Edwards's Spirituality

Scripture focus

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

Psalm 27:4 KJV

At a glance

Summary of the chapter

This chapter treats Edwards not primarily as a theorist but as a man of intense personal devotion whose own spiritual life — recorded in his 'Diary,' 'Resolutions,' and especially the 'Personal Narrative' — became a template he later held out to others, from young converts like Deborah Hatheway to the readers of Religious Affections. George Marsden's judgment that 'piety preceded intellect' in Edwards suggests his theology grew out of lived experience rather than the reverse.

McClymond and McDermott trace three interwoven themes through the 'Personal Narrative': discipline, enjoyment, and consummation. Edwards described relentless 'strife day and night' to grow in holiness, yet almost in the same breath pictured the converted soul as a small white flower quietly opening to the sun — struggle and restfulness held together rather than opposed. A third note, longing for heaven's 'fullness of joy,' shows his spirituality was always oriented toward a future consummation, not merely present experience.

Edwards drew on Puritan devotional writers like Richard Baxter, John Flavel, and John Owen — what Peter Thuesen calls the 'affectionate practical English writers' — who stressed cultivating desire for God as much as doctrinal precision, a debt visible throughout Edwards's own pastoral writing.

Key points

• Edwards's spirituality is documented across his 'Diary,' 'Resolutions,' 'Personal Narrative,' pastoral letters, and treatises such as Religious Affections and Life of Brainerd.
• George Marsden's summary — 'piety preceded intellect' — suggests Edwards's theology grew out of his own devotional experience.
• The 'Personal Narrative' holds together disciplined striving and quiet, restful enjoyment of God rather than treating them as opposites.
• Edwards's spirituality was future-oriented, pressing toward the 'consummation' of joy and love he believed awaited the redeemed in heaven.
• His devotional reading in Puritan 'affectionate practical' writers like Baxter, Flavel, and Owen shaped his lifelong stress on cultivating desire and love for God.

A line worth remembering

The heaven I desired was a heaven of holiness.

McClymond & McDermott The Theology of Jonathan Edwards, ch. 4

Related Scripture

• Philippians 3:12-14
• 1 Timothy 4:7-8
• Psalm 42:1-2
• 2 Corinthians 3:18

For reflection and discussion

1. Where in your own life do discipline and quiet enjoyment of God feel opposed, rather than working together as they did for Edwards?
2. What would it mean for your theology to grow more out of lived devotion, as Marsden says it did for Edwards, and less out of abstract argument alone?
3. How does longing for heaven shape — or fail to shape — your daily spiritual life?