Jonathan Edwards and H. Richard Niebuhr

Leo Sandon Jr

doi:10.1017/S0034412500009033

Jonathan Edwards and H. Richard Niebuhr

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008

Leo Sandon Jr

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Leo Sandon Jr: Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Religion, Florida State University

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Martin E. Marty, in his foreword to a volume on the thought of the late H. Richard Niebuhr, offered the comment, ‘I wonder whether since Jonathan Edwards there has been a systematic theologian of such organizing brilliance as H. Richard Niebuhr.’1 Marty's judgement that Niebuhr shares with Edwards a significant position in the American theological tradition is particularly suggestive when one is aware of Niebuhr's indebtedness to Edwards in his own constructive theological programme. One of the most precarious exercises in the writing of intellectual history is that of demonstrating the ‘influence’ of one thinker upon another. Unless there is an explicit citation or a confession of dependence upon the thought of a mentor in the writings of a theologian, the lines of influence are elusive and difficult to establish. It is therefore more prudent and manageable to speak of ‘similarities’ of thought or the ‘possibility’ of influence. Nevertheless the author of this study is convinced of the importance of Edwardsean influence on Niebuhr.

Type: Research Articles
Information: Religious Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , March 1976 , pp. 101 - 115

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412500009033 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

^{page 101 note 1} Marty's, Martin ‘foreword’ to Godsey, John D., The Promise of H. Richard Niebuhr (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1970), p. 7.Google Scholar

^{page 101 note 2} For a more extensive treatment of Edwardsean influence in the thought of Niebuhr, e.g. methodology, Christology, etc., see the author's unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, ‘H. Richard Niebuhr's Interpretation of the American Theological Tradition’ (Boston University, 1971).

^{page 101 note 3} Miller, Perry, Jonathan Edwards (New York: Meridian Books, 1959).Google Scholar

^{page 102 note 1} Townsend, Harvey G., The Philosophy of Jonathan Edwards, from His Private Notebooks (Eugene, Ore.: Oregon University Press, 1955).Google Scholar

^{page 102 note 2} Carse, James Bradley, Jonathan Edwards and the Visibility of God (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1967).Google Scholar

^{page 102 note 3} Herbert Warren Richardson, ‘The Glory of God in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1962); Joseph Crawford Williamson, ‘The Excellence of Christ: a Study in the Christology of Jonathan Edwards’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1968). The exposition of Edwardsean thought will be heavily dependent on Richardson and, to a lesser extent, upon Williamson. It is the author's judgement that Richardson's interpretation of Edwards is as definitive a treatment of Edwards' theology as Perry Miller's work was for Edwards' position as a whole. The author is not an Edwards scholar and thus this frank dependence on Richardson is, it is believed, justified. Our primary focus is to illuminate an aspect of Niebuhr's theological thought, rather than to add to Edwardsean scholarship.

^{page 102 note 4} Richardson, ‘The Glory of God in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards’, p. 18.

^{page 102 note 5} Townsend, , The Philosophy of Jonathan Edwards, p. 139.Google Scholar

^{page 103 note 1} Richardson, ‘The Glory of God in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards’, p. 3.

^{page 103 note 2} ‘Experience’ here refers to Edwards' constructive appropriation of Lockean epistemological insights.

^{page 103 note 3} Richardson, ‘The Glory of God in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards’, p. 7.

^{page 103 note 4} Ibid. p. 31.

^{page 103 note 5} See Miller, , Jonathan Edwards, pp. 43–68Google Scholar; Carse, , Jonathan Edwards and the Visibility of God, pp. 31–44Google Scholar; Richardson, ‘The Glory of God in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards’, pp. 50–134.

^{page 104 note 1} See Ames, William, The Marrow of Sacred Divinity, trans. attributed to Nichols, John St (London: Edward Griffin, 1643).Google Scholar

^{page 104 note 2} Miller, Perry, The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century, I (Boston: Beacon Press, 1961), 112.Google Scholar

^{page 104 note 3} Richardson, ‘The Glory of God in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards’, p. 86.

^{page 105 note 1} Miller, , Jonathan Edwards, p. 71.Google Scholar

^{page 105 note 2} Townsend, , The Philosophy of Jonathan Edwards, p. 17.Google Scholar

^{page 105 note 3} Richardson, ‘The Glory of God in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards’, p. 126.

^{page 106 note 1} Townsend, , The Philosophy of Jonathan Edwards, p. 25.Google Scholar

^{page 106 note 2} Edwards, Jonathan, The Works of President Edwards [hereafter cited as Works], II (New York: Leavitt & Allen, 1857), 264.Google Scholar

^{page 106 note 3} Townsend, , The Philosophy of Jonathan Edwards, p. 24.Google Scholar

^{page 106 note 4} Joseph Williamson observes that ‘the use of aesthetic language to portray the qualities of the moral life is a common device of the Cambridge Platonists’. Williamson quotes Ralph Cudworth (whom Edwards cites in the miscellanies) as stating that ‘the “good life” is composed of “a unity and harmony of different scattered affections” and brings them into “order and proportion”. This is the basis of its pulchritude.’ Williamson, ‘The Excellency of Christ’, p. 43.

