Jonathan Edwards (theologian)

Lore & Background

During his college studies, he kept notebooks labeled 'The Mind,' 'Natural Science,' 'The Scriptures,' and 'Miscellanies,' and was interested in natural history, writing an essay on the ballooning behavior of spiders. He is well known for his many books, including The End for Which God Created the World, The Life of David Brainerd, and Religious Affections. Edwards died from a smallpox inoculation shortly after beginning the presidency at the College of New Jersey in Princeton. Recent studies have emphasized how thoroughly Edwards grounded his life's work on conceptions of beauty, harmony, and ethical aptness, and how central the Age of Enlightenment was to his mindset.

Reader's Guide

Jonathan Edwards's significance lies in his role as a key figure in the First Great Awakening and as a theologian whose work shaped New England theology. His sermon 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' is considered a classic of early American literature. Edwards's theological work is broad in scope but rooted in the Puritan heritage, and his writings, such as Religious Affections, continue to be read by Calvinist Evangelicals. His book The Life of David Brainerd inspired thousands of missionaries throughