Covenant of Redemption in the Trinitarian Theology of Jonathan Edwards

Book excerpt: Recently, the immanent Trinity (God as in himself) has been criticized as abstract and impractical as opposed to the economic Trinity (God in relation to the world). Many scholars argue that the immanent Trinity is detached from the real life of believers and God's economic work of redemption and thus abstract and impractical. But is this assumption itself really true? What if the blueprint of God's work of redemption is already located in the immanent Trinity as the divine idea? What if Jonathan Edwards, arguably the American greatest theologian, expounds this doctrine as a vital driving force in his theology? Rediscovering the doctrine of the covenant of redemption will help us to see that the immanent Trinity actually is not abstract, but highly practical, simply because the redemption of the believers hinges on the divine plan located there. This study is a fruit of the recent convergence of the resurging doctrine of the Trinity and the renaissance of studies of Jonathan Edwards.