After Edwards

Capping off the ASCH conference in Chicago was a session, "After Edwards: Appropriations of the New England Theology." A panel consisting of Ken Minkema, David Kling, Anri Morimoto, Ava Chamberlain, and chaired by Oliver Crisp, offered a preview of what to expect in an edited book forthcoming with Oxford University Press. Additional contributors for the book who were not on the panel include Michael McClymond, Gerald McDermott, and Doug Sweeney. The panelists rightly allude to the fact that although Jonathan Edwards has received much scholarly attention, Edwards's so-called New Divinity followers have been largely ignored by the academy. Monographs on Joseph Bellamy, Samuel Hopkins, and Nathaniel W. Taylor have helped religious and intellectual historians understand the scope and breadth of Edwards's legacy, but there is much more to learn about important figures like Levi Hart, Nathaniel Emmons, and Edwards A. Park.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the monographs of Kling, Sweeney, and others on the New Divinity and can't wait for this new book to come out later this year!

Jonathan