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A Thousand Beauteous Dyes
Davenant Press

A Thousand Beauteous Dyes

Studies in Protestant Irenics, Vol. 7

by Michael A. G. Azad Haykin

Short, scholarly studies in Rich Protestant Wisdom

What does color have to do with theology? This may seem like a speculative question, more fit for a contemporary philosophy course than eighteenth-century Reformed theologians. But in this innovative new work, Michael Hakykin reveals the intense interest that color has generated within historic Reformed theology. Beginning with Reformation era interpretations of the “white and ruddy” beloved of Song of Songs, this volume then provides close studies of the role of color in work of the hymnodist Anne Steele, the preacher Benjamin Beddome, and the titan of post-Reformation Protestant theology, Jonathan Edwards. The result is a stimulating and original work which fires a starting pistol for further Reformed theological examination of a rich yet highly neglected area of study.

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About the Author

Michael A. G. Azad Haykin

serves as Professor of Church History & Spirituality at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary as well as the Director of The Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies at Southern. He also has an appointment as a Sessional Professor of History at Redeemer University, Ancaster, Ontario. He has written widely on fourth- and fifth-century Christianity in late antiquity and eighteenth-century British Baptists, in particular, the life and ministry of Andrew Fuller and his circle of friends.

Publication Details

  • Publisher: Davenant Press
  • ISBN: 978-1-949716-87-0
  • Author: Michael A. G. Azad Haykin

Endorsements

  • “In his book, god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything , the late Christopher Hitchens reports smugly on a teaching from his schoolboy days, one offered up by Mrs. Jean Watts: “So you see, children, how powerful and generous God is. He has made all the trees and grass to be green, which is exactly the color that is most restful to our eyes. Imagine if instead, the vegetation was all purple, or orange, how awful that would be.” He calls her a “pious old trout,” thus showing himself to be an “impious old blowfish.” Mrs. Watts was an easy target for this celebrated atheist. Not so much Hugh of St. Victor, Jonathan Edwards, Matthew Henry, Philip Doddridge, Isaac Newton, and Isaac Watts, all of whom, as Dr. Haykin demonstrates, saw green as a marvelous, beneficent aspect of God’s creation.Indeed, A Thousand Beauteous Dyes marshals the writings of scores of greats from church history and our cultural heritage to both celebrate the Lord’s gracious palette and to show its interplay with Scripture, as with the typological treatment of such passages as Song of Songs 5:10a (the “white and ruddy” Beloved) and Revelation 4:3 (the rainbow surrounding God’s throne). The result is a treasure of devotional literature as well as a scholarly tour de force , drawing on the writings of Bede, Gregory of Nyssa, John Gill, Innocent III, George Marsden, Origen, John Owen, Hans Rookmaaker, Leland Ryken, Richard Sibbes, Charles Wesley, and George Whitefield.”

    — Mark Coppenger, Professor of Christian Philosophy and Ethics (Retired), Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

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