Being somewhat preoccupied with work recently, I inadvertently let pass the 300th birthday of Jonathan Edwards a few days ago.

Edwards was the greatest theological and philosophical mind ever produced by America, and there is a fortunate recent resurgence in the study and appreciation of him. Al Mohler had a wonderful blog post commemorating the occasion yesterday, which provides an excellent entry-level sketch of Edwards and his impact. Mohler's blog does not provide the ability to link to an individual post, but you can find it by looking for the Monday, October 6th entry. He says:

The majority of Americans, if aware of Edwards at all, know him as the preacher of America's most famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Most high school and college-level anthologies of literature contain this sermon--most often introduced with apology as an example of the bizarre beliefs once held by primitive Americans. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" became fodder for "Jonathan Edwards in the Hands of Secular English Teachers."

The plain fact is that Edwards believed in Hell and Heaven, and was certain that the most important question of human existence came down to where one will spend eternity. As Marsden helpfully explains, Edwards can only be understood by asking the question: "How would this issue look if it really were the case that bliss or punishment for a literal eternity was at stake?"

For Edwards, as for evangelical Christians today, the reality of God, His wrath towards sin, and His mercy for sinners stands at the center of an accurate, truthful view of the universe. Those who see Edwards as the product of some primitive, unenlightened era fail to do justice both to his prodigious intellect and to the unchanging truth of biblical revelation. They engage in a fallacious modernistic chauvinism that, without argument, accepts what is newest as what is best a priori.

This Friday, I'll have the pleasure of heading up to Minneapolis for a major 300th birthday celebration of the life and thought of Edwards, put together by John Piper's Desiring God Ministries. Piper is perhaps the foremost popular exponent today of Edwards' glorious vision of God, and other luminaries such as J.I. Packer and Iain Murray will join him proclaiming a "passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples."

As Edwards himself wrote (as quoted in the Mohler piece):

The enjoyment of [God] is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean.

I expect it will be the best weekend I've spent in quite some time.