Communion in the Spirit: The Holy Spirit as the Bond of Union in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards

While he was well known for his lifelong fascination with the nature of religious experience, the colonial American pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards is seldom associated with a specifically Trinitarian spirituality. This study explores the central connections Edwards drew between his doctrines of religious experience and the Trinity: the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Edwards envisioned the Spirit's inter-Trinitarian work as the affectionate bond of union between the Father and the Son, a work that, he argued, is reduplicated in a finite way in the work of redemption. Salvation is ultimately all about being drawn in love into the Trinitarian life of the Godhead. This study takes us through the major regions of Edwards's theology, including his Trinitarianism, his doctrine of the end for which God created the world, his Christology, and his doctrines of justification, sanctification, and glorification, to demonstrate the centrality of the Holy Spirit throughout his theology.

Publisher: Wipf and Stock
Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9781556352386

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Raised in western New York state, Robert W. Caldwell III was educated at Northwestern University and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where he specialized in the theology of Jonathan Edwards. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Church History at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

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I originally read this in its dissertation form and found it to be both excellent and accurate. While many of the more recent interpretations of the role of the Spirit in union have taken Edwards out of his historical context (e.g. making him a Thomist for example), this volume lets Edwards be Edwards. He is one who is connected to a reformed tradition while remaining creative theologically. As the previous reviewer picked up--and given that this was based on his dissertation--this book is not written for the lay person, but for the specialist. It is largely centered on Edwards's theology and philosophy. Brandon Withrow