Abstract

This dissertation begins by observing that Jonathan Edwards' natural philosophy--which rejects innate ideas and faculty psychology, denies any natural inclination towards virtue, and combines Newton's firm chain of causality with Calvinistic doctrines of original sin and the total depravity of man--seems destructive of the traditional ends of politics. Yet Edwards' modernity seems to be partially contradicted by his eulogy for Colonel John Stoddard, which includes a more traditional understanding of the possibilities of politics. Stoddard is described as the political man par excellence, whose natural abilities, rather than divinely ordained authority, make him an extraordinary ruler. In a community which has such a ruler, human beings can achieve material and spiritual prosperity. Without such a community, human beings are utterly miserable. But Edwards suggests that the blessings of community are dependant upon a moral governance which does not easily come about. Stoddard is cut down as a judgment of God against the people, showing that God sometimes wishes human beings to live in unjust regimes. The well-ordered community--so proper and necessary for human happiness--is difficult, if not impossible, to produce. ;The problem intensifies in Edwards' sermons on moral government. Human beings, having one civil government, remain in a "most woeful condition," for only God can enforce any universal moral order. There can be no common good--no communal happiness, or "friendship"--without the amelioration of human nature which comes from the inward religion of Christianity. Evangelism, prior to political action, is necessary to bring about justice; but evangelism has also been unsuccessful in bringing about just political orders. ;Edwards' consideration of political things produces more problems than solutions, more contradictions than answers. These problems lead Edwards to turn from political philosophy to philosophy of history. The perennial questions of politics are answered not by political thoughts and actions, but by history. Justice comes not from a particular regime or political order, but from an historical process resulting in divers political orders which respect human freedom. It is the end of history which, in Edwards mind, will finally prove the justice of God