Edwards, Jonathan

October 5, 1703

Windsor, Connecticut

March 22, 1758

Stockbridge, Massachusetts

Puritan minister, leader of the Great Awakening

"Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come."

From Jonathan Edward's "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."

Jonathan Edwards was a Puritan minister and theologian (a specialist in the study of religion) who became one of the principal leaders of the Great Awakening (a series of religious revivals that swept the American colonies near the middle of the eighteenth century). This movement had a profound effect on American politics and society. Protestant preachers from New England to North Carolina, inflamed by the "spirit of God," set out to "wake up" their congregations, whom they accused of sinful behavior. Edwards became famous for the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," in which he terrified his listeners with visions of eternal punishment for unrepentant sinners. Yet Edwards's excessive zeal ultimately led to his undoing. After he imposed harsh rules for admission to his church in Northampton, Massachusetts, he was forced out and sent to a remote Native American mission. During his final years, however, he wrote some of the most important works in American theology.

Shows early intellectual gifts

Jonathan Edwards was born in 1703 in Windsor (now East Windsor), Connecticut. He was the only son of Timothy Edwards, a clergyman in the Congregational Church, and Ester Stoddard Edwards, daughter of Solomon Stoddard, a famous preacher. At an early age Edwards began to show substantial intellectual gifts. By the time he was twelve years old, for instance, he read the works of English mathematician Isaac Newton and gathered information on rainbows and spiders, which he included in essays he wrote to prove the goodness and wisdom of the Creator (God). Less than a year later he began his studies at Yale College, in New Haven, Connecticut.

Sarah Pierpont Edwards

Sarah Pierpont Edwards was the wife of minister Jonathan Edwards. The daughter of a pastor who founded Yale College, she grew up in a devoutly religious and cultured home. As a teenager she was known for her spirituality and good-natured disposition. In 1727 she married Edwards, and the couple eventually had eleven children (seven daughters and four sons). Throughout her life she kept a diary, which revealed her to be a hardworking, devoted wife. While the Edwardses lived in Northampton, Massachusetts, and Stockbridge, Massachusetts, she was a gracious hostess in her husband's parsonage (a pastor's house), entertaining a steady stream of guests. Once she even prepared eight hundred meals for soldiers stationed at the Indian mission in Stockbridge. Jonathan Edwards was one of the leaders of the Great Awakening, a religious revival that swept New England during the 1730s and 1740s. Like her husband, Sarah Edwards was spiritually transformed by the movement. In her diary she wrote of being "removed from myself," of seeming to "float or swim, in these bright, sweet beams" of "divine love." Sarah died of dysentery six months after Jonathan's death.

A quiet and studious young man, Edwards did not join in the boisterous pranks of his classmates. Instead, he studied the works of English philosopher John Locke and deepened his knowledge of Newton. In 1720 Edwards graduated at the top his class. He remained at Yale for two years of theological study, then preached for a year at a Presbyterian church in New York City. In 1724 he returned to Yale as a tutor. Three years later Edwards joined his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, in the ministry at Northampton, Massachusetts. Around that time he married Sarah Pierpont, daughter of one of the founders of Yale and granddaughter of Thomas Hooker, who established the colony of Connecticut. They were married for over thirty years and had eleven children.

Edwards a precocious child

Jonathan Edwards began to show substantial intellectual gifts as a young boy. For instance, he read the works of mathematician Isaac Newton and wrote lengthy essays about rainbows and spiders. Excerpted below is the opening of "The Flying Spider," a description of the webmaking genius of spiders, which Edwards composed at age twelve.

May it please your Honour [Edwards's teacher],

There are some things that I have happily seen of the wondrous way of the working of the spider. Although every thing belonging to this insect is admirable, there are some phenomena relating to them more particularly wonderful. Everybody that is used to the country, knows their marching in the air from one tree to another, sometimes at the distance of five or six rods. Nor can one go out in a dewy morning, at the latter end of August and the beginning of September, but he shall see multitudes of webs, made visible by the dew that hangs on them, reaching from one tree, branch and shrub, to another; which webs are commonly thought to be made in the night, because they appear only in the morning; whereas none of them are made in the night, for these spiders never come out in the night when it is dark, as the dew is then falling. But these webs may be seen well enough in the day time by an observing eye, by their reflection in the sunbeams. Especially late in the afternoon, may these webs, that are between the eye and that part of the horizon that is under the sun, be seen very plainly, being advantageously posited [placed] to reflect the rays. And the spiders themselves may very often be seen travelling in the air, from one stage to another amongst the trees, in a very unaccountable manner. But I have often seen that, which is much more astonishing. In very calm and serene days in the fore-mentioned time of year, standing at some distance behind the end of an house or some other opake [opaque] body, so as just to hide the disk of the sun and keep off his dazzling rays, and looking along close by the side of it, I have seen a vast multitude of little shining webs, and glistening strings, brightly reflecting the sunbeams, and some of them of great length, and of such height, that one would think they were tacked to the vault of the heavens. . . .

Reprinted in: Warfel, Harry H., and others, eds. The American Mind: Selections from the Literature of the United States, Volume I. New York: American Book Co., 1963, p. 82.

Leads Great Awakening

Upon the death of Stoddard in 1729 Edwards became the leader of the Northampton congregation and soon acquired an enthusiastic following. In 1734 he became involved in the Great Awakening. Edwards described this movement in A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God (1737). One of the other leaders of the Great Awakening was George Whitefield (see entry), who was touring the colonies and having considerable success in lifting Christians out of their "lethargy" (lack of religious fervor). Edwards was so impressed with Whitefield that he convinced the reformer to visit Northampton in 1740. Whitefield made a profound impression on Edwards. Although Edwards was not a dramatic actor like Whitefield, he began delivering powerful sermons in which he dwelled more and more on the punishment Christians would suffer if they ignored God's will.

