Reviving Jonathan Edwards : Perry Miller's Mid-Century Mission

Stephen D Crocco

ISBN 10: 1625349386 / ISBN 13: 9781625349385

Published by University Of Massachusetts Press Aug 2026, 2026

About this Item

Neuware - The untold story of how an unlikely Harvard atheist helped resurrect one of America's greatest Puritans Jonathan Edwards is widely regarded as one of America's most important and original thinkers. Prior to the mid-twentieth century, however, he was largely unknown to the learned community, except, perhaps, as a preacher of terror due to his well-known sermon, 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.' In 1948 and 1949, Harvard professor of English Perry Miller published four pieces on him, including the acclaimed biography, Jonathan Edwards, and only a few years later he became the general editor of Edwards's collected works. Miller's efforts helped to resurrect Edwards as America's greatest Puritan and to solidify him as central to the American experience, and their names have been closely intertwined ever since. Miller, an iconoclastic scholar widely considered to be the founder of American studies, was known for his brilliant scholarship, devoted teaching, and hard living. Dying prematurely in 1963, he remains an enigmatic and controversial figure, with no biography available. In Reviving Jonathan Edwards, Stephen D. Crocco explores why this Harvard atheist, with an eerie sense that his time was short, delayed work on his planned magnum opus-a sweeping intellectual history of early America-to edit the works of the greatest of all American Puritans. In a riveting history that combines biographical insight with a detailed look into mid-century academia, Crocco draws on a large body of unpublished correspondence to offer an intricate detective tale of a decades-long publishing endeavor. He provides fresh portraits of Miller and the editorial committee he assembled, which included Sydney Ahlstrom, Roland Bainton, H. Richard Niebuhr, Norman Holmes Pearson, Paul Ramsey, and John E. Smith, and follows the story long after Miller's death, tracing the repeated, sometimes seemingly intractable challenges that publishing the many volumes on Edwards's work faced. He concludes by tracing Edwards studies up to 2003, the 300th anniversary of his birth, when the quiet revival of this colonial minister had evolved into a full scholarly renaissance.

Seller Inventory # 9781625349385

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Reviving Jonathan Edwards : Perry Miller's Mid-Century Mission
• Publisher: University Of Massachusetts Press Aug 2026
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1625349386
• ISBN 13: 9781625349385
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 229W x 152H x 34D millimeters 229 millimeters width by 152 millimeters height by 34 millimeters depth
• Weight: 454 grams

About this title

Synopsis

The untold story of how an unlikely Harvard atheist helped resurrect one of America’s greatest Puritans

Jonathan Edwards is widely regarded as one of America’s most important and original thinkers. Prior to the mid-twentieth century, however, he was largely unknown to the learned community, except, perhaps, as a preacher of terror due to his well-known sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” In 1948 and 1949, Harvard professor of English Perry Miller published four pieces on him, including the acclaimed biography, Jonathan Edwards, and only a few years later he became the general editor of Edwards’s collected works. Miller’s efforts helped to resurrect Edwards as America’s greatest Puritan and to solidify him as central to the American experience, and their names have been closely intertwined ever since.

Miller, an iconoclastic scholar widely considered to be the founder of American studies, was known for his brilliant scholarship, devoted teaching, and hard living. Dying prematurely in 1963, he remains an enigmatic and controversial figure, with no biography available. In Reviving Jonathan Edwards, Stephen D. Crocco explores why this Harvard atheist, with an eerie sense that his time was short, delayed work on his planned magnum opus—a sweeping intellectual history of early America—to edit the works of the greatest of all American Puritans.

In a riveting history that combines biographical insight with a detailed look into mid-century academia, Crocco draws on a large body of unpublished correspondence to offer an intricate detective tale of a decades-long publishing endeavor. He provides fresh portraits of Miller and the editorial committee he assembled, which included Sydney Ahlstrom, Roland Bainton, H. Richard Niebuhr, Norman Holmes Pearson, Paul Ramsey, and John E. Smith, and follows the story long after Miller’s death, tracing the repeated, sometimes seemingly intractable challenges that publishing the many volumes on Edwards’s work faced. He concludes by tracing Edwards studies up to 2003, the 300th anniversary of his birth, when the quiet revival of this colonial minister had evolved into a full scholarly renaissance.

About the Author

Stephen D. Crocco is the former Library Director of the Yale Divinity School. His writings have appeared in a variety of publications on topics related to Edwards, religious history, and theological education, including Jonathan Edwards Online Journal and Colloquy.