^{page 106 note 5} Edwards, , Works, IV, 197.Google Scholar

^{page 106 note 6} Niebuhr, H. Richard, ‘Reformation: continuing imperative’, Christian Century LXXVII (March, 1960), 248.Google Scholar

^{page 107 note 1} Edwards, , Works, I, 86.Google Scholar

^{page 107 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 107 note 3} Ibid. p. 15.

^{page 107 note 4} Ibid.

^{page 107 note 5} Gustafson, James M. ‘Introduction’, in Niebuhr, H. Richard, The Responsible Self: An Essay in Christian Moral Philosophy (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), p. 10.Google Scholar

^{page 107 note 6} Anshen, R. N., ed., Moral Principles of Action: Man's Ethical Imperative (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1952), pp. 162–75.Google Scholar

^{page 107 note 7} Niebuhr, H. Richard, Radical Monotheism and Western Culture (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960), pp. 100–13.Google Scholar

^{page 107 note 8} Ibid. p. 102.

^{page 108 note 1} Ibid. pp. 102–3.

^{page 108 note 2} Ibid. p. 103.

^{page 108 note 3} Ibid. p. 105.

^{page 108 note 4} Ibid. p. 107.

^{page 108 note 5} Ibid. p. 106.

^{page 108 note 6} Ibid. p. 109.

^{page 108 note 7} Ibid. p. 112.

^{page 108 note 8} Ibid.

^{page 109 note 1} Ibid. pp. 112–13.

^{page 109 note 2} Ibid. p. 105.

^{page 109 note 3} See Gustafson, ‘Introduction’, p. 10.

^{page 109 note 4} This essay was first published as ‘The nature and existence of God: a protestant's view’, Motive IV (1943), 13–15, 43–6Google Scholar; Radical Monotheism, pp. 114–26.

^{page 109 note 5} Niebuhr, , Radical Monotheism, p. 116.Google Scholar

^{page 109 note 6} Ibid. p. 117.

^{page 109 note 7} Ibid. p. 118.

^{page 109 note 8} Ibid. p. 119.

^{page 110 note 1} Niebuhr, H. Richard, The Meaning of Revelation (New York: Macmillan, 1941), p. 77.Google Scholar

^{page 110 note 2} Niebuhr, , Radical Monotheism, p. 119.Google Scholar

^{page 110 note 3} Ibid. p. 120.

^{page 110 note 4} Ibid. p. 121.

^{page 110 note 5} Ibid. p. 122.

^{page 110 note 6} Ibid. p. 121.

^{page 110 note 7} Ibid. p. 224. Niebuhr's citation is from Whitehead's Religion in the Making.

^{page 110 note 8} Ibid.

^{page 110 note 9} Ibid. p. 125.

^{page 111 note 1} Ibid. p. 126.

^{page 111 note 2} Ibid. pp. 24–37.

^{page 111 note 3} Ibid. p. 24.

^{page 111 note 4} Ibid.

^{page 111 note 5} Ibid. p. 26.

^{page 111 note 6} Ibid. p. 28.

^{page 111 note 7} Ibid. p. 32.

^{page 111 note 8} Ibid.

^{page 111 note 9} Ibid. p. 33.

^{page 112 note 1} Ibid. pp. 33–4.

^{page 112 note 2} Ibid. p. 37.

^{page 112 note 3} H. R. Niebuhr, ‘The anachronism of Jonathan Edwards’, p. 16 (handwritten). I am prepared (unpublished address given at the First Church of Christ, Northampton, Massachusetts, March 9, 1958) to advance a claim for the reliability of this quotation despite the hazards involved in trying to decipher Niebuhr's handwriting and in spite of the apparent problems with syntax and punctuation.

^{page 113 note 1} Ibid. p. 15.

^{page 113 note 2} Ahlstrom, Sidney, ‘H. Richard Niebuhr's place in American thought,’ Christianity and Crisis XXIII (1963), 215.Google Scholar

^{page 114 note 1} Daniel Day Williams wrote concerning Niebuhr's tendency to ‘postpone’ metaphysical questions: ‘But he resisted the explicit formalizing of a system of universal categories in theological method, and there the issue lies.’ Williams, , ‘A personal and theological memoir’, Christianity and Crisis XXIII no. 20, p. 212.Google Scholar

^{page 114 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 114 note 3} Ibid.

^{page 114 note 4} Niebuhr, , Radical Monotheism, p. 32.Google Scholar

^{page 114 note 5} Hartt, Julian, ‘Theology of culture’, Review of Metaphysics VI (1953), 507.Google Scholar

^{page 115 note 1} Hoedemaker, Libertus Arend, Faith in Total Life: Style and Direction of H. Richard Niebuhr's Theology (Utrecht: Groningen, 1966).Google Scholar Published as The Theology of H. Richard Niebuhr (Boston Pilgrim Press, 1970), p. 33.Google Scholar

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