Book examines impact of early New England theology
A Kirkwood Community College professor’s name can now be found alongside internationally recognized religion and history scholars. Peter Jauhiainen, Ph.D., Kirkwood Religion professor, published a chapter entitled “Samuel Hopkins and Hopkinsianism” in After Jonathan Edwards: The Courses of the New England Theology, ed. by Oliver Crisp and Douglas A. Sweeney (Oxford University Press, 2012).
The book is a collection of essays from a team of international scholars of Edwards, New England theology and early American history that track Edwards’s intellectual legacies throughout the world. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was an American theologian and a major figure in the First Great Awakening, a series of religious revival movements that swept across Colonial America in the early to mid-1700s.
Jauhiainen’s chapter focuses on Samuel Hopkins, a leading Edwards disciple and the preeminent formulator of the New Divinity, a prominent Christian theology in the New England states in the early nineteenth century. The New Divinity attracted many of the brightest minds of Yale College, quickly spread throughout New England, and became a major force in Congregationalism into the mid-nineteenth century.
Of the 17 contributing authors, most of whom are internationally recognized scholars in this field, Jauhiainen is the only one from a community college. “It’s an honor to be included with these great historical and theological minds,” said Jauhiainen. “In the past few decades there’s been a flowering of interest in the work of Jonathan Edwards. The publication of many previously unavailable manuscripts, in the Yale edition of Edwards’ works, combined with interest in the New England theology inspired by Edwards’ work, has brought his religious thoughts to the forefront in theology circles.”
After Jonathan Edwards offers a reassessment of the New England Theology in light of the work of Edwards’ work. Scholars who have made contributions to the understanding of Edwards are brought together with scholars of New England theology and early American history, producing this examination of the ways in which New England Theology flourished, how themes in Edwards’ thought were taken up and changed by representatives of the school, and its lasting influence on the shape of American Christianity.