Timothy Dwight

Home > ... > Social Sciences and the Law > Education > Education: Biographies > ...

Timothy Dwight

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Timothy Dwight 1752-1817, American clergyman, author, educator, b. Northampton, Mass., grad. Yale, 1769. He renounced legal for theological studies and after 1783 was pastor for 12 years of a Congregational church at Greenfield Hill, Conn. During his pastorate he became famous throughout New England for his preaching and for the excellent private school he established near his church. One of the leaders of the Connecticut Wits , he tried to modernize the curriculum at Yale. At the death of Ezra Stiles, Dwight was named president of Yale, and from 1795 to 1817 he presided over the college. A great leader and teacher in his day and a strong believer in theocracy and Federalism, he vigorously opposed the rising Republicanism of Connecticut and the nation. His theology owed much to that of his grandfather, Jonathan Edwards .

Bibliography: See his Theology, Explained and Defended (5 vol., 1818-19) and Conquest of Canäan (1788, repr. 1970); biographies by C. E. Cunningham (1942) and K. Silverman (1969).

Hide all research tools
Print this article Print all entries for this topic Cite this article Link to this article
Link to this article

CloseClose

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1E1-DwightT-1" title="Facts and information about Timothy Dwight">Timothy Dwight</a>

Add this article to Del.icio.usBookmark this article on DiigoShare this article on FacebookSubmit this article to RedditGive this article a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon
Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

"Timothy Dwight." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 26 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Timothy Dwight." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (December 26, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-DwightT-1.html

"Timothy Dwight." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Retrieved December 26, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-DwightT-1.html

Learn more about citation styles

Dwight, Timothy

The Oxford Companion to American Literature | 1995 | | © The Oxford Companion to American Literature 1995, originally published by Oxford University Press 1995. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Dwight, Timothy (1752–1817),born in Massachusetts, was a grandson of Jonathan Edwards and brother of Theodore Dwight. He showed precocious brilliance by entering Yale at the age of 13, and as a tutor there (1771–77) worked and studied so excessively that he precipitated a physical breakdown. To recuperate, he turned to an equally disproportionate amount of hiking and horseback trips, and his observations furnished much of the material for his later Travels in New England and New York (4 vols., 1821–22). His literary interests at Yale and his attempts with John Trumbull to introduce contemporary English literature into the curriculum may be considered the genesis of the Connecticut Wits. After a brief period as an army chaplain and in local politics, he became pastor (1783–95) of the Congregational church at Greenfield Hill, Conn. Preacher, author, community leader, and proprietor of a coeducational school, Dwight established himself as a leading Calvinist and stalwart Federalist. His literary reputation as a leader of the Wits was based mainly on his poems, The Conquest of Canaan (1785), Greenfield Hill (1794), and The Triumph of Infidelity (1788). His staunch belief in theocracy and Federalism appears in such works as The True Means of Establishing Public Happiness (1795), The Nature, and Danger, of Infidel Philosophy (1798), and The Duty of Americans, at the Present Crisis (1798). As guardian of public morality, he wrote and preached on many subjects, including even a sermon on the Folly, Guilt, and Mischiefs of Dueling (1805), following the duel between his cousin Burr and Hamilton. He was president of Yale (1795–1817), where, despite his narrow political, social, and religious views, he proved a great teacher and college leader. The beginnings of Yale's modern importance are attributed to his enlargement of the curriculum and employment of prominent scholars. His series of 173 sermons delivered at Yale, Theology, Explained and Defended (5 vols., 1818–19), is a complete exposition of his theological system. His Travels is his most famous prose work, a thorough record of scenery, history, social and religious conditions, and statistical information. The best known of his short poems is the patriotic song, Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise.

Hide all research tools
Print this article Print all entries for this topic Cite this article Link to this article
Link to this article

CloseClose

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1O123-DwightTimothy" title="Facts and information about Timothy Dwight">Timothy Dwight</a>

Add this article to Del.icio.usBookmark this article on DiigoShare this article on FacebookSubmit this article to RedditGive this article a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon
Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Dwight, Timothy." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Oxford University Press. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. 26 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Dwight, Timothy." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Oxford University Press. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. (December 26, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-DwightTimothy.html

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Dwight, Timothy." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Oxford University Press. 1995. Retrieved December 26, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-DwightTimothy.html

Learn more about citation styles

The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature | 1986 | | © The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature 1986, originally published by Oxford University Press 1986. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Hide all research tools
Print this article Print all entries for this topic Cite this article Link to this article
Link to this article

CloseClose

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1O53-DwightTimothy" title="Facts and information about Timothy Dwight">Timothy Dwight</a>

Add this article to Del.icio.usBookmark this article on DiigoShare this article on FacebookSubmit this article to RedditGive this article a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon
Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

