Jonathan Edwards

Life

Edwards was born on October 5, 1703, in East Windsor in the Colony of Connecticut, British North America, the son of the minister Timothy Edwards. His mother, Esther, was the daughter of Solomon Stoddard, a prominent minister in Northampton, Massachusetts. He entered Yale College before the age of thirteen and graduated at the top of his class. He assisted his maternal grandfather Stoddard in Northampton, and when Stoddard died in 1729, Edwards became senior pastor of that Congregational church.

Around 1748 Edwards proposed a change to his grandfather's policy. Until then, anyone who had been baptized could partake of the Lord's Supper; under the proposed policy, only those who gave evidence of genuine conversion would be admitted. The resulting conflict with his congregation led to his dismissal in 1750. He then moved to Stockbridge, a small town on the Massachusetts frontier, where he ministered to a small congregation and served as a missionary to Native Americans. After his son-in-law Aaron Burr died in 1757, Edwards was chosen to succeed him as the third president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and took office in February 1758. He died in Princeton on March 22 of that year, however, from complications following a smallpox inoculation.

Ministry and Achievements

• Revival: Several revivals took place in Northampton, and Edwards was a leading figure and theorist of the Great Awakening of the 1740s. His 1741 sermon at Enfield, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," is regarded as one of the most famous sermons in American history.
• Discerning revival: In A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (1746), he examined the experiences that accompany revival and set forth criteria for distinguishing affections (movements of the heart toward God) that arise from true religion from those that do not.
• Theological and philosophical writings: During his years at Stockbridge he completed works including Freedom of the Will (1754) and Original Sin (1758). He is credited with restating Calvinist theology in the new intellectual language of his age, represented by John Locke and Isaac Newton.
• Missions: His care for the faith and education of Native Americans at Stockbridge is regarded as having later served as a model for the Calvinist missionary movement.

Assessment

Edwards is regarded as one of the foremost theologians and preachers of colonial America. His writings are also known to have influenced later reformers, including abolitionists. His attempt to tighten the requirements for admission to the Lord's Supper, however, provoked opposition from most of his congregation and cost him his pastorate. Theologically, he explained the relationship between the human will and grace from a Calvinist standpoint. For this reason, Methodist and Holiness traditions that follow Arminianism or Wesleyan theology do not simply accept his conclusions on the question of predestination and free will.