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Throughout church history, the book of Psalms has enjoyed wider use and acclaim than almost any other book of the Bible. Early Christians extolled it for its fullness of Christian doctrine, monks memorized and recited it daily, lay people have prayed its words as their own, and churches have sung from it as their premier hymn book. While the past half century has seen an extraordinary resurgence of interest in the thought of American theologian Jonathan Edwards, including his writings on the Bible, no scholar has yet explored his meditations on the Psalms. David P. Barshinger addresses this gap by providing a close study of his engagement with one of the Bible's most revered books. From his youth to the final days of his presidency at the College of New Jersey, Edwards was a devout student of Scripture-as more than 1,200 extant sermons, theological treatises, and thousands of personal manuscript pages devoted to biblical reflection bear witness. Using some of his writings that have previously received little to no attention, Jonathan Edwards and the Psalms offers insights on his theological engagement with the Psalms in the context of interpretation, worship, and preaching. Barshinger shows that he appropriated the history of redemption as an organizing theological framework within which to engage the Psalms specifically, and the Bible as a whole. This original study greatly advances Edwards scholarship, shedding new and welcome light on the theologian's relationship to Scripture.
List of contents
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Note on the Text
- Introduction
- 1. The Psalter in Edwards' World
- 2. God and Scripture
- 3. Humanity and Sin
- 4. Christ
- 5. Spirit and Gospel
- 6. Christian Piety
- 7. Church and Eternity
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Jonathan Edwards's Sermons on the Psalms
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
David P. Barshinger has a PhD in Church History/Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS). He has thought as an adjunct professor at various institutions, and he previously served as Senior Fellow of Jonathan Edwards Center at TEDS.
Summary
David Barshinger offers new perspective on Jonathan Edwards by exploring his engagement with the book of Psalms, exhibiting Edwards's actual exegesis of the Bible, and emphasizing its foundational role in his life and thought.
Additional text
This is the first-fruit of a long-delayed harvest of Edwards' use of Scripture. No other scholar has done such intensive sifting of the American theologian's preaching on any book of the Bible, much less his favorite (the one he cited more than any other). Barshinger has done invaluable service to the academy and church by showing where Edwards followed but also departed from his Reformed predecessors and medieval interpreters. This book will advance both Edwards scholarship and the church's recovery of its theological interpretation of Scripture.