James D. Hart. "Dwight, Timothy." The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1986. Encyclopedia.com. 26 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

James D. Hart. "Dwight, Timothy." The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1986. Encyclopedia.com. (December 26, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O53-DwightTimothy.html

James D. Hart. "Dwight, Timothy." The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1986. Retrieved December 26, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O53-DwightTimothy.html

Learn more about citation styles

Facts and information from other sites

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, and more

New England's Moral Legislator: Timothy Dwight, 1752-1817.
Magazine article from: Church History; 3/1/2000; ; 700+ words ; New England's Moral Legislator: Timothy Dwight, 1752-1817. By John R. Fitzmier. Religion in...individual sometimes dubbed the Connecticut "Pope." Timothy Dwight's career was varied--as poet, minister, schoolmaster...
Goodness, beauty, and the aesthetics of discipline in Timothy Dwight's landscapes.(Report)
Magazine article from: Journal of Cultural Geography; 2/1/2009; ; 700+ words ; Timothy Dwight, eighth President of Yale, traveled...agrarian republicanism. Keywords: Timothy Dwight; aesthetic; landscape Introduction...and New York? Such was the hope of Timothy Dwight, eighth President of Yale, "moral...
TIMOTHY DWIGHT'S ANGLO-AMERICAN GEORGIC: GREENFIELD HILL AND THE RISE OF UNITED STATES IMPERIALISM.
Magazine article from: Studies in the Literary Imagination; 9/22/2000; ; 700+ words ; ...the seventh and concluding book of Timothy Dwight's georgic Greenfield Hill (1794...writing a "poetry of containment," Dwight wants to make his "moral song prevail...virtuous labors, the preacher-poet Dwight elaborates, through the idealized...
Timothy Dwight's American 'Dunciad': 'The Triumph of Infidelity' and the Universalist controversy.
Magazine article from: Early American Literature; 3/22/1998; ; 700+ words ; ...Jonathan Edwards's grandson, Timothy Dwight, who would take upon himself the...American literature--lies in the way Dwight undertook to defend the view of...want to argue, that carries the Dwight-Chauncy confrontation beyond the...
TIMOTHY DWIGHT SCHOOL SAYS GOODBYE TO PUPILS, CELEBRATES FOURTH GRADE GRADUATING CLASS
News Wire article from: US Fed News Service, Including US State News; 6/23/2008; 516 words ; ...Public Schools issued the following news release: Timothy Dwight School had an emotional graduation ceremony today for...in 1863 at 116 Edgewood Avenue. It was named after Timothy Dwight, a president of Yale University who founded the Yale...
Timothy Dwight College at Yale University, New Haven, CT.(Brief Article)
Magazine article from: Contemporary Stone & Tile Design; 9/22/2001; 700+ words ; ...and reinvent the key spaces of the institution's Timothy Dwight College and Rosenfeld Hall. The college, which was...AIA, ASLA. Rosenfeld Hall, presently an annex of Timothy Dwight College that provides student housing, will be expanded...
'The last and brightest empire of time': Timothy Dwight and America as Voegelin's 'authoritative present,' 1771-1787.(Essay)
Magazine article from: Humanitas; 3/22/2007; ; 700+ words ; Timothy Dwight (1752-1817) aspired to write epic...old-fashioned literary taste. Still, Dwight and his circle at Yale pressed on, fully...than the seat of the millennial kingdom. Dwight was at the forefront of this work of the...
The Devil and Doctor Dwight: Satire and Theology in the Early American Republic.(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Church History; 3/1/2003; ; 700+ words ; ...the book), The Devil and Doctor Dwight is, as its subtitle accurately...Triumph of Infidelity" (1788) by Timothy Dwight, which is printed in a critical...whole related series of conflicts in Dwight's career and American intellectual...
Dwight closing, joining Troup?
Newspaper article from: New Haven Register; 6/6/2008; ; 568 words ; ...Benton Register Staff NEW HAVEN -- Timothy Dwight School will close and merge with...it expects to save from closing Dwight, but Chief Operating Officer William...some utility savings from closing Dwight, it's not planning to mothball...
Yale and Dwight Community cooperate to expand elementary school.
M2 Presswire; 4/19/2001; 700+ words ; ...2001-YALE UNIVERSITY: Yale and Dwight Community cooperate to expand elementary...Conn. -- An addition to the Timothy Dwight Elementary School, 130 Edgewood...of Education and residents of the Dwight neighborhood. The 10,000-square...

Pictures from Google Image Search

Click to see an enlarged picture
Click to see an enlarged picture
Click to see an enlarged picture

For students and teachers!

Encyclopedia.com provides students and teachers facts, information, and biographies from verified, citable sources, including:

Encyclopedia.com provides students and teachers facts, information, and biographies from verified, citable sources, including:

Popular on Newser: