This collection of seventeen essays is presented as a corrective to a position first articulated almost a century ago by Joseph Haroutunian in Piety Versus Moralism: The Passing of the New England Theology (New York: Henry Holt, 1932), a classic text that contributed in large part to the twentieth-century resurgence of interest in the academic study of Jonathan Edwards. Taking my copy of this text from the shelf, where it had most likely rested unopened since graduate school, I was surprised to discover on the flyleaf the strong signature of the influential Presbyterian theologian himself. I also easily located in its introduction a strong statement of the view the essays in After Jonathan Edwards aim to counter: “As seen from the perspective of the theology of Edwards,” writes Haroutunian, “the history of the New England Theology is the history of a degradation” (xxii).

Coined in the nineteenth century, the term “New England Theology” refers to a theological tradition whose diverse members promoted a style of evangelical Calvinism that, although doctrinally distinctive, claimed allegiance to the thought of Jonathan Edwards. Following Haroutunian, the growth of this theological tradition has commonly been framed not as development, but as decline. As the collection's editors, Oliver D. Crisp and Douglas A. Sweeney, observe, “the New England theology is a tale of ever more arid and abstruse metaphysical theorizing on the basis of an original, and intellectually dynamic, Edwardsian deposit” (5). Contrary to this declension narrative, they assert this tradition is “the most significant and enduring Christian theological school of thought to have originated in the United States” (4). The essays in this volume support this contention by considering not only the development and importance of New England Theology in nineteenth-century America but also the international reach of its theological vision.

The collection is divided into three sections. The first places intellectual and theological concerns of Edwards's immediate successors, called the New Divinity, in a larger context. The essays written by Mark Valeri and James P. Byrd draw interesting connections between this theological school and issues of broader historical concern. Valeri shifts attention from doctrine to method by arguing that a distinguishing feature of Edwardsian thought was its promotion of “the culture of gentility that defined the rules of Anglo-American social discourse during the second half of the eighteenth century” (18). Byrd explores the theological roots of Edwardsian anti-slavery activism, which at times placed the New Divinity in conflict with genteel New England society. Crisp's essay, by contrast, stands out for directly challenging a central element of the declension thesis, the development of a governmental doctrine of the atonement, which Haroutunian considered symptomatic of the “degraded” moralism of New England theology. To undermine this claim Crisp argues that “the seeds of the New England governmental view of the atonement were sown by Edwards himself,” and that precedents exist for this view in earlier Reform thought (78).

The essays in the volume's second section are each devoted to prominent representatives of the New England Theology, from Samuel Hopkins to Edwards Amasa Park. With one exception, they all challenge the declension thesis by arguing that theological change is not equivalent to theological decline. They agree with Haroutunian's view that these theologians sought to adapt Edwardsian Calvinism to the religious, intellectual, and cultural developments that transformed America in the century after their mentor's death. But they argue that this protracted period of theological creativity should be admired for its success in sustaining the essential character of evangelical Calvinism and extending its reach and influence. The outlier is Gerald R. McDermott, who explores, in an essay provocatively titled “Nathanael Emmons and the Decline of Edwardsian Theology,” how this “peculiar but influential” representative of the New England Theology “undermined the Calvinism of his own tradition” by boldly championing such unorthodox views as “original sin is a lie” (118, 120).

The essays in the third, and most innovative, section consider the denominational influence of the New England Theology. In an analysis of the 1,200 subscribers listed in The System of Doctrines, Samuel Hopkins's systematic treatment of Edwardsian theology, Charles Hambrick-Stowe shows how the New Divinity formed a “family tree” of relationships, rooted in Connecticut soil but extending its branches throughout New England (172). Examining the international impact of Edwardsian theology, Michael J. McClymond reveals how the European relationship with Jonathan Edwards ironically expressed both “kinship and foreignness” (224). Anri Morimoto interestingly identifies a similar response to Edwardsian Calvinism in post-World War II Japan. And D. G. Hart considers a neglected chapter in the twentieth-century revival of Jonathan Edwards that occurred among a cohort of evangelical intellectuals who also felt kinship with the Northampton theologian, “the one evangelist,” in Hart's estimation, “more suitable to the classroom than the barroom” (252).

Taken together, the essays in this collection succeed in demonstrating that Jonathan Edwards's legacy “has been larger, far more global, and more enduring than we knew” (254). But this enduring legacy cannot in itself fully disempower the declension thesis. To counter effectively this deeply entrenched narrative a new story must be told, which incorporates the well-known figures, brings them into dialogue with new voices, and frames their conversations in new ways. A number of this volume's authors have begun this work, but, as its editors acknowledge in their postscript, more work remains. They hope the volume “will incite further academic interest in the courses of Edwardsian theology,” and they provide some suggestions for fruitful avenues of research (255). Beginning the story with Edwards may, however, only exacerbate the problem, for his towering intellectual accomplishments make all who succeed him look small. Likewise, the very term “New England Theology” makes its representatives appear parochial in their influence. An alternative is suggested in passing by several of the volume's authors. As Crisp notes, Edwards's successors “innovated within an emerging theological tradition, developing a distinctively American strand of Reformed theology” (90). Locating the New England Theology within this larger narrative has the potential to stimulate new questions, shift attention to new issues, amplify new voices, and perhaps generate a new story having sufficient weight to counter the continuing pull of the declension thesis.