Jonathan Edwards And The Church

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This book seeks to shed new light on the development of the ecclesiology of Jonathan Edwards from the writings of his youth until his Stockbridge treatises, setting this within the context of Reformation and Puritan debates, and his experience of the revivals during his Northampton ministry. Bezzant contends that Edwards repristinated an ossified New England ecclesiology by acknowledging the church's dynamic relationship with the created order, history and the nations, and by advocating renewal in ecclesial life through revivals, itinerancy, Concerts of Prayer, missionary initiatives outside of the local congregation, and doctrinal clarification.

Bezzant shows that Edwards accommodated the Christendom model of ecclesiology to the new philosophical, political and social realities of the mid-eighteenth-century British Atlantic world. His ecclesiology can be aptly summarized as prophetic, in as far as the church makes identification with its social context, while yet providing an alternative millennial vision for human flourishing.

Edwards's Gospel is preached within a larger vision of transformed society and the glory of God, for whom the church is an orderly but not ordinary instrument to promote visible union between believers and Christ. Review: Bezzant's work is an outstanding example of how one can delve into historical theology, offering up both biographical insights as well as astute theological promulgations...Pastors, scholars, and seminary students alike will benefit greatly from this work, one that is truly a contribution to the field of Christian scholarship. --Themelios Highly recommended -- CHOICE Rhys Bezzant's work is truly pioneering, sensitive, and encompassing, unique in over a century of scholarship on Edwards, being the first systematic study devoted to Edwards's ecclesiology-and not just the 'Qualifications Controversy'.

It is distinctive in its 'reading' across Edwards's publications for ecclesiological meaning, demonstrating that Edwards's interest in the nature of the church was not merely episodic or a distraction, but of central and sustained interest. --Kenneth P. Minkema, Jonathan Edwards Center, Yale University It's sad but true: among the hundreds of books on Edwards, nary a one has been published on his view of the Christian church, a doctrine Edwards preached and wrote about throughout his pastoral ministry (despite what you may have heard from other leading scholars).

We have needed Rhys Bezzant's book for a very long time. It is far and away the best, most systematic and comprehensive work on the subject ever written. --Douglas A. Sweeney, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Jonathan Edwards's revivalist sensibilities are considered to be at the heart of modern evangelicalism's push for emotional and personal experiences of God, often at the cost of a high view of the Church.

In this well-sourced book Rhys Bezzant conclusively shows Edwards holding together traditional ecclesial confessionalism inside a new modern framework constructed around the individual. This is a must read for any fan or critic of Jonathan Edwards. --The Rev. Michael Keller, Pastor, Reformed University Fellowship of New York