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251st out of 1,897 books
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1,836 voters
Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards (1703�1758) is a towering figure in American history. A controversial theologian and the author of the famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, he ignited the momentous Great Awakening of the eighteenth century.
In this definitive and long-awaited biography, Jonathan Edwards emerges as both a great American and a brilliant Christian. George Marsd...more
In this definitive and long-awaited biography, Jonathan Edwards emerges as both a great American and a brilliant Christian. George Marsd...more
Paperback, 640 pages
Published
July 11th 2004
by Yale University Press
(first published January 1st 2003)
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There is almost a glut of material on Jonathan Edwards. That can be both good and bad. It is good that men are wrestling with Edwards's life and thought. A study of Edwards can renew intellectual life within the church. Furthermore, Edwards is being fairly studied by scholars outside the conservative world. This, too, is good. But there is always the question when a new Edwards book comes out: is there anything left to say? George Marsden thinks so. And Marsden takes his point of departure from...more
This book is not an easy read. It is a good read, just not an easy one. If that seems to be splitting hairs, well, that is probably appropriate for the subject matter. It is also not a short book. It is 30 chapters long, and I found that a chapter or two at a time was really all I wanted. I read it on my Kindle, but according to Amazon the hardback is 640 pages. One of the nice things about reading it on my Kindle was that I could download for (either $.99 a volume or $1.99 a volume, I've forgot...more
“Timothy Edwards, following Puritan precedents, emphasized three principal steps toward true conversion. First was ‘conviction’ or ‘an awakening sense of a person’s sad estate with reference to eternity.’…
…An ‘awakening’ was no guarantee of salvation….Normally, following the first enthusiasm of their awakening, they would experience a backsliding into sin that would lead them to realize the terribleness of their sins and that God would be entirely just in condemning them to hell. Sometimes thi...more
…An ‘awakening’ was no guarantee of salvation….Normally, following the first enthusiasm of their awakening, they would experience a backsliding into sin that would lead them to realize the terribleness of their sins and that God would be entirely just in condemning them to hell. Sometimes thi...more
This is a brilliant biography. Marsden does an excellent job in offering a balanced perspective on Edwards. If people have heard of Edwards at all, most think of him as merely a long-dead hell-fire-and-brimstone preacher due to Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Having studied a bit more church history, I knew him as one of the most important American theologians and philosophers in history. Reading this biography has given me a deeper appreciation for Edwards. Though I am not a Calvinist, as...more
To many people who have heard of Edwards he is that religious nut who was always talking about hellfire and brimstone. To those in the modern puritanical church he is the scholar extraordinaire!
Edwards actually talked very little about hellfire, and loved to preach about the Grace of God, and His unfailing love for His children. He was a top notch scientist of his day, the finest theologian America has ever produced, and a man of extraordinary compassion for the Native Americans. His most famou...more
Edwards actually talked very little about hellfire, and loved to preach about the Grace of God, and His unfailing love for His children. He was a top notch scientist of his day, the finest theologian America has ever produced, and a man of extraordinary compassion for the Native Americans. His most famou...more
Marsden is a brilliant thinker, and an eminent Edwards scholar. One will do better if one loves history and is fascinated by the Puritans. It is not an easy book to get all the way through, but as one scholar put it, "Real men read the long version!" There is an abbreviated version by Marsden for the faint of heart or short of time.
It is fascinating to watch Edwards develop from a doubter who resented God's sovereignty to someone who loved God and His design and saw and loved the beauty of creat...more
It is fascinating to watch Edwards develop from a doubter who resented God's sovereignty to someone who loved God and His design and saw and loved the beauty of creat...more
Jan 30, 2011
Chuck O'Connor
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
April Kilduff
Recommended to Chuck by:
N/A
Historical biography that reads like epic fiction where modern assumptions towards reality are explained within their antecedent assumptions. The tension between pre and post enlightenment thought concerning the nature of God, the essence of morality and what is real are framed in a human way. I approached this book thinking Edwards a villain but have come away from it not certain of that. He was a brilliant man who sought after lasting truth while disciplining himself to a rigorous piety. His q...more
(From my class reading log...)
I can only begin by saying something that hardly needs to be said: George Marsden is simply brilliant. One of his greatest strengths, I think, is the way he clearly and forthrightly explains the perspective from which he is writing. This gives him the opportunity to establish rapport with readers and disarm suspicions about his intent, as well as acknowledging that even the best efforts at “objectivity” in history can never be complete. It also gives him a chance to...more
I can only begin by saying something that hardly needs to be said: George Marsden is simply brilliant. One of his greatest strengths, I think, is the way he clearly and forthrightly explains the perspective from which he is writing. This gives him the opportunity to establish rapport with readers and disarm suspicions about his intent, as well as acknowledging that even the best efforts at “objectivity” in history can never be complete. It also gives him a chance to...more
I have long wanted to read an actual biography of Jonathan Edwards, one of the great pastors and theologians in the history of America. This portrait of Edwards certainly didn't disappoint, as it gave a very readable, astute, and personal accounting of his life and ministry. I was inspired reading this biography at many points to strive by the grace of God to be a better student of Scripture, to pray for genuine spiritual revival in our nation, and to leave a godly legacy for my children. I high...more
Marsden is an incredible historian. There is sustained focus given to Edwards’ historical and social setting, without neglecting his complex and well-formed theology which shaped and drove him. I particularly appreciated Marsden’s attention to the controversies surrounding the Northampton revivals set within the larger context of revival in America and in Great Britain. There is much pastoral wisdom to be gleaned from these events.
Jonathan Edwards is an excellent example of the Christian life. He was so much more intuned to the will of God than I could ever be. He truly was a great man who helped shape the founding of this great country.
