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A Note on Platonism in the Philosophy of Jonathan Edwards

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

Rufus Suter
Rufus Suter
Affiliation:
Bradbury Heights, Maryland
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Extract

Recent published allusions to Platonism in the minds of Calvinists, and the compatibility of its position there, brings back the memory of Professor William Wallace Fenn's interpretation of the thought of Jonathan Edwards, in lectures more than twenty-five years ago at the Harvard Theological School. Since this interpretation is no longer popular among writers, it might be of interest to mention it again. Professor Fenn liked to picture Edwards as the protagonist of a New England Tragedy. There was tragedy in the outward failures of his life. But the more devastating tragedy was his inward failure as a Christian philosopher. This, according to Fenn's interpretation, arose from Edwards' self-conscious awareness of being unable to reconcile his Platonism with his Calvinism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , October 1959 , pp. 283 - 284
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1959

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References

1 William Wallace Fenn, 1862–1932, a profound student of Edwards and of all the New England theologians. Unfortunately his researches have never been published.

2 There is no need of mentioning here that a new and critical edition of this work, edited by Paul Ramsey, appeared year before last (1957), Yale University Press; vol. 1 of a projected new edition of all Edwards’ writings, under the general editorship of Perry Miller.

3 The reader may be interested in checking a few instances of this stylistic practice. See “A Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World,” in vol. III of The Works of President Edwards: in Ten Volumes, New York, G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1830, pp. 34, 35, 38.Google Scholar Also “A Dissertation Concerning the Nature of True Virtue” in the same volume, pp. 108, 153.

These dissertations were published originally, together, in 1788, in Boston.

4 For evidence of this see the 5-page-long footnote, signed “W,” in “Miscellaneous Remarks,” in vol. VII of the edition cited above, though the imprint is changed to New York, S. Converse, 1829, pp. 405–409.Google Scholar The “W” stands for Dr. Williams, editor of an earlier English edition of Edwards’ works.

I am sorry to give references to an edition accessible with difficulty. But this edition is probably no harder to find than another — until the new Yale edition is complete.