Jonathan Edwards's Virtue: Diverse Sources, Multiple Meanings, and the Lessons of History for Ethics

Abstract

The incompleteness of the task of integrating the influences made upon Jonathan Edwards by Calvinism and the moral sense leaves open a great many questions central to identifying his ethical position with any detail. This should worry ethicists, theologians, and church historians alike. For the puzzle of what Edwards meant by virtue is at the heart not only of his ethics but of a great many strands of his thought. It must be pieced together from diverse sources; and there are multiple meanings to be sifted through. But it is nevertheless possible to bring the concepts made available by the diverse moral traditions upon which Edwards drew into a generally coherent counterpoise. Such a counterpoise is not merely of antiquarian interest. Lacking a precise account of Edwards's ethical position, it is awkward to talk about applying it to the problems of the twenty-first, or any, century.

THE ROLE OF PERCEPTION IN JONATHAN EDWARDS'S MORAL THOUGHT: The Nature of True Virtue Reconsidered

“…Interestingly, Edwards does not suggest that holy actions flow instinctively from the holy affections but only that they flow more readily. Furthermore, while Edwards will claim that holy affections arise spontaneously, as Wilson and Jean Porter rightly remind us (Wilson 2003, 188), he does not suggest that the spontaneous raising of the holy affections necessarily means that specific moral choices flow involuntarily from them. Edwards's own wording can certainly be misleading.…”

“…Its purpose is not causative, however. Admiration of nature's beauty alone can lead to only a constrained knowledge of the good, complementing the exercise of natural moral principles of self‐love and the like (Ramsey 1989, 573, n. 8; McClymond 1997, 215; and Wilson 2003, 205). However, for those who are the subject of the immediate communication of the divine light, admiration of nature's beauty takes on new significance.…”

“…Similar to nature's assistive role for the regenerate, Edwards proposes that engaging in the study of Scripture, along with other practices that Scripture enjoins for the community of believers such as the profession of faith, worship, and self‐examination (Wilson 2003, 217; Edwards 1989a, 142, 181, 249), serves not only to constitute visible indications of one's spiritual perception but also to further refine the spiritual perception already imparted and received. In Puritan parlance, such practices are referred to as the means of grace, which include, notes Spohn, works of charity 7 (2003, 253–76).…”

“…Moreover, they provide an observable measure of the presence of spiritual perception (1989a, 308). In this respect, narrative is less about its direct formative capacities and more about how its practice within a particular community (the Church) indicates the extent to which people perceive correctly and therefore the extent of the Spirit's indwelling presence on earth (Danaher 2004, 241; Wilson 2003, 218).…”