Marsden does a great job in writing this book. He exposes both Edwards' weaknesses and strong points. He is unbiased, for the most part, and credits Edwards with the birth of America through the Great Awakening.
Marsden does a great job in writing this book. He exposes both Edwards' weaknesses and strong points. He is unbiased, for the most part, and credits Edwards with the birth of America through the Great Awakening.
Marsden does a great job of taking you back to Colonial America and the life of the greatest pastor-theologian to rise on our soil. Edwards has profoundly influenced my life. Yale University has spent decades and lots of money publishing his works. Can you imagine any leading university, in a few hundred years, publishing the works of any contemporary American theologian/pastor? This says a lot about the quality of Edwards and the lack of scholarship from the Christian community today. Here's a...more
This book is a daunting task, but it is so worth it. I am no historian, but I learned more about Edwards and 18th century puritanism than I had in all of High School / College.
It's actually an easy read too.
The only downside to this book is that I got so revved up after reading it that I wrote Marsden an email. He never wrote me back and it kind of makes me sad.
It's actually an easy read too.
The only downside to this book is that I got so revved up after reading it that I wrote Marsden an email. He never wrote me back and it kind of makes me sad.
This book opened my eyes. I had never given much credit or credence to the brand of christianity that Edwards represented, but that's because I had never had it explained sympathetically. If you are willing to take a look at the assumptions that Edwards made; that there is an infinite distance between God's goodness and our sinfulness; that man's sinfulness is inherently hateful to God; and that only through Jesus' intervention at Calvary and our acceptance of him wholeheartedly do we stand a ch...more
A soaring and thorough biography of the greatest American theologian that walks the line between well-meaning hagiographies on one side, and chronologically snobbish critiques on the other side. Marsden was careful to not allow his sympathies toward Edwards to evaporate any critical and honest evaluations of weaknesses and mistakes.
I really enjoyed reading this massive tome, though it is a difficult read not for the faint of heart. I labored for many months to make my way through it, but I feel...more
I really enjoyed reading this massive tome, though it is a difficult read not for the faint of heart. I labored for many months to make my way through it, but I feel...more
Marsden's volume is the book to read if getting to know Jonathan Edwards is the goal. Without a doubt, this is the best biography on America's greatest theological thinker. Marsden explores the life, times, and thought of this enigmatic giant of philisophical theology.
Oct 06, 2009
Wes
is currently reading it
This has been a good read so far. I really enjoyed getting a more precise picture of early colonial America, but as I venture further into the actual life of Jonathan Edwards, I feel more and more the religious confinement choking the joy out of the book.
Oct 14, 2010
James Stout
is currently reading it
Since I have a signed copy and I've known George since before I could walk, I figure I'd better read the book. I also spent so much time transcribing for the Works of Jonathan Edwards that you could say I have a vested interest. So far, so good...
I love a good biography, but good biographies are hard to find. Great ones seem to an endangered species. This book is endangered indeed. Marsden does so much well, a reader is hard pressed to find any kind of fault with this work. All too often biographers seem to teeter on the cusp of worship as they fawn over their biographical subjects and truncate the evidence in an attempt to remove all vestiges of humanity. But Marsden is too good a writer and historian to make such mistakes. What you get...more
This biography of a religious man in colonial America began my intense interest in the art of biography. It is well-written by a believer -- one who not only believes in God as did Edwards and sees Edwards as a man of God.
Jonathan Edwards' theology is not mine. Nonetheless, this biography was fascinating and illuminated extremely important antecedents to the religious tradition in which I was born and raised.
I was thoroughly impressed with Marsdens research in this book. Iain Murray's work is more charming but this book has far more research put into it. Both should go together in my humble opinion.
Though a bit slow at the start, Marsden manages the unlikely when he makes Jonathan Edwards readable. The biography is engaging and interesting, with little fluff. This belongs on the shelf next to the Silverman bio of Cotton Mather (The Life and Times of Cotton Mather) and the Hall bio of Increase Mather (The Last American Puritan The Life of Increase Mather, 1639-1723).
Warm, reverent, thorough, and never dull. A tremendous introduction to Edwards' life and thought.
Marsden places Edwards's theology in the context of the American history that Edwards both shaped and lived. Controversy brewed almost wherever Edwards went. I am made to believe that such lives, lived so consistently out of such deeply-held theology, cannot help but cause people to wrestle with their own beliefs, often rooted in the intellectual trends of the era.
One critic of Edwards called him "the white whale of American religious history." His whole life was a sermon that would not erase it...more
One critic of Edwards called him "the white whale of American religious history." His whole life was a sermon that would not erase it...more
This is a substantial, academic and quite thorough text. If you're looking for something a bit less academic, yet every bit as good, I recommend the following (in order or preference):
1. Jonathan Edwards and the Ministry of the Word: A Model of Faith and Thought by Douglas A. Sweeney
2. God's Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards (With the Complete Text of The End for Which God Created the World) by John Piper and Jonathan Edward
3. The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards...more
1. Jonathan Edwards and the Ministry of the Word: A Model of Faith and Thought by Douglas A. Sweeney
2. God's Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards (With the Complete Text of The End for Which God Created the World) by John Piper and Jonathan Edward
3. The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards...more
It's a shame that most peoples' knowledge of Edwards begins and ends with "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." To be sure, that is part of his story, and an important one, but there is so much more. This is a truly excellent biography that brings to life a colonial (yuck!) Puritan (bleh!) pastor (eww!) theologian (huh?) and paints a picture that is charitable and fair without being hagiographic or boring (not in the least!) One cannot read this book and not be impressed by the immense theolog...more
Thoroughly enjoyed this biography of Edwards.
This is probably my favorite biography!
Best Edwards biography in print
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Aug 22, 2009 10:09pm