Jonathan Edwards And The Metaphysics Of Sin: Philosophy of Religion

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is widely regarded as America's greatest philosopher-theologian. In the last half century there has been a resurgence of interest in Edwards' work from historians, theologians and philosophers, aided by the publication of the Yale edition of Edwards' Works. Edwards' thinking on sin has long been a mystery to scholars trying to fit his thought into the traditional categories of Reformed theology. What this study shows is that Edwards' theory of sin was an original contribution to philosophical theology, which can only be understood when read on its own terms as a philosophical theory about the nature of sin, its origin and transmission. This constitutes a substantial contribution to the literature on Edwards and, more broadly, to philosophical theology in general.

Oliver D. Crisp is Professor of Systematic Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He was Reader in Theology at the University of Bristol. He is the author of Retrieving Doctrine: Explorations in Reformed Theology (Paternoster and IVP Academic, 2010); God Incarnate: Explorations in Christology (T&T Clark, 2009); Divinity and Humanity: The Incarnation Reconsidered (Cambridge University Press, 2007); An American Augustinian: Sin and Salvation in the Dogmatic Theology of William G. T. Shedd (Paternoster, 2007); and Jonathan Edwards and the Metaphysics of Sin (Ashgate, 2005). He is also the editor of A Reader in Contemporary Philosophical Theology (T&T Clark, 2009), and has co-edited Analytic Theology: New Essays in the Philosophy of Theology with Michael C. Rea (Oxford University Press, 2009) and Jonathan Edwards: Philosophical Theology, with Paul Helm (Ashgate, 2003). He is the author of over forty essays and articles in symposia and professional journals on systematic and philosophical theology.