Jonathan Edwards and the Church: Gerald R. McDermott

Jonathan Edwards and ‘the Nature of Things’: Reclaiming a Doctrine of Creation for the Reformation Tradition

Some have claimed that the Reformers put so much emphasis on the doctrine of redemption that a proper doctrine of creation was obscured or lost. Karl Barth went so far as to claim that there can be no Reformation natural theology—that nature can be seen as creation only by those who know the Redeemer, that nature cannot be known apart from special grace. Edwards, however, argued that nature has its own integrity apart from the order of grace. For the greatest Reformed theologian between Calvin and Barth, God created “the nature of things” with its own objectivity apart from the order of redemption. Thus the regenerate can discuss creation with the unregenerate in the public square without having to appeal to special revelation that the unregenerate do not share.

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Biography

Gerald R. McDermott (PhD, University of Iowa) is the Anglican Chair of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham AL. He is the author, co-author or editor of many books, including A Trinitarian Theology of Religions (with Harold Netland),  Jonathan Edwards Confronts the Gods,  The Theology of Jonathan Edwards (with Michael J. McClymond), and Israel Matters: Why Christians Must Think Differently about the People and the Land.

This event is made possible through the support of a grant from Templeton Religion Trust. The opinions expressed in this lecture are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Templeton Religion Trust.