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Poverty, Patriotism, and National Covenant: Jonathan Edwards and Public Life
Author(s) -
McDermott Gerald R.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of religious ethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.306
H-Index - 20
eISSN - 1467-9795
pISSN - 0384-9694
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9795.00136
Subject(s) - covenant , temptation , patriotism , public life , poverty , chauvinism , sociology , environmental ethics , communalism , christian ethics , pride , political science , law , theology , philosophy , politics
In this essay I address three ways in which Edwards can inform Christian understanding of public life. First I show how Edwards provides both philosophical and theological rationales for social engagement and thereby resists the separation of religion from public life, and use his consideration of poverty as an illustration. Part II examines Edwards's dialectical treatment of patriotism, demonstrating both its importance to the Christian life and its susceptibility to deceptive accommodation to culture. Finally, in Part III I discuss Edwards's use of “national covenant,” which despite its temptation to chauvinism Edwards used to undermine national pride. In the conclusion I assess what we can use from Edwards for contemporary Christian understandings of public life.