John D. Hannah, who teaches Historical Theology at Dallas Theological Seminary, has written a review of A God Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards, eds. John Piper and Justin Taylor (Wheaton: Crossway, 2004), which are the papers of a 2003 conference on Jonathan Edwards held at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis. It has just appeared in the e-zine, Reformation 21. Read the review and then get the book and savour some very fine studies of the thought and life of this superb American theologian. Hannah concludes the review thus:
“In a world where most celebrated figures are anti-heroes, Edwards is truly remarkable. He was a man, as [Mark] Dever and [Sherard] Burns demonstrate, that at times did not rise above the cultural presuppositions and blinders of his day (e.g., his aristocratic attitudes in a culture rejecting past conventions and his embrace of slavery). Though a genius by any cultural standards, his attempt to defend the Reformed faith with cleverly constructed and novel arguments at times seemed to take him to the edge of Orthodoxy though he was wise enough to know that some answers have not been revealed by the all-wise, incomprehensible God of the Holy Scriptures, as [Paul] Helms and [Sam] Storms ancillarily indicate. As…[John and Noël] Piper…indicate, [J. I.] Packer and [Donald] Whitney collaborate, Edwards’ spirituality is truly exemplary, as is his conception of God; he managed to put life in sync with his lofty encounter with the one whose name is above every name. I can heartily commend this popularly styled volume.”