Jonathan Edwards's Vision of History

28Historically Speaking · June 2003 Jonathan Edwards's Vision of History' Avihu Zakai Once dubbed by Perry Miller "the greatest philosopher-theologian yet to grace the American scene," Jonathan Edwards is nowwidelyrecognized asAmerica's mostimportanttheologian. And he is no less celebrated as a prominent philosopher, ethicist, and moralist Edwards's theologyand philosophyare a matterofgreat scholarly interest today, and recent studies have dealt with almost every aspect of his thought. Strangely enough, however, there has been no serious attempt to. explore Edwards's philosophyofhistory, let alone to analyze the content and form ofhis distinct mode ofhistorical thinking. Edwards's sense oftime, his vision ofhistory , and the development ofhis historical consciousness warrant serious attention. Without this, much of his philosophy and theologyare unintelligible; moreover, the significance he accorded to his actions—as well as the ultimate sacred historical meaning he attached to his own time, as evidenced byhis decisive role in initiating, advancing, andpromoting the Great Awakening, 1740-43— remain uncomprehended. • · · Edwards was the American Augustine, not least because like the Church Father he formulated a singular philosophy ofhistory which exercised great influence on subsequent Christian generations and greatly conditioned their historical consciousness. Edwards's evangelical historiography had an abiding importance for American Protestant culture. His A History ofthe Work of Redemption (1739) was the most popular manual of Calvinist theology in the 19th century. One of the main reasons for the great success ofthis workwas that Edwards placed revival at the center ofsalvation history , habituating American Protestants to see religious awakening as the essence of providential history and the main manifestation ofdivine agency in time. This evangelical theodicy ofhistorysignified that the heart ofhistoryis the revival, throughwhich the Spirit ofGod consistently advances the work of redemption. So defined, these awakenings are the exclusive domain of God's will and power, and hence beyond the reach of human agency. Conceiving the locus ofhistory in this way, Edwards made the phenomenon ofrevival the crucial element in the drama ofsalvation and redemption . In order to understand Edwards's ideology ofhistory, it is essential to analyze the slow and gradual growth ofhis historical consciousness before he came to composed History ofthe Work ofRedemption. Such an investigation is necessary in order to follow the development ofhis ideology ofhistory and ofhis unique, redemptive mode ofhistorical thought. Furthermore, itis importantto place Edwards's philosophyofhistoryin thewider context ofsacred ecclesiastical history as a Christian mode of historical thought. Edwards was an heir of the Christian theological teleology ofhistory—salvation history —though he transformed it radically in orderto proclaim God as the author and lord ofhistory. Analysis ofEdwards's historical thought will first ofall recognize that the mental universe ofthis NewEngland divine transcended hislocal settinginNorthampton and thenarrow intellectual life ofprovincial New England . More specifically, itwas Edwards's reaction to the metaphysical and theological implications ofEnlightenmenthistoricalnarratives ,whichincreasinglytended to setaside theistic considerations in the realms ofmorals and history, that led in part to the development ofhis unique, redemptive mode ofhistorical thought—the doctrine thatdie process ofhistorydepends entirelyand exclusivelyon God's redemptive activity as manifested in a series ofrevivals throughouttime, and not on autonomous human power. The ideological origins ofEdwards's historical thought must be situated in the broader context ofthe threat the Christian theological teleologyofhistory confronted in the early modern period, with the emergence ofa secular conception ofhistory and the modern legitimacy ofhistorical time. In contrast to the growing Enlightenment emphasis on human agency in determining the course ofhistory, Edwards strove to return to God his preeminencewithin the order oftime. Against the de-Christianization ofhistory and the de-divination ofthe historical process, as evidenced in various Enlightenment historical accounts, Edwards looked for the re-enthronement ofGod as the author and lord ofhistory, the re-enchantment of the historical world. Edwards fully understood the serious challenges posed by Enlightenment ideas to religious faith and experience. He was alarmed bythe conception ofhistoryas a selfcontained and independentdomain, free from subordination to God and notaffected byHis ever watchful eyes. With great dismay he observed that Enlightenmenthistorical narratives notonlydeprived the realm ofhistory ofteleological ends and theological purposes, but stipulated that history did not manifest the presence ofGod's redemptive activity. In response, he constructed his own theological teleology of history which celebrated God's glory and sovereignty in determining f...