The Essential Edwards Collection: Set of Five Books

I completely agree with the previous review by Jake. I'm loving these myself and finding them to be filled with such great wisdom for my life. I can hardly stop reading once I have one in hand. I love how they've done these five books by covering different areas of Edwards' thought and teaching, and the way they've applied Edwards' teaching to modern-day Christian living. The authors close each chapter with a practical application section of what they've just covered in the chapter. I also appreciate the effort being made with these volumes to expose current-day believers to one of the great men of God of the past and his biblically sound teaching. We all need badly to drink from the wells of men such as Jonathan Edwards, and these volumes definitely help people like me, who find Edwards hard to read, to benefit from him. Another thing, these volumes are beautifully and simply written, easy to read, and not written on a high level. Therefore they would be excellent reading for younger people. I think these volumes could be very helpful to people like my nephew who is 14 yo (and even younger) and in their formative years, to lay a solid foundation for their life. As I've read I thought I've got to get these into his and my niece's (12 yo) hands. The practical applications in each chapter will go a long way in helping young people (and older!) apply sound biblical teaching to their lives. I love these sections! I hope to see more books like these in the future. Thanks to the authors for serving the church with these excellent volumes.

The authors did an very good job of introducing Edwards's works. The five books within the collection covered his works well. They quoted Edwards extensively and pointed this reader to some interesting sermons. The downside was since this is 5 separate books, they were a little redundant. Furthermore the author's tended to introduce the quote, show the quote, and then write about the quote. Sorry, I can read Edwards by myself. I didn't need 3 or 4 pages of the writers explaining what I just read. I've read some in Edwards. I've read Religious Affections and Charity and its Fruits. I got lost in Freedom of the Will. Edwards's writing style is difficult to parse, but one thing he didn't do is waste words. The authors also squeezed applications out of the life Edwards that really didn't fit. It really wasn't necessary.In summary, especially if you haven't read Edwards, this book is a good start. If you have read Edwards, these books still have some use as a map as where to go next, but skimming might be the way to go.

I first heard about these books from listening to the Brannon Howse show.I actually thought I would be reading Jonathan Edwards writing on the subjects. At first I was disappointed to see it was somebody commenting and quoting Edwards on the various subjects.But I kept reading and found these books to be outstanding in taking the subjects dear to Edwards and his ministry and breaking them down for me to truly process and comprehend.Edwards is not easy to read and I am thankful to no end that Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney have done him this service. These books are very understandable and explain Edwards's thoughts and words very well.My favorite one in the set is "On True Christianity".If there were only one you could read at least read that one.I highly recommend them.

I haven't had a chance to dig into all the books in the set yet, but what I have had a chance to read was amazing! Plus Amazon was completely reliable in their delivery time and the condition of my order when it arrived. I would recommend this item for anyone who is looking for literature to further their knowledge in general, ministry, or history of Jonathan Edward's life.

Great collection of some of the best of Jonathan Edwards! I really have enjoyed this collection and would recommend it highly!

Great books, an excellent addition to the library.

Excellent resource

Commentary on Edwards work... Not what I was expecting

The aim of this project is to make the teaching of Jonathan Edwards accessible to more people. In many ways, the format has imposed a lot of limitations. There are five books in the set and some topics are better suited to the format than others. The profundity of a lot of Edwards’ works, however, cannot be adequately presented in a short, easy-to-read, snappy format. Although the books cite a lot from Edwards’ original works, it misses the force, the power and therefore its brilliance in the development of his understanding. What it offers therefore are snippets of sumptuous feasts in the original works. As an appetizer to whet our appetite for more, the set is brilliant. But it does not give us a sense of completeness and therefore leave us unsatisfied.When I first attempted to pick up a book from the set a few years ago, I found the constant swapping between Edwards and the authors somewhat disconcerting as it did not read like a coherent whole. It took me years to get back to it.In my opinion, the best of the set is the one on Beauty.The set serves well as an introduction but it also shows that there is really no shortcut if you are after the treasures. There is so much more of Edwards – his beautiful mind and soul and his intellectual brilliance. The best of Edwards is still in his original works.

A great introduction to Jonathan Edwards. I recommend this to pastors, laymen and theologians. This introduction to Edwards and his theology is both knowledgeable and practical. Anyone interested by Edwards and his theology I would start here. Fantastic collection.

These are not collections of Edwards work but rather collections of writing about Edwards work with quotations which is misleading. Not what was expected.

This is an okay series of books on Jonathan Edwards written by pastors and others who obviously value his thinking. It is not a bad book, but I was disappointed because I assumed it was an edited version of Edwards' own writings. The collection does give the reader a good synopsis of Edwards and I appreciate that, but it would have been even better with excerpts of Edwards.