Jonathan Edwards’s Philosophical Influences: Lockean Or Malebranchean? -- By: Paul Copan

Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 44:1 (Mar 2001)
Article: Jonathan Edwards’s Philosophical Influences: Lockean Or Malebranchean?
Author: Paul Copan


Jonathan Edwards’s Philosophical Influences:
Lockean Or Malebranchean?

Paul Copan*

[* Paul Copan is a ministry associate with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries and visiting professor at Trinity International University, 2065 Half Day Road, Deerfield, IL 60015.]

In Perry Miller’s intellectual biography of Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), 1 he claims that when Edwards discovered and read John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1717, this was “the central and decisive event in his intellectual life.” 2 Indeed, Miller’s book makes much of the influence of Locke and Isaac Newton on Edwards’s thinking.

In their History of Philosophy in America, Elizabeth Flower and Murray Murphey make a similar claim to Miller (and this is not surprising as they frequently cite Miller’s work on Edwards!). They assert that Ed-wards was “early converted to the teaching of Locke and Newton.” 3 Morton White declares that Locke’s Essay “exerted an enormous influence on Ed-wards’ thought” in that it provided the “general framework within which he worked.” 4

Moreover, one gets the very strong impression from reading Miller’s biography that apart from the influences of Locke and Newton, New England was a fairly isolated enclave, cut off from exposure to new ideas from Britain and Continental Europe. Whether or not Miller intended to give this impression, it is certainly not accurate. For there existed certain “lifeline journals” which furnished notables like Edwards, Cotton Mather, and the American Samuel Johnson with the latest information on new books and advancing ideas. 5

Taking an opposing view to Miller, Flower and Murphey, and White is Norman Fiering. In his book Jonathan Edwards’s Moral Thought and Its British Context, 6 he argues that despite the impact of Locke’s Essay in Britain and in colonial America, Locke is wrongly credited with having had a

deep influence on Edwards. Unlike Miller, Fiering presents a far broader intellectual backdrop to Edwards’s thought. He proposes that we think in terms of a milieu rather than individual influences; our knowing the unities makes knowing the specifics less urgent. 7

Fiering suggests that if anyone actua...

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