Works

This inaugural volume of Yale University Press's critical edition of Jonathan Edwards's complete works launched in 1957 under Perry Miller's editorial leadership, marking the beginning of modern Edwards scholarship. The project emerged from a recognition that America's greatest theologian had been poorly served by nineteenth-century editions that were incomplete, poorly organized, and marred by editorial liberties. Miller and his colleagues sought to recover Edwards's authentic voice through rigorous textual scholarship and chronological presentation.

Volume 1, titled "Freedom of the Will," presents Edwards's 1754 masterwork "A Careful and Strict Enquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of that Freedom of Will, which is Supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency, Virtue and Vice, Reward and Punishment, Praise and Blame." Editor Paul Ramsey provides Edwards's complete text alongside extensive apparatus documenting the work's composition, sources, and theological context. The volume reveals Edwards's sophisticated philosophical method as he dismantles Arminian notions of libertarian free will, arguing instead that true freedom consists in acting according to one's strongest inclination, which in fallen humanity requires divine grace to redirect toward good. Edwards demonstrates that moral responsibility remains intact even within a deterministic framework, since actions flow from the agent's own desires and character.

This volume established the standard for serious Edwards scholarship and helped inaugurate his rehabilitation as a major American intellectual figure. The careful editing revealed Edwards as far more than a fire-and-brimstone preacher, exposing his engagement with Enlightenment philosophy and his sophisticated theological reasoning. Who should read this: Students of Reformed theology seeking Edwards's most rigorous philosophical work, and scholars interested in colonial American intellectual history. This is not accessible to casual readers unfamiliar with philosophical theology or those seeking devotional material.