Gives famous sermon

Edwards's "fire and brimstone" approach to salvation reached a peak in 1741, when he delivered his most famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Edwards stunned his listeners with a graphic picture of the uncertain nature of life and the eternal punishment awaiting unrepentant sinners. Now considered a masterpiece of rhetoric (public speaking), "Sinners" bombarded the audience with frightening images of a hell filled with tormented souls who burned eternally like live coals. Edwards compared sinners to a spider dangling from a single silken thread held fast only by God, who would let them drop unless they asked forgiveness. During Whitefield's tour throughout the colonies, Edwards was invited to preach, and each time he presented "Sinners." His audiences were convulsed in "great moaning," crying out, "What shall I do to be saved—oh I am going to Hell!" So intense was their anguish that Edwards had to stop several times whenever he delivered the sermon. He eventually published "Sinners" to great acclaim.

In 1746 Edwards wrote his extensive theological works, Treatise on Religious Affections, in which he identified love of God as the fount of all religious feelings. He also wrote a series of pamphlets that defended the intense emotional nature of the Great Awakening. He claimed the movement was

Edwards terrifies "sinners"

Jonathan Edwards's crusade during the Great Awakening reached a peak in 1741, when he delivered his famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." He terrified his listeners with a graphic description of the eternal punishment that would await unrepentant sinners. Following is the conclusion of the sermon:

And let every one that is yet of Christ [Jesus of Nazareth, founder of Christianity], and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God's word and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of such great favors to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to others. Men's hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace at such a day as this, if they neglect their souls; and never was there so great danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart and blindness of mind. God seems now to be hastily gathering in his elect [chosen people] in all parts of the land; and probably the greater part of adult persons that ever shall be saved, will be brought in now in a little time, and that it will be as it was on the great out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Jews in the apostles' days [the time when followers of Jesus were sent out to teach Christianity to the Jewish people]; the election will obtain [be established], and the rest will be blinded. If this should be the case with you, you will eternally curse this day, and will curse the day that ever you was born, to see such a season of the pouring out of God's Spirit, and will wish that you had died and gone to hell before you had seen it. Now undoubtedly it is, as it was in the days of John the Baptist [a Jewish prophet, considered the forerunner of Christ], the axe is in an extraordinary manner laid at the root of the trees, that every tree which brings not forth good fruit, may be hewn down and cast into the fire.

Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation: Let every one fly out of Sodom [according to the book of Genesis in the Old Testament, an ancient city destroyed by God because of the wickedness of its inhabitants]: "Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed."

Reprinted in: Elliott, Emory, and others, eds. American Literature: A Prentice Hall Anthology. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1991, p. 311.

a genuine and natural outcome of religious conversion. Critics warned Edwards that he was being irresponsible in judging the spiritual state of others. They condemned his attacks on less fiery clergymen, whom he accused of not being sufficiently inspired by the spirit of God. Yet Edwards shrugged off these charges as insignificant. To him the revivals were the authentic work of God. Energized by the apparent success of the Great Awakening, Edwards announced that he was reversing his grandfather's policy of admitting any moral person to the church. Under Edwards's new rules, only those who could convince him of their religious conversion would be admitted to his congregation and be allowed to have their children baptized (initiated into the church in a ceremony that involves immersion in water or the sprinkling of water on the head).

Exiled to Stockbridge

Historians have been puzzled about Edwards's reasons for restricting church membership in such a way. The mystery will continue until scholars are able to decipher the handwriting in his notebooks. If he was trying to spark conversions by making parents fear for the souls of their children, the effort backfired. Edwards's congregation rose up against him, appealing to an advisory council of ministers. Nevertheless he refused to recognize the authority of the council. The conflict continued until 1750, when Edwards was finally ousted and sent to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he ministered to Native Americans at a remote mission.

Exile in Stockbridge proved to be a blessing. Freed from his pastoral duties, Edwards had the time to think, write, and study. Among the works he published were A Careful and Strict Enquiry Into . . . Freedom of Will (1754), The Great Christian Doctrine of Original Sin Defended (1758), and Two Dissertations, I. Concerning the End for which God Created the World. II. The Nature of True Virtue (published in 1765, after his death). Edwards also wrote treatises in which he argued, among other positions, that humans are not born with knowledge or ideas. Instead, they are granted the faculties to form their own ideas from what their senses tell them about the world, and then have the ability to follow those ideas and do what brings them pleasure. Even today philosophers and theologians are intrigued by the ideas about human nature, God, and religion that Edwards published during this last stage of his life. In 1757 Edwards was offered the position of president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), which was founded by New Side Presbyterians (a branch of Protestantism). He reluctantly accepted the honor, but he died the following year from a smallpox inoculation before he could assume his duties.

For further research

Elliott, Emory, and others, eds. American Literature: A Prentice Hall Anthology. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1991, p. 311.

The Puritans: American Literature Colonial Period (1608-1700).http://falcon.jmu.edu/-ramseyil/amicol.htm Available July 13, 1999.

Tracy, Patricia J. Jonathan Edwards, Pastor: Religion and Society in Eighteenth-Century Northampton. New York: Hill & Wang, 1979.

Warfel, Harry H., and others, eds. The American Mind: Selections from the Literature of the United States, Volume I. New York: American Book Co., 1963, p. 82.

Winslow, Ola Elizabeth. Jonathan Edwards: 1703–1758. New York: Collier Books, 1961.