Edwards the Mentor

Among his many accomplishments, Jonathan Edwards was an effective mentor who trained many leaders for the church in colonial America, but his pastoral work is often overlooked. Rhys S. Bezzant investigates the background, method, theological rationale, and legacy of his mentoring ministry. Edwards did what mentors normally do--he met with individuals to discuss ideas and grow in skills. But Bezzant shows that Edwards undertook these activities in a distinctly modern or affective key. His correspondence is written in an informal style; his understanding of friendship and conversation takes up the conventions of the great metropolitan cities of Europe. His pedagogical commitments are surprisingly progressive and his aspirations for those he mentored are bold and subversive. When he explains his mentoring practice theologically, he expounds the theme of seeing God face to face, summarized in the concept of the beatific vision, which recognizes that human beings learn through the example of friends as well as through the exposition of propositions. In this book the practice of mentoring is presented as an exchange between authority and agency, in which the more experienced person empowers the other, whose own character and competencies are thus nurtured. More broadly, the book is a case study in cultural engagement, for Edwards deliberately takes up certain features of the modern world in his mentoring and yet resists other pressures that the Enlightenment generated. If his world witnessed the philosophical evacuation of God from the created order, then Edwards's mentoring is designed to draw God back into an intimate connection with human experience.

About the Author :
Rhys S. Bezzant has served as an ordained priest in the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne, and presently teaches Church History at Ridley College, where he directs the Jonathan Edwards Center Australia. He is also a Canon at St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne. He is the author of Jonathan Edwards and the Church (OUP 2013).

Review :
"Jonathan Edwards tends to be romantically imagined as a lone figure, wrestling with ultimate questions in isolation, and not as an organization builder. While he did more than his share of intellectual and spiritual wrestling, he did not do it in solitude but trained youthful minds and hearts. As Rhys Bezzant shows us so innovatively in this new take on the colonial theologian and pastor, Edwards was conscious of his legacy, and mentored rising generations of believers and leaders." -- Kenneth P. Minkema, Executive Editor and Director, Jonathan Edwards Center, Yale University "This innovative study explores a wide variety of intersecting topics, from friendship between men and the arts of conversation and letter writing to the history and theology of pastoral mentorship. Bezzant's reconstruction of Edwards's efforts to train and nurture the next generation of 'Sons of Thunder' is a fresh contribution to Edwards scholarship that will interest social historians and American theologians alike." -- Ava Chamberlain, Author of The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle: Marriage, Murder, and Madness in the Family of Jonathan Edwards. "Rhys S. Bezzant has provided us with an original piece of research, combined with scholarly expertise, and wide ranging and significant application to the life of the church in the twenty-first century. This is an important book. It is well written. It is well researched. And it will help you follow Edwards's example of mentoring people for Christ's glory today. Read it!" -- Josh Moody, Senior Pastor of College Church, Wheaton, Illinois