Jonathan Edwards and the Bible
Robert E. Brown
Indiana University Press
This study proposes that Jonathan Edwards's biblical interpretation is                  the key to understanding his broader engagement with critical thought, and it                  provides a unifying thread within his theological work. The vast but little-known                  biblical writings of Edwards (1703--1758) show him to have been thoroughly engaged                  with critical historical methods of interpretation. Critical thought was the rage of                  British society in the middle of the 17th century, particularly in relation to                  church-state issues. It had been considered a late 19th-century phenomenon in                  American religious history, but Robert E. Brown shows that its influence began much                  earlier. He traces the impact of this revolution in biblical interpretation to                  nearly every area of Edwards's intellectual career -- epistemology, historiography,                  natural theology, typology, natural science, comparative religion, constructive                  theology, and public discourse. This engagement resulted in a subtle but distinct                  transformation of Edwards's understanding of the biblical narratives and their                  relation to the new scientific modes of inquiry, anticipating similar developments                  in 19th-century American religious thought.