America's Theologian Beyond America

Abstract This study addresses the subject of Jonathan Edwards’s millennialism from his redemptive-historical vision. By situating him in the Reformation and post-Reformation contexts, taking into consideration his interaction with the intellectual challenges posed by the Enlightenment thinkers, it provides a more nuanced investigation of Edwards’s anticipation of the millennium. His millennialism is neither America-centric nor politically utopian. And he is not the one who originated or advocated the notion of the redeemer nation, as is frequently thought. His vision of the millennium is a Christ-reigning, Judeo-centric, and cosmic kingdom arriving on earth in a distant future. While some of his Protestant predecessors and Puritan contemporaries tended to centralize their own present times and nations, Edwards noticeably decentralized England and New England in terms of time, space, and people. This study sheds new light on the following issues. First, it extensively reviews Edwards’s millennial theology and provides another outlook on his continuity in and departures from the Reformed tradition. Second, it explores Edwards’s artful communication of his Christology in his millennialism. Third, this study highlights the Judeo-centric and cosmic nature as an innovative interpretive key to his millennialism, which provides a useful background to the current debates on Israel and the end times. Finally, this project ventures into two less well-known subjects—Israel and China in Edwards’s millennial vision—in order to revisit his conviction of Israel’s restoration to the Promised Land and his eschatological hope for China and the rest of heathen world.