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Ausgabe: | April/2023 |
Spalte: | 367-368 |
Kategorie: | Kirchengeschichte: Neuzeit |
Autor/Hrsg.: | Todd, Obbie Tyler |
Titel/Untertitel: | Southern Edwardseans. The Southern Baptist Legacy of Jonathan Edwards. |
Verlag: | Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2022. 209 S. = New Directions in Jonathan Edwards Studies, 8. Geb. EUR 120,00. ISBN 9783525560518. |
Rezensent: | Edward George Manger |
Over the past decades the veritable tide of books, articles, and conferences on the great American theologian and pastor Jonathan Edwards has not abated. In the midst of this consistent flow of work, one would imagine that genuine avenues for discovery would be hard to find.
Obbie Tyler Todd has managed such a feat. He clearly demarcates a lacuna in Edwardsean studies which he then ably and admirably fills over the rest of the book. T. demonstrates the remarkable influence of Edwards and his theology on eighteenth and nineteenth century Southern Baptists showing that key figures and thinkers in that tradition were reading Edwards, discussing his ideas and consciously saw themselves as continuing elements of his theology. This has been completely overlooked by traditional studies of the impact of Edwards’ theology, which tend to focus on his more direct heirs in the Northern States. Thus a double relevance to the study of American Christianity is found in this book; T. adds both to our understanding of the legacy of Edwards, but also our knowledge of the sources of influence on the formation and early progress of the Southern Baptists.
T. is able to navigate the complex and divergent ways in which Edwards had an impact in the South, showing not only that he was widely read, but demonstrating the many influences of the various currents of his thought. For example the Edwardsean distinction between moral and natural ability with regards to sin after the fall was widely employed in Southern Baptist theology. Also in the area of piety, much inspiration was gained from Edwards’ account of revival, A Faithful Narrative, which can be seen in Baptist acceptance and use of revivalism as well as an emphasis on appeals to the affections, a theme central to Edwardsean thought. Crucially T. is very well versed in the theology of the latter Northern Edwardseans, showing that the influence of Edwards among Southern Baptists was not just from Edwards alone, but from his successors such as Samuel Hopkins (1721−1803) and Timothy Dwight (1752−1817). Edwards’ followers in the Northern states, usually termed the New Divinity are shown to have a particular influence on key figures in the Southern Baptist world, not least through their governmental theory of the atonement. T. especially focuses on the Southern Baptist titans, Richard Furman (1755−1825), the »chief architect« of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, and Richard Fuller (1804−1876), co-founder and president of the Southern Baptist Convention (1859−1863). He argues that the advocacy of a »loose confession-alism« and a »moderate Calvinism« by men like Furman and Fuller, was able to fit within it Edwards theology as well as that of his successors and enabled a widespread reception of Edwardsean ideas across differing sections of the Baptist church in the South.
One of T.’s strengths is in his dealing with Southern Baptist support for slavery. This is Edwards’ most controversial legacy, and one of the puzzles which Southern Edwardseans does not shy away from but rather confronts head on and treats with insight, leading to some interesting observations for consideration. T. sees the same insistence on God’s moral Government, central to New Divinity thought, and readily accepted and used by Southern Baptists, as having two opposite effects in the South and the North respectively. Edwards’ followers in the Northern states used this doctrine to advocate for the sinfulness and inherent incompatibility of the institution of slavery with God’s moral government. Southerners on the other hand, combined the theory of God’s moral government with their own preoccupation with »honor« and argued precisely the opposite; that God’s moral government required the maintenance of the greatest good for society through order, and that the maintenance of God’s honor required that this order, and thus their own honor, was not contravened.
Southern Edwardseans moves past the founding of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845 to look at the ongoing legacy of Edwards in that denomination, and this is another strength of the book. He shows how the Princeton inflected Calvinism of James Petigru Boyce (1827−1888), one of the main founders of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1859, steered the denomination in a new direction but did not completely obscure the Edwardsean impact. Then moving to the more recent past, the book ends with a fascinating, and in many ways entertaining, look at Edwards’ reception in recent Southern Baptist history, powerfully epitomized by the T-shirt emblazoned with the words »Jonathan Edwards is my homeboy.« It is a fitting end to a significant and enjoyable contribution to the fields of Edwardsean studies and Southern Baptist history. It hints at more to come in this area, and leaves the reader with the distinct impression that as long as the Southern Baptist Convention continues the legacy of Edwards will play a role in some shape or form, and therefore, there will be ongoing work to be done on this fascinating topic.