Jonathan Edwards and his Scottish Contemporaries

Abstract

The American Congregational minister Jonathan Edwards maintained a long-standing correspondence with the Church of Scotland clergymen William McCulloch, James Robe, Thomas Gillespie, John Maclaurin, and John Erskine. These five Scottish evangelical ministers established contact with Edwards during a period of revival that was taking place in America and Britain. They used Edwards’ initial works as manuals for understanding the religious awakenings that occurred in Scotland in the early 1740s. All five ministers continued to exchange letters with Edwards throughout their lifetimes, providing updates on the state of religion in their respective regions, organizing united prayer efforts to strengthen the revivals, encouraging one another during times of personal difficulties, and discussing the nature of authentic conversion. Erskine distinguished himself by sending Edwards hundreds of books to aid the American’s theological research. Although he had reservations with aspects of Edwards’ thought in Freedom of the Will (1754), Erskine promoted this and other later theological treatises by his friend.