William Danaher agrees with Perry Miller's often-quoted statement: Jonathan Edwards is ‘so much ahead of his time that our own can hardly be said to have caught up with him’ (p. 12). Specifically, in The Trinitarian Ethics of Jonathan Edwards Danaher suggests that Edwards' work ‘exudes a vitality that is largely absent from contemporary theology and ethics’ (p. 258). Danaher's book itself exudes a lively vitality: here is a confident and competent synthesis of Edwards' thought, contemporary theological ethics and trinitarian scholarship.

Danaher's study is unique in several ways. Whereas previous studies have emphasised Edwards' writings on aesthetics and divine sovereignty, Danaher's interest is in the ethical themes of Edwards' works. Succinctly stated, Danaher's thesis is that Edwards' trinitarian reflection is essential for understanding his theological ethics. Second in contrast to those interpreters who have emphasised continuities between Edward' trinitarian thought and its anticipations in patristic, medieval and modern theology, Danaher's book also emphasises discontinuities. Finally, this contribution to the ‘Columbia Series in Reformed Theology’ displays a decidedly ecumenical thrust. Danaher moves beyond previous studies which emphasised the location of Edwards' trinitarian reflection within the Reformed tradition, and instead stresses ‘the extent to which Edwards's Trinitarian ethics provides a bridge for Reformed theologians to recover part of their heritage that resonates with central themes in catholic theology and ethics’ (p. 11). According to Danaher, ‘what is remarkable in Edwards's Trinitarian thought is not the extent to which he preserves and extends the Reformed tradition, but the extent to which he anticipates many of the major themes in recent Trinitarian theology’ (p. 12). Danaher defends his position in two steps.

Chapters 1 and 2 lay the groundwork, arguing that Edwards' insights into both psychological and social analogies of the Trinity serve as vehicles for his moral reflection. According to Edwards' psychological analogy, moral life hinges on theosis. As the Holy Spirit indwells the saints, creatures experience the joy which exists in the inner relations of the Trinity. This transformation results not only in personal fulfilment, but also in ethical relationship: for Edwards, all ethics depend on the state of our souls in God (p. 43). The social analogy conceives of the love of God in terms of self-donation, mutuality and inclusion, and Edwards stresses that, although the love of the Trinity underlies all human sociality, it is the church which ‘represents the fullest embodiment of the Trinity and provides the primary locus for living the Christian life’ (p. 68). In Edwards' theology, the social analogy is more than a template of divine love which human love can only imperfectly approximate. Rather, the church is a community constituted both vertically and horizontally by God's triune love. Saints participate in the Godhead through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and experience friendship and communion with each other on the basis of this shared love (p. 95). In both chapters, Danaher's treatment of Edwards' trinitarianism is rich, nuanced and even-handed: he exposes not only the possibilities, but also potential problems and inconsistencies in Edwards' thought.

The second stage of Danaher's argument is perhaps the most creative and engaging portion of the book. Whereas the first two chapters considered those sections of Edwards' work which specifically treated the Trinity, the next three chapters offer a trinitarian interpretation of Edwards' Religious Affections, Freedom of the Will, Original Sin, Two Dissertations, and Charity and its Fruits. Because these major works are not overtly trinitarian, but are in fact constructed according to classical monotheism, Danaher pursues a revisionary line of interpretation. Throughout chapters 4 and 5, Danaher stresses that Edwards was an apologetic theologian who engaged persons who harboured doubts as to the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. In short, Edwards makes a strategic decision to downplay his trinitarian commitments in order to develop arguments that operate from common philosophic assumptions (p. 158). Nevertheless, Danaher argues that Edwards' major works contain an implicit trinitarianism which must be retrieved: since the common philosophic assumptions of the eighteenth century have not withstood the test of time, ‘retrieving the Trinitarianism that underlies [Edwards'] writings is essential for identifying what these works offer to current theology and ethics’ (p. 219).

Danaher follows up on his commitment to contemporary conversation by placing Edwards in dialogue with unlikely partners. To cite a few examples, Danaher compares Edwards' trinitarian anthropology with Alasdair MacIntyre's retrieval of Aristotelian virtue ethics, Edwards' interpretation of free will with John Hick and Richard Swinburne's proposals, and Edwards' theocentric ethics of love with Gene Outka's discussion of love in contemporary theological ethics. Danaher's interpretation of Charity and its Fruits recovers Edwards' distinctive connection between charity, the church and eschatology. Here I found the comparison of Edwards with Stanley Hauerwas and John Zizioulas to be particularly fruitful.

As the previous paragraph might suggest, the sheer breadth of Danaher's coverage is at times overwhelming. Not only does Danaher compare Edwards to the previously mentioned ethicists, he also places Edward's work in conversation with patristic, medieval and contemporary trinitarian scholarship. Augustine, Aquinas, John Locke, Nicholas Malebranche, George Berkeley, Cotton Mather, Samuel Clarke, John Taylor, Francis Hutchenson, Catherine LaCugna and Jurgen Moltmann all serve as Edwards' interlocutors. However, Danaher is both a clear thinker and an excellent writer. His organised introduction and conclusion, helpful chapter summaries and periodic reviews of the material keep the argument flowing and prevent the reader from falling into distraction. Danaher makes the complexities of Edwards' thought and prose accessible to a diverse audience, and anyone who has laboured through Edwards' primary source materials will appreciate that this is no small feat.

In the end, if Danaher engages an ambitious slate of theologians, ethicists and historians, it is because he is a scholar with a mission. Danaher argues that Edwards is wrongly overlooked in contemporary theology and ethics: his book is ‘what Edwards would have called a “vindication”, a reasoned attempt to reassert the validity of a particular person, position, or doctrine’ (p. 12). Indeed, through its careful scholarship, cogent argumentation and lucid writing, Danaher's is a powerful vindication which ultimately succeeds.