Jonathan Edwards

Author profile

born

October 05, 1703 in East Windsor, Connecticut, The United States

died

March 22, 1758

gender

male

website

http://edwards.yale.edu/

genre

Religion & Spirituality

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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database named Jonathan Edwards.

Jonathan Edwards was the most eminent American philosopher-theologian of his time, and a key figure in what has come to be called the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s.

The only son in a family of eleven children, he entered Yale in September, 1716 when he was not yet thirteen and graduated four years later (1720) as valedictorian. He received his Masters three years later. As a youth, Edwards was unable to accept the Calvinist sovereignty of God. However, in 1721 he came to what he called a "delightful conviction" though meditation on 1 Timothy 1:17. From that point on, Edwards delighted in the sovereignty of God. Edwards later recogniz...more Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database named Jonathan Edwards.

Jonathan Edwards was the most eminent American philosopher-theologian of his time, and a key figure in what has come to be called the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s.

The only son in a family of eleven children, he entered Yale in September, 1716 when he was not yet thirteen and graduated four years later (1720) as valedictorian. He received his Masters three years later. As a youth, Edwards was unable to accept the Calvinist sovereignty of God. However, in 1721 he came to what he called a "delightful conviction" though meditation on 1 Timothy 1:17. From that point on, Edwards delighted in the sovereignty of God. Edwards later recognized this as his conversion to Christ.

In 1727 he was ordained minister at Northampton and assistant to his maternal grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. He was a student minister, not a visiting pastor, his rule being thirteen hours of study a day. In the same year, he married Sarah Pierpont, then age seventeen, daughter of Yale founder James Pierpont (1659–1714). In total, Jonathan and Sarah had eleven children.

Stoddard died on February 11th, 1729, leaving to his grandson the difficult task of the sole ministerial charge of one of the largest and wealthiest congregations in the colony. Throughout his time in Northampton his preaching brought remarkable religious revivals.

Yet, tensions flamed as Edwards would not continue his grandfather's practice of open communion. Stoddard believed that communion was a "converting ordinance." Surrounding congregations had been convinced of this, and as Edwards became more convinced that this was harmful, his public disagreement with the idea caused his dismissal in 1750.

Edwards then moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, then a frontier settlement, where he ministered to a small congregation and served as missionary to the Housatonic Indians. There, having more time for study and writing, he completed his celebrated work, The Freedom of the Will (1754).

Edwards was elected president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in early 1758. He was a popular choice, for he had been a friend of the College since its inception. He died of fever at the age of fifty-four following experimental inoculation for smallpox and was buried in the President's Lot in the Princeton cemetery beside his son-in-law, Aaron Burr.(less)

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Average rating: 4.04 · 2,450 ratings · 280 reviews · 226 distinct works

	Religious Affections: 4.22 avg rating — 613 ratings — published 1959 — 61 editions	My rating:
	Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God 3.69 avg rating — 448 ratings — published 1741 — 19 editions	My rating:
	The Life and Diary of David Brainerd by Jonathan Edwards, David Brainerd 4.17 avg rating — 195 ratings — published 1949 — 15 editions	My rating:
	Freedom of the Will 4.15 avg rating — 111 ratings — published 1754 — 65 editions	My rating:
	Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions: And Advice to Young Converts 4.33 avg rating — 52 ratings — published 2001	My rating:
	Charity & Its Fruits 4.46 avg rating — 52 ratings — published 1988 — 20 editions	My rating:
	The Works Of Jonathan Edwards 4.36 avg rating — 47 ratings — published 1998 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Jonathan Edwards: On Revival 3.84 avg rating — 45 ratings — published 1984 — 4 editions	My rating:
	A Jonathan Edwards Reader by Jonathan Edwards, John E. Smith (Editor), Harry S. Stout (Editor) 3.77 avg rating — 48 ratings — 3 editions	My rating:
	The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader by Jonathan Edwards, Wilson H. Kimnach, Kenneth P. Minkema 4.10 avg rating — 31 ratings — 5 editions	My rating:

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Quotes by Jonathan Edwards

“Of all the knowledge that we can ever obtain, the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of ourselves, are the most important.”
― Jonathan Edwards, A careful & strict inquiry into the modern prevailing notions of that freedom of the will, which is supposed to be essential to moral agency, virtue & vice, reward & punishment, praise & blame...

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“Resolved, never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.”
― Jonathan Edwards

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“God is the highest good of the reasonable creature. The enjoyment of him is our proper; and is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Better than fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of any, or all earthly friends. These are but shadows; but the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun. These are but streams; but God is the fountain. These are but drops, but God is the ocean.”
― Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 17: Volume 17: Sermons and Discourses, 1730-1733

tags: happiness , puritan , reformed

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Jonathan Edwards

Author profile

combine editionsBooks by Jonathan Edwards

Quotes by Jonathan Edwards

Topics Mentioning This Author

combine editions
Books by Jonathan Edwards