Five Famous Edwards Sermons

by Apr 10, 2009Books, Piety

A friend recently mentioned to me that he had to read five Jonathan Edwards sermons for class. I’ve been getting more into Edwards for dissertation research (and for personal enrichment and enjoyment!) over the last while, so here’s what I recommended. Four are famous, the last is just helpful:

A Divine and Supernatural Light: Edwards’s very important contribution here (this lowly blogger thinks) is that regeneration provides the soul with a taste for divine things that it did not and could not have before.

The Excellency of Christ: I promise I am going to take my own advice and read this sermon!

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God: This is not so much famous as it is infamous. But try to put it in its historical context by reading Marsden or Marsden or Moody or Murray or Piper (see below).

Heaven, a World of Love: This, too, I promise to read (DV).

Charity and Its Fruits Sermon 7: Do you wonder whether Piper is really man-centered despite all his protestations that he is God-centered? Edwards (Piper’s model) here helps you see how aiming at delight in God is not man-centered.



Note: I link to the Yale editions of the sermons in all but one instance above; that’s not easy work because Yale is a great site with a horrible search feature. Make sure to familiarize yourself with the Yale site. Not long ago, you would have had to shell out major cash for the resources now freely available there. All of the volumes of Edwards’ edited works—a major treasure trove—are free, free, free!

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