Great questions. The five books offer substantial selections from the crucial texts of the Edwards corpus. They also offer commentary and even application to help readers understand and profit from those selections. The books are a kind of “reader’s guide” to Edwards, something of a lay-level distillation of the 25-volume Yale series. We designed them to work for a variety of people, whether those who have not read a word of JE or those who have done seminary work on him but want a guide to his thought that will offer quick help and also an avalanche of great JE quotations on a range of subjects.

There are many important questions that Doug and I handle. We do not have a major section on justification, but we touch on it in several places. We come down on the side of Edwards hewing more towards a traditional Protestant conception of the same.

So we quote extensively from JE while interacting with him, explaining him, and mining him for spiritual growth for a wide range of readers. I stand behind the volumes and think they will help a reader in your position. The possibility of bias, however, exists.

OS

I have a question about your Edwards collection. Is it/they (the 5 volumes) a ‘reader’ of selections from Edwards writings, or are they writings about what Edwards believed with small snippets of his writings? Do they touch on issues like the questions surrounding his understanding of justification, which is heavily debated as to whether it is in accord with Protestant confessions?

Please post a short reply… you may make a sale as a result.

Thanks, Tim

So nice to hear from you and yes, I do believe we are the only SBTS-Machias folks. It is quite a fraternity, however, full of Downeast pride with a SBC twist. Please do write me and connect at odstrachan[at]sbts.edu. Would love to catch up and hear more about what made Mrs. Crandlemire a skeptic!

OS

I was perusing CT yesterday and saw you’d done an interview, and I said, I know that kid. (And then before that my wife told me you were quoted in CT in an article on Al Mohler or maybe STBS, or the state of the SBC–I didn’t see the article, obviously.) Wow, you’ve risen in the world since I met you as a freshman at Machias High School. You were one of several students who spoke to my Secondary Education class on what Teachers should know about students today– ie October of 1992. I remember saying something positive about your perspective on things, and my colleague Marilyn Crandlemire told me not to believe everything you said. I’ll keep that in mind as I survey the other stuff here on your site. I expect we may have somewhat different perspectives on SBTS, for instance. This probably isn’t the place to be trying to have a real conversation, but perhaps I can say more in some other setting. You may be the only other person in the world who has lived in both Machias and Louisville and attended SBTS….. Look forward to reading your material. Donna and Andy must be very proud!