Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards and his blank Bible

Tony Reinke Exegesis, Great Quotes, Jonathan Edwards, Preaching

This marks an exciting time in the study of Jonathan Edwards. The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University is preparing Edwards’ famous “blank Bible” for print (see video here). It will be very useful because the thoughts of Edwards will be organized exegetically. Though these volumes will be quite expensive they should also be quite valuable for the preacher of God’s Word.

(BTW, the Edwards Yale edition of his works very expensive. However, they are common in large university libraries. Here in Omaha I frequent a library with the entire set to date and many of the volumes published in the past 8 years have only been checked out once or twice!)

Anyone who spends much time in Edwards has a great respect for his ability to draw themes out of texts and cross-reference the same theme in the rest of Scripture. Every time I study Edwards I come away with a web of connections I otherwise would have never found.

I don’t have to tell you that I am no Edwards (and no Spurgeon either, while I’m thinking of it), but I do have my own blank Bible. Next week I will show you how to make a blank Bible similar to Edwards. It’s the best way to keep those Biblical insights close to the biblical texts they originate.

Have a great weekend!

Jonathan Edwards, Princeton Cemetery and an encouraging Friday surprise

Tony Reinke Jonathan Edwards, Photographs, Princeton Cemetery, spurgeon

I received word this afternoon that my photographs taken this Spring at the Princeton Cemetery are featured on the Jonathan Edwards Center blog.

The full website I designed from a trip to Princeton Cemetery can be found here. Thank you to Michael McClenahan and the Jonathan Edwards Center for this wonderful surprise!

The preaching of Jonathan Edwards

Tony Reinke Boldness, Earnestness, Great Preachers, Imagination, Jonathan Edwards, Preaching, Pupit Seriousness

I purchased my copy of Marsden’s biography Jonathan Edwards: A Life at CLC this Spring (two days after visiting Edwards’ grave in Princeton). It has become one of my favorite biographies just behind Dallimore’s George Whitefield. Edwards had a powerful preaching style stemming from his intellectual gifts and seriousness with divine things.

“Although Edwards had none of the dramatic gestures of a Whitefield or a Tennent and was said to preach as though he were staring at the bell-rope in the back of the meetinghouse, he could be remarkably compelling. An admirer described his delivery as ‘easy, natural and very solemn. He had not a strong, loud voice; but appeared with such gravity and solemnity, and spake with such distinctness, clearness and precision; his words were so full of ideas, set in such a plain and striking light, that few speakers have been so able to demand the attention of an audience as he.’ Through sheer intensity he generated emotion. ‘His words often discovered a great degree of inward fervor, without much noise or external emotion, and fell with great weight on the minds of his hearers. He made but little motion of his head or hands in his desk, but spake so as to discover the motion of his own heart, which tended in the most natural and effectual manner to move and affect others.’ The combination of controlled but transparent emotion, heartfelt sincerity both in admonition and compassion, inexorable logic, and biblical themes could draw people into sensing the reality of ideas long familiar.”

– George M. Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life (Yale: 2003) p. 220

Princeton Cemetery

Tony Reinke Great Preachers, Jonathan Edwards, Photographs, Preaching Legacy, Princeton Cemetery

This past March my wife, son, daughter and I traveled to the East coast to meet with old friends and meet new friends. One of the highlights for me was a trip to Princeton Cemetery where men like Jonathan Edwards, B.B. Warfield, Archibald Alexander and Charles Hodge are buried. I put together a little website of the photographs I took while there and you can find it here. It is a good reminder of the legacy we can leave as preachers and pastors if we remain faithful to the Gospel!