Can anyone tell me what the difference is between the 2-volume Banner of Truth edition of the Works of Edwards (link) and the 10-volume The Works of Jonathan Edwards published by Yale University Press?

Is the Yale work more complete? Or do they contain the same material, only in a different number of volumes?

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Seth Stark
Member, Communion Presbyterian Church (ARP), Irvine, CA
Biola University, Graduate Student, M.A. - Science and Religion
Seth's Blog

I hope they're the same. I just bought the two-volume set...

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Ian Kemmerer
Covenant Presbetyrian Church,Reading,PA
Fleetwood,PA

"Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart, And all is darkened in the vale of tears, Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart, Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears. Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay From His own fullness all He takes away."

They're not. When complete the Yale volumes will have more material than the BoT pair. But Yale is slow publishing, I'm not sure how far along the project is. Also the Yale volumes should be easier to read!

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In Christ's love and service

Mr. Tim Cunningham, Dip. CS (Regent College)
Member, First Baptist Church
Vancouver, BC

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"The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar of 1500-year-old, 200 proof grace—a bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the gospel—after all these centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your own bootstraps—suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home-free before they started. Grace was to be drunk neat: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale." – Robert Farrar Capon

Yale contains many many things that have never been published before. Of course, they are so expensive, that the 'normal' pastor/ student would never be able to afford them. They would be more necessary for Edwards' scholars and libraries.

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Nathan Eshelman
Grand Rapids, MI
First Reformed Presbyterian Church

PRESBYTERIAN THOUGHTS

First Reformed Presbyterian Church

I sure hope so...although that certainly wouldn't be hard to accomplish!

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Davidius
Husband of Emilia
Member: First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham (RPCNA) - Durham, NC
Currently in the process of transferring membership to an as-yet-undecided church in Chapel Hill
Student: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, German Literature and Classics

Right, the BoT edition is not complete. I think Yale has published around 25-26 volumes to date.

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Andrew Myers
Husband of Jessica, Father of Jackson, Katie and Samuel
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church of Northern Virginia
Warrenton, VA USA
Editor, The Matthew Poole Project

"Let your Morning Thoughts, and your last Evening Thoughts, be what shall become of you to all Eternity." -- Matthew Poole

Complete works does not mean all works- it means works that were completed or 'whole' works .

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Nathan Eshelman
Grand Rapids, MI
First Reformed Presbyterian Church

PRESBYTERIAN THOUGHTS

First Reformed Presbyterian Church

They have published 26 volumes, volume 25 being a double volume. Among other things, the complete Miscellanies are included (not included in the BoT works). The other advantage the Yale set has is that every volume has an extensive introduction by a noted Edwards scholar.

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Rev. Lane Keister
Teaching Elder, PCA, North Dakota (working out of bounds in a CRC and an RCA church)
http://greenbaggins.wordpress.com
http://brahmsgreenglove.blogspot.com
http://accenttranslation.blogspot.com
Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

If you buy from Yale Press, the average volume (if I have calculated correctly) is roughly $83 before tax. If you want the whole set to date, it will run you $2074 before tax. nleshelman was right, IMO - in most cases, this set is best left for special collections...

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Rob Somers
New Creation RPC
Kitchener, ON

I know one man, currently working on a book on the preaching of JE, who is very happy to have virtually the whole of Edwards sermon notes transcribed (or in process) in the Yale edition. For his research, he was even given access to pre-publication sermon transcription notes for volumes not even in print at the time.

By the way, the fact is that Edwards continually got "better" as a preacher, as do most studious men of the cloth. There is a myth (largely grown up around reports of "Sinners in the Hands...") that Edwards was a bore and a monotone. How anyone could look at the "jottings" (literally, scraps of paper, and fragments of sentences, thoughts) and think he was "reading", especially as the years went by, just shows prejudice. He grew in the pulpit, and in the process became more extemporaneous. His printed sermons were obviously prepared for publication: written out, and edited.

