Jonathan Edwards devoted himself to solitude with God, believing it essential to the Christian life-a purposeful, set-apart time through which spiritual formation and growth in Christ occurred. In an age as busy, chaotic and loud as ours, his example offers something we've largely lost and desperately need.
In Alone with God, Dr. Self takes us on a journey through the history of solitude in the life of the church, from monasticism, through the Reformers and Puritans, to what the eighteenth-century divine was advancing through his preaching and writings.
These times of contemplative solitude with God were pivotal throughout Edwards' life and he saw them as a key discipline that was transformational in the life of a believer because they were a foretaste of heaven.
In both his own works and in his autobiographical writings, Edwards showed how regular, purposeful solitude-often in nature-with the aim of contemplating and communing with God, fueled one's passion for and commitment to the glory of God. This is not a discipline for a few select people, but amid so much busyness, few habits could do more to transform a believer's walk with God than recovering this one.