Idealism and Edwards the Preacher

Abstract

Jonathan Edwards’s idealism did not seem to leave any place for material things or acts beyond mere ideas and perceptions. So, why was he so serious and faithful in his role as a preacher if the act of preaching in the material world did not have any existence beyond perception? This essay suggests that the preaching of the Word had a significant place in Edwards’s idealism because of his reconception of the theologies of sin, faith, and preaching in new metaphysical and relational terms that allowed him to place such theologies in his idealism.