Big news from JESociety.org is being released this week – a large scale project on the Miscellanies by our good friend Dr. Rob Boss is on the horizon. If you are not already aware, Dr. Boss has been on the cutting edge of Edwards studies in the new millenium, both visually with his stunning graphic videos, as well as his excellent writing and editing ministry. 

According to the JESociety:

There is a history of efforts to map the relationships among Edwards’ notebooks and sermons. Wilson Kimnach provides a wonderful diagram of dependencies in volume 10 of the WJE. “The Miscellanies Project” of the JESociety is a contribution to this effort. This project will enable scholars to conduct deep, comparative visual analyses of JE’s Miscellanies a–1360 as a whole.

The unique contribution of “The Miscellanies Project” will be a wide range of theological, visual analyses which serve as maps to JE’s thought in his Miscellanies. These analyses reveal never before seen patterns and clusters and their exact locations in volumes 13, 18, 20, and 23 in WJE.

JE scholars are now being invited to contribute essays and articles to The Miscellanies Reader which will be the print publication of the project. In this way, the project which will doubtlessly feature some of Dr. Boss’s incredible video-graphics will be amplified by a Reader’s edition that will help draw connections between the themes latent in Edwards’ thought.

In the near future, the JESociety will set a timeline for author submissions and contributions, publish a list of available and taken topics, and prepare relevant data maps to assist research and writing. Obviously this is more than another book project; it is a full scale multi-media attempt to visually and exegetically comprehend Edwards’ main ideas in the Miscellanies.

This project will be very cool in that Douglas A. Sweeney, author of a number of important works on Edwards as well as the Director of JECTEDS, will be writing the Forward to The Miscellanies Reader. Sweeney will also be providing other assistance and guidance on this project. Adding Sweeney to the project is like adding an additional designated hitter to an already exciting lineup.  If you are not already aware, JESociety has already put out several thrilling concept books including an amplified version of Boss’s dissertation on the typology of Edwards in his break-out book God-Haunted World; as well as a Collection of Essays contributed by a new generation of up and coming Edwards scholars; and also Boss’s second book Bright Shadows of Divine Things on the devotional works of Edwards. In talking to Boss this week, I am excited about a few other projects that may be coming in the future too. But perhaps I can share some of those at a later time.

Taken together, I think we can see that the creativity that is present here in the JESociety will make its own Press one of the most exciting and innovative book publishers working specifically on Jonathan Edwards today. Future years and forthcoming publications appear to verify the potential first seen in God-Haunted World. 

What follows is the official call for contributions to qualified writers:

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Call for Submissions

The Miscellanies Project is now inviting contributors. Participants in this project must have at minimum a master’s degree in history, theology, philosophy, religious studies, literature, or related fields, or be able to demonstrate their qualifications to contribute to the project.

Stage One: Topic Selection – Deadline August 1, 2017

The first stage in The Miscellanies Project will be identifying topics of interest.

• Participants should peruse the Miscellanies Index and select one or more (preferably three) of Edwards entries.
• Take note of important keywords in the title and body text of the entries (but not in the footnotes).
• We want to achieve broad coverage of the notebooks, therefore we ask that you vary your selections.
• Complete the submission form at the bottom of this page.
• Multiple form submissions are not necessary—please include multiple Miscellanies numbers and multiple keywords in their respective fields. We will sort out the connections. Also, do not worry about selecting all keywords in the Miscellanies. Our process will augment your selections and we will arrive at a comprehensive network map of your topics. The main point now is to identify and reserve your areas of interest.

Stage Two: Article Submission – Deadline June 1, 2018

After the first stage is complete,

• We will analyze all of the information and create custom visualizations for each contributor.
• These visualizations will serve as detailed maps of the weave of Edwards’ thought, as well as invaluable aids to writing on your selected topic(s).
• Articles for The Miscellanies Reader should range between 1,000 and 3,000 words.

Stage Three: Publication – estimated December, 2018

Here’s the official link to submit article ideas for the Miscellanies Reader project.