New England Dogmatics

Jonathan Edwards’ (1703–58) ideas are among the most significant to the development of Reformed Theology in America. However brief the life of his intellection tradition, Edwards’ ideas and their reception remain an integral part of contemporary theological dialogue. Hitherto no work has appeared that sheds as much systematic light on the reception of Edwards’ ideas than Maltby Gelston’s (1766–1865) Systematic Collection of Questions and Answers in Divinity. As a ministerial aspirant under the tutelage of Jonathan Edwards the younger, Gelston received catechetical instruction through an exhaustive series of 313 questions, tailor made by early New England theologians. To this point, researches have mused over the significance of these questions and what they tell us about the development of the New England theological tradition. With the publication of this manuscript, researchers may now, for the first time, muse over the significance of Gelston’s answers.