Jonathan Edwards Issue 77 | 2003 Purchase this issue

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An excellent way to get to know Edwards is through one of several modern biographies. Ola Winslow's Jonathan Edwards: 1703-1758 (Macmillan, 1940; Collier paperback, 1961) overcomes what now seems a dated style with memorable scene-setting and penetrating insights. Iain H. Murray's Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (Banner of Truth, 1987) is perhaps the biography Edwards himself would most have liked. George M. Marsden's Jonathan Edwards: A Life (Yale University Press, forthcoming in spring, 2003) is a compelling new account written with Marsden's characteristic care and wisdom.

Another good introduction is a book modeled closely on Edwards's Religious Affections (in some ways this is really simply an abbreviated and updated version of Edwards's book): Gerald R. McDermott's Seeing God: Twelve Reliable Signs of True Spirituality (InterVarsity, 1995).

John Piper, a modern Edwards cheerleader, pays tribute to Edwards in many of his books. One of these, God's Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards (Crossway, 1998), reprints a multi-part essay by Edwards on a subject where the Puritan divine's deep spirituality met his profound theological thought, "The End for Which God Created the World." Piper lovingly contextualizes the essay with several introductory chapters, beginning with "A Personal Encounter with Jonathan Edwards."

Web surfers will want to browse the Yale Jonathan Edwards website, jonathanedwards.com. This provides an Edwards chronology, links to eight short online biographical sketches, and annotated lists of key Edwards writings. Particularly valuable are the links to online versions of many Edwards writings, including tidbits like the "Resolutions," the "Farewell Sermon," and ...