An Introduction to  Jonathan Edwards and Thomas Paine

    In the works of Jonathan Edwards and Thomas Paine you will find almost opposite extremes.  Jonathan Edwards was an American philosopher and theologian probably unequaled in brilliance, eloquence, and faith.  He was a Calvinist, and as such a Protestant determinist who held the position that God has predestined things to be as they are.  There are those who are saved and those who are not, and no good works, no amount of praying or believing, will ever change that.  All the same, he held the position that there was a "sense of the heart" by which people could determine whether they were among the elect.  Further, his literary images of the fate of mankind, and of the complete dependence of man on God are both riveting and alive with his faith.
    Thomas Paine was a Deist.  Deism is a rational religion having affinities to Protestantism, but essentially denying the divinity of Christ and the justification of Jesus' crucifixion; Paine questions the rationality of the faith of all Abrahamic religions and considers Christianity to be a religion of cruelty not worthy of belief.  In place of faith, Paine insists on the book of Nature as the true Bible, as the means to understanding the goodness, the beauty, and the power of God.

    In no way do I suggest in presenting these two positions that they are the paradigm instances of the best or worst regarding the world's most popular religion, Christianity.  Christianity is much too diverse even to speculate on such a thing.  According to one author, there are no less than 900 denominations in Christian Protestantism.  Take into consideration, too, that Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy claim a very large number of adherents, and it would be impossible, unreasonable, and absurd to think that Edwards and Paine represent anything more than two different ways in which Christianity, and perhaps religion on the whole, has been or is to be understood.  On the other hand, since Edwards and Paine were both American philosophers (Paine was born in England, but he was, I think, most thoroughly American), the wildly differing views they represent are in some sense a testament to the spirit of individualism, reform and optimism that are major themes of this course.

    With all this said, do not mistake the presentation of any position as advocacy of it.  You are, as you know, free to believe whatever you wish.  What you know, and how you can deal with ideas, principles, and issues, are the concerns of this course.

JONATHAN EDWARDS, "SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD" (1741)

    The central message of the Great Awakening:  Our only hope of salvation (which we do not deserve) is through a regenerative gift of divine grace.
        Jonathan Edwards' work essentially ended in failure.  His view of man as worthless, depraved, destined to damnation was ultimately rejected in America and led to the less radical Christianity that characterized the time period of the American Revolution and the rise of American Transcendentalism before the Civil War.

    "Their foot shall slide in due time" -
        We are always subject to destruction - sudden and unexpected
        The wicked fall of themselves - they are not pushed
        They are not fallen yet - God's time has not come --- we are PREDESTINED

    Only the pleasure of God keeps people out of hell - it is the ARBITRARY, FREE WILL OF GOD
        God lacks no power to cast the wicked into hell
        The wicked deserve to go to hell
        The wicked are already condemned
        The wicked are the objects of the anger of God.
            The Devil waits for the wicked to torment them for eternity
        Hellish principles reign in wicked people
        Sinners walk over the pit of hell on a rotting covering - at any moment they may fall into the pit of hell.  That they have not fallen at this time is only because God holds them up by his sheer grace.
        No care of ourselves can preserve us, good works won't keep us out of hell.
        God is under no obligation to mankind, there is no covenant (contra Judaism)

"Thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the furnaces of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment . . ."
    "All that preservers them every moement is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forebearance of an incensed God."

        Our wickedness makes us as heavy as lead and it is only God who can bear the weight.  When God lets go, the sinner falls into the pit of hell.

    Oddly enough, all of this leads to theodicy.  Even the damned, who suffer excruciating pain for eternity in the pit of hell, realize the goodness of God in punishing them for their sins, that their punishment is part of the beauty of the universe.  In an odd way, the damned are thankful that they are punished for their sins because it is part of the beauty and order of the universe, the divinity, the goodness and the justice of God.

THOMAS PAINE, THE AGE OF REASON
    (numbers in parentheses are page numbers of the Library of Liberal Arts edition of Paine's work - the online version has no page numbers, but you will find the sources here noted in that version)

Paine considered his position to be a defense against atheism (3)

    Paine's primary beliefs - EQUALITY, JUSTICE, MERCY, AND HAPPINESS (3)

    Infidelity (4)

    The status of revelations (5)
            hearsay

    No story is more absurd and contrary to God's power than Jesus and the Crucifixion (11)
            The transgressor triumphs and the mighty falls.

    According to Paine, more than 1/2 of Scripture is filed with cruelty (15)

    Can there be an Old and a New Testament? Can there be two wills of God? (18)

    Jesus had no special status (19)
            Philanthropy was his greatest trait
                    There is evidence that Jesus did not want to die, to be a savior (20)

    The Church system - the opposite of the person who is deified (22)
        Redemption is pecuniary justice/ moral = innocent forthe guilty.
            The Christian lives a life of irreconcilable contradiction (23)

    Why do Christians deride the notion of human reason?  It is not to be disparaged (24)
                Why prayer is ridiculous
                        The word of God is not words, it is Creation itself - nature speaks a universal language

    Why Christianity is Atheism (29)

    Science does not conflict with religion.  Science is not a human invention - its truths are discovered (30)
            Reason discovers all truth - ENLIGHTENMENT RATIONALITY (31)

    The ultimate rule discovered from science, which is from God, is kindness (33)

    (36) - Summary of the inconsistencies of Christianity

    How can mankind be improved by the example of murder?  (42)

        Why Deism is better than Christianity (42)

    There are no miracles in or from God (52)
            Turns God into a showman (54)
            The irony of the miracle of Jonah (55)

The main elements of Paine's The Age of Reason :

1.  The role of reason and science
2.  Opposed to revelation, miracles, and prophesy
3.  Morality is to be maximized
4. Enlightenment is Godly