Jonathan Edwards, Private Property, and the National Covenant

I will argue that Edwards’s reflections on property and liberty can best be understood within the national covenant tradition, and that they can provide unique perspective on markets and morality today. Edwards’s thinking about property and liberty is relevant because he wrestled with perennial questions about self-interest, the common good, markets, and freedom. His use of the national covenant might seem alien to today’s political and economic debates, but its underlying vision was endorsed by leading 20th-century thinkers. This lecture recommends its reconsideration.

Recommended Readings

Gerald McDermott, One Holy and Happy Society

Gerald McDermott, The Other Jonathan Edwards