God's Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards (with the Complete Text of the End for Which God Created the World)

click here for more details, find new or used items	John Piper Used from £5.74 Pages: 272 (Paperback) ISBN: 1581347456 Pub: Crossway Books Pub date: 2006-01-30 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 305131

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Jonathan Edwards never wrote his planned magnum opus, in which he would present an integrated Biblical Theology. One two-part (arguably) work stands out as his most profound synthesis: Concerning the End for Which God Created The World and The Nature of True Virtue.

This book contains the full text of God's End, the first of the two, in which Edwards polemically answers the question of what is ultimate in God's purposes. While being a polemic against the philosophical assumptions of his age in general, and their bearing on Christian thought in particular, it is an extraordinarily useful piece of writing for anyone in any age, getting to the heart of God.

Edwards' own introductory chapter is worth reading in its own right, where he displays masterful care in analysing what different kinds of purpose exist, and therefore frames the question that he is answering with utmost care.

In part I, he proceeds to engage with those arguments that will dismiss his own conclusion; he puts them well and uses the groundwork of his introduction to dismiss them.

Finally, in part II, he turns to heart-warming exposition of how God answers the question of what His ultimate purpose is. In one sense, therefore, the book is written backwards and we are left tantalised until the final part of the book.

His conclusions are then developed in The Nature of True Virtue where ethics are analysed in the light of God's purposes, but that isn't in this particular book.

What is in this book is some gold-dust by John Piper. He has re-edited Edwards' work himself: his starting point is the older Banner of Truth edition, but he has corrected it in the light of the recent Yale Edition: Ethical Writings (The Works of Jonathan Edwards Series, Volume 8). The result is a very readable and accurate edition, with some timely footnotes to help us on our way to avoid misunderstanding a centuries-old text.

That all takes up about half the volume; the first half is written by Piper. Brilliant stuff, as we've come to expect from this wonderful man of God, but do turn to Edwards' work first.

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