre¹

2003

Journal of Religious Ethics

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This is a tricentennial riff on the Edwardsean idea that beauty is both the first principle of being and the distinguishing perfection of God. What is really distinctive about Edwards's view of beauty is that it is an ontological reality and consists in joyfully bestowing being and beauty more than in being beautiful, in creative and beautifying activity more than in being beautiful. Edwards was also a pioneer in the way he envisaged a lively universe created by God, not out of nothing or out of something, but out of the very fullness of God's own life overflowing into a world as a selfenlargement of the divine life. Edwards dares to offer a vision of God as the animating soul of the universe who governs the universe by the attractive and creative power of God's own beautifying life. What might it mean for religious ethics to take this as a description of the context for its work? The answer, in part and in brief, is that a life of true virtue, grounded in the heartfelt piety of holy affections, is a beautifying life. My aim in spinning out some Edwardsean themes is to encourage the reader to think about religious ethics outside the box within which beauty and beautifying activity play no part in defining the agenda of religious ethics. Inspired by themes unique and central to Edwards in his time, we may learn things of importance to religious ethics in our time that Edwards neither knew nor believed.

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"In Love with the Image": Transitive Being and Typological Desire in Jonathan Edwards

Leader¹

2006

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Beauty and Sensibility in the Thought of Jonathan Edwards: An Essay in Aesthetics and Theological Ethics.

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Jonathan Edwards on Men and Trees, and the Problem of Solidarity

Jonathan Edwards on Men and Trees, and the Problem of Solidarity

Aesthetics and Ethics: Jonathan Edwards and the Recovery of Aesthetics for Religious Ethics

"In Love with the Image": Transitive Being and Typological Desire in Jonathan Edwards

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