Description: In this insightful book, former pastor and missionary Peter Doyle presents Jonathan Edwards' theology in a comprehensive scope: in its cultural context, against its adversaries, and with all its practical and pastoral implications.
Brief description: G. Wright Doyle received a B.A. with Honors in Latin from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1966; a B.D. (M.Div.) with Honors from the Virginia Theological Seminary in 1969; and a PhD. in Classics from the University of North Carolina in 1975, with a dissertation on St. Augustine. He studied Mandarin Chinese at the Taipei Language Institute in Taiwan (1976-1978, 1980-1981). From 1980 to 1988, he taught Greek and New Testament at China Evangelical Seminary, Taipei. Since 1989, the Doyles have lived in Charlottesville, Virginia, where they reach out to Chinese connected with the University of Virginia through Bible studies, friendship, and advising Chinese Christians. Wright has preached in Chinese churches and taught intensive courses on the New Testament and Systematic Theology for Chinese language seminaries in North America and Taiwan. He has presented papers at academic meetings and lectured at universities in mainland China, England, Taiwan, and the United States.
Review Quotes:
This book will be of interest to Edwards scholars. Among other things, it is proof that Karl Barth in his later years became aware of the intricacies of Edwards's theology. Not all contemporary Edwards scholars will agree with everything they see here. For example, some like me will say that beauty for Edwards was not "essentially" moral but far more, and that while holiness was not the sole condition for justification in Edwards's view, it was what he called "a secondary dependent and derivative worthiness." For all those interested in Edwards's writings on assurance, informed by scholarship before the 1980s, this work will be of help.
Gerald R. McDermott
Beeson Divinity School
Co-author of The Theology of Jonathan Edwards
Many thanks to Peter Doyle for seeing earlier than most that the doctrine of regeneration was the heart of Edwards' of ministry, pumping spiritual life blood through the rest of his body of work. And thanks to Peter's brother, Wright, and fellow Edwardsean, Brandon Cozart, for seeing this project through to publication. Their labor of love deserves a sympathetic audience.
Douglas A. Sweeney
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Author of Jonathan Edwards and the Ministry of the Word:
A Model of Faith and Thought