Jonathan Edwards for Armchair Theologians
The eldritch imagery of Edwards’ famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” framed America’s greatest theologian as the quintessential hellfire-and-brimstone preacher. Byrd starts softening that image by pointing out that the striking metaphors that make “Sinners” a literary classic attest Edwards’ keen interest in science and participation in his era’s reconciliation of science and religion. Edwards’ advocacy and critique of religious revival as exemplified in the Great Awakening of the 1740s; his vindication of the Calvinist conception of free will, which to non-Calvinists can seem like no free will at all; his clarification of original sin and the danger of disbelieving in it; his meticulous explanations of the reason for creation and why true virtue is the love of God—Byrd is brightly enlightening on all these major Edwardsian themes. Moreover, he persuades us of Edwards’ reasoned conviction of the goodness of God and the beneficence of the love of God. His sprightly précis would be exhilarating even without Ron Hill’s wry cartoons throughout. Luckily, it isn’t without them. --Ray Olson