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Rev. Bruce G. Buchanan
ChainOLakes Presbyterian Church, CentralLake, MI


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If you don't mind reading badly formatted online text, you could always go to Jonathan Edwards Center. They are still updating, but the plan is to put everything they have online.

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So how much has Edward's actually written? He won't take over C.H. Spurgeon's place as the most published Christian author/speaker, will he?

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Ian Kemmerer
Covenant Presbetyrian Church,Reading,PA
Fleetwood,PA

"Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart, And all is darkened in the vale of tears, Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart, Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears. Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay From His own fullness all He takes away."

I thought Rick Warren and Joel Osteen already did that...

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When the Yale edition has finished its 27th volume, that will be about half of the material Edwards produced in his lifetime. That's how prolific he was. The remaining material is planned to be put on the Jonathan Edwards Center website, albeit slowly. Transcribing Edwards's handwriting is painstakingly tedious. The later sermons were mainly outlines. It is his earlier ones that are written out in full.

The BOT edition of The Works was done when most of Edwards's material was not available. It comprises about 12% of what JE actually wrote himself.

Don Kistler

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Dr. Don Kistler

Jonathan Edwards was an amazing man of God.

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Ivan Schoen, Pastor * Maranatha Baptist Church * Poplar Grove, Illinois USA www.maranatha-sbc.org/
"Mankind is divided into two sorts: such as live according to man, and such as live according to God. These we call the two cities...The Heavenly City outshines Rome. There, instead of victory, is truth" — Augustine of Hippo

Keyword: "Christian"

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Ian Kemmerer
Covenant Presbetyrian Church,Reading,PA
Fleetwood,PA

"Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart, And all is darkened in the vale of tears, Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart, Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears. Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay From His own fullness all He takes away."

One of the frustrating things about the Yale edition is that when people quote from it (*ahem* Piper *ahem), you're left saying, "Jee, thanks for letting me know about a book I can't get!"

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Jacob
Sovereign Grace Ministries
Covenant Fellowship Church
West Chester, PA

"Grace renews nature; glory perfects grace." ~ John Owen
Blog - The Strasbourg Inn

Does each Yale edition contain more than one book of Edwards? Other publishers sell, for example, a 150 page (or how ever long) unabridged version of Religious Affections for $14.99. Yale's edition is at least $85.00, but contains a special introduction. Now, if Yale took all the compiled all the introductions into one volume and sold it for $85.00, then maybe they would have something.

And the same goes for all of J.I. Packer's introductions to John Owen!

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Dan Pemberton
Vacaville, CA

Member, First Baptist Church San Luis Obispo
Formerly ABUSA (We left, so I guess that makes us American Baptists Unleashed!)

The first 13 or so volumes of the Yale edition has material that was available elsewhere in other editions. But after that the material is such that it was not available before.

When Edwards died in 1758, it seems that his sermon notes and writings were given as keepsakes to relatives across New England. Then, in 1901, the family decided that it should all be brought back to a central location, which was Yale University.

In the 1950's Perry Miller began the project of publishing Edwards, with the hope that everything of his would be in print by 2003, the 300 year anniversary of his birth. That did not happen, of course, but we are privileged to have so much of it now that we should be grateful.

Yale has done us a great service in bringing into print so many things we could never have had before. Also, William Nichols of International Outreach has done several such volumes. Broadman Holman did two volumes of unpublished material. And Soli Deo Gloria published 7 volumes of previously unpublished sermons by Edwards.

The Northampton Press just made available Edwards's "Sermons on the Lord's Supper," comprised of sermons that had not been published before.

One can only imagine what Edwards would have produced if the computer had been invented in his lifetime!

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Dr. Don Kistler

I wonder if this is something worth saving for. I already really want to buy the BoT edition, and then anything else that's not in it (preferably for cheap or on CD).

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Dan Pemberton
Vacaville, CA

Member, First Baptist Church San Luis Obispo
Formerly ABUSA (We left, so I guess that makes us American Baptists Unleashed!)