Jonathan Edward's End of Creation

Abstract

"Jonathan Edwards’s Dissertation Concerning the End for which God created the World is a treasure trove of resources and insights for contemporary philosophical theology—especially given his interest in resisting the erosion of the centrality of God in science, history, moral philosophy, and “true spirituality.” His concerns were—and still are—legitimate. In this paper I make common cause with Edwards by defending his End of Creation against criticisms grounded in a recurrent strategic error in interpretation. I will examine three such critical works.2 William Wisner (1850) argues that Edwards’s view of God and God’s purpose in creation is inconsistent because God’s making himself his end, as Edwards claims, entails both a deficiency in God and Neoplatonic emanationism, which contradict God’s aseity and creation ex nihilo, respectively. Michael J. McClymond (1995) argues that Edwards’s view of God as being normatively bound to regard each creature according to their inherent worth overrides God’s freedom in creating and shows God to be inconsistent when he saves only the elect. James Beilby (2004) argues that Edwards’s defense of his theses entails that God must demonstrate his glory"