New England Dogmatics: A Systematic Collection of Questions and Answers in Divinity by Maltby Gelston (1766–1865)
Ebook
Overview
Jonathan Edwards' (1703-58) ideas are among the most significant to the development of Reformed Theology in America. However brief the life of his intellection tradition, Edwards' ideas and their reception remain an integral part of contemporary theological dialogue. Hitherto no work has appeared that sheds as much systematic light on the reception of Edwards' ideas than Maltby Gelston's (1766-1865) Systematic Collection of Questions and Answers in Divinity. As a ministerial aspirant under the tutelage of Jonathan Edwards the younger, Gelston received catechetical instruction through an exhaustive series of 313 questions, tailor made by early New England theologians. To this point, researches have mused over the significance of these questions and what they tell us about the development of the New England theological tradition. With the publication of this manuscript, researchers may now, for the first time, muse over the significance of Gelston's answers.
“Maltby Gelston is one of the most important New Divinity
scholars about whom most have never heard—primarily because of his
book of questions and answers in divinity written for Jonathan
Edwards, Jr., his pastoral mentor. This material, published here
for the very first time, opens a whole new window onto the world of
the Edwardseans, reminding us of a time and place quite different
from our own, where the details of Christian doctrine were matters
of life and death or, in the words of Harriet Beecher Stowe, ‘all
was profoundly real and vital,—a foundation on which actual life
was based with intensest earnestness.’”
—Douglas A. Sweeney, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Robert L. Boss is the Executive Director of
JESociety.org.
Joshua R. Farris is Assistant Professor of Theology and
Director of The Academy at Houston Baptist University. He is also
Henry Fellow at the Carl F.H. Henry Center, The Creation
Project.
S. Mark Hamilton is co-editor of and contributor to several
academic works. He is a PhD candidate at the Free University of
Amsterdam and a research associate at the JESociety.