![]() He was a powerful force in the pulpit, a leader in the churches of western Massachusetts and along the Connecticut River, and a stirring writer. Solomon Stoddard served for sixty years as minister of the parish church of Northampton, Massachusetts. Both Edwards’s father and maternal grandfather greatly influenced his education and career. He was the only son of eleven children born to Timothy Edwards and Esther Stoddard, daughter of Solomon Stoddard. Jonathan Edwards was born October 5, 1703, in East Windsor, Connecticut. Though laboring in places far from the cultural centers of his society, Edwards influenced many people while he lived and greatly impacted the generations to follow. Early on, he developed the habit of self-mastery and a capacity for unremitting toil. Spiritually, he was profound, reflective, experiential, and intense. xix).Īs the huge body of his writings shows, Edwards was intellectually brilliant, multifaceted in his interests, and abundantly creative. Murray notes, “Edwards divided men in his lifetime and to no less degree he continues to divide his biographers” (Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography, p. Scholars continue to debate his philosophical musings, his fidelity to certain historic Calvinist doctrines, and his influence upon subsequent generations. Still, not everyone agrees about Edwards’s place in the history of Christian thought. ![]() Christians continue to read his sermons with great appreciation for their rich doctrine, clear and forceful style, and powerful depiction of the majesty of God, the sinfulness of sin, and Christ’s power to save. Students of American history pay much attention to Edwards’s scientific, philosophical, and psychological writings theologians and church historians regard Edwards’s work on revivals as unexcelled in analysis and scope. His famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” is still being read and studied in America’s public schools as a specimen of eighteenth-century literature. The treasures from Edwards’s pen have been mined, pondered, and evaluated to the present day. Both Christian and secular scholarship concur on his importance in American history. Jonathan Edwards, often called America’s greatest theologian and philosopher and the last Puritan, was a powerful force behind the First Great Awakening, as well as a champion of Christian zeal and spirituality.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |