A Notebook on the Apocalypse by Jonathan Edwards

N I723 at age of nineteen, Jonathan Edwards drew together his reflections on book of Revelation and penned following private conjecture concerning millennium: And what further confirms that sabbath of world will begin near about beginning of seventh thousand years of world, is because we are sure, it cannot be far from it. For we are coming near it already; so that beginning of this time, cannot be very far on this side.' Nearly twenty years later during heat of Great Awakening, he published a glowing report suggesting that glorious day may have dawned with outbreak of revivals. Edwards calculated general evangelical successes of day, particularly those in New England, to be the beginning or forerunner of something vastly great.2 In subsequent generations such speculations were sometimes a shibboleth for Edwards's disciples, other times a source of embarrassment. His detractors in every age make them object of ridicule and derision. Neither detractors nor disciples, however-nor scholars, for that matter-have invested heavily in a close examination of his commitment to biblical prophecy.3 The contemporary convergence of several movements in American scholarship promises to alter situation by providing a new assessment of Edwards's apocalypticism within larger context of colonial thought and life. One converging force is strong continuing interest in Puritan studies, a movement which now has entered a second and more sophisticated phase. Another contributory trend is signaled by growing

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• The Quest for the Spiritual Sense

  Open Access•Stephen J Stein•Harvard Theological Review•1977

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