update on gura

some brief comments on philip gura's jonathan edwards, which i mentioned here. my copy was waiting for me when i returned from birmingham. so, i read it yesterday. initial reaction is simple: i liked it.
gura does a great job situating je in the emergent (a word he seemed to like) evangelical world of the eighteenth century. while he does not provide the context that marsden did in his offering of je's life, gura's volume is certainly more manageable for a classroom setting. at times, though, i would have liked some of the context that marsden established. without a knowledge of the indian wars of the eighteenth century, for example, one might almost think that je was only vaguely aware of his red neighbors prior to his friendship with brainerd and his time in stockbridge. perhaps even more disturbing for me personally was gura's almost complete avoidance of the existence of enslaved africans in the edwards's household. marsden's treatment of this subject wasn't that much more effective or compelling, but at least he made some comments (or allowed ken to do so). gura, on the other hand, only mentioned this fact in a footnote. i suppose i shouldn't protest too loudly, though, since i don't want people stealing any of my thunder.
my enthusiasm for this volume has not waned after reading it. it reminded me of all the good things about iain murray's biography of je without murray's penchant to promote his own theology. that's not to say that gura doesn't make je's calvinism very clear. rather, he does so without demeaning any other theology besides je's calvinism. while it may lack some of the details of marsden's telling, gura's consideration of je is a valuable addition to the literature. besides, as someone recently remarked to me, who needs to know every little detail of je's life? order your copy today.