Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 59:2 (Jun 2016)
Article: The Metaphysics Of Jonathan Edwards’s "End Of Creation"
Author: Walter J. Schultz

JETS 59:2 (June 2016) p. 339

The Metaphysics Of Jonathan Edwards’s
End Of Creation

Walter Schultz*

* Walter Schultz is professor of philosophy and scholar-in-residence at Northwestern College, 3003 Snelling Ave. N, St. Paul, MN 55113–1598.

Abstract: In his dissertation Concerning the End for which God Created the World, the American theologian and philosopher, Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), argues precisely and validly for a particular view of God’s purpose and motive in creating and sustaining the world on the substantive assumptions that creation is ex nihilo and that only God is absolutely independent and self-sufficient. He asserts that his is the only conceptually possible counterexample to Baruch Spinoza’s contention that no specific position on God’s end and motive in creation combined with a commitment to God’s aseity and creatio ex nihilo can escape incoherence. His argumentation entails a complex metaphysics, which—with careful qualification—may be referred to by the following terms: dispositionalism, emanationism, idealism, panentheism, anti-platonism, continuous creationism, and occasionalism. This paper briefly describes Edwards’s argumentation for God’s end and motive in creation, summarizes each of these seven positions, and shows how they logically follow.

Key Words: emanation, disposition, idealism, platonism, panentheism, continuous creationism, occasionalism.

Jonathan Edwards’s argumentation in his 1765 dissertation Concerning the End for which God Created the World entails a particular version of emanationism, dispositionalism, idealism, antiplatonism, panentheism, continuous creationism, and occasionalism.1 This paper briefly describes Edwards’s argumentation for God’s end and motive in creation then summarizes each of these seven positions and how they logically follow.2 My aims are to present a précis of Edwards’s theory of God and creation only in so far as it is expressed in End of Creation. He addressed many of these issues early in his career.3 However, too often Edwards’s metaphysics is summarized from what he wrote earlier in his life without giving adequate attention to this mature work. Hence, a secondary aim of this paper is to offer an important and timely corrective to this lacuna in Edwardsian scholarship as space permits.

JETS 59:2 (June 2016) p. 340

Whether Edwards changed or refined his views from the 1720s to 1755 is not at issue in this paper, nor are questions regarding the historical influences on his thought or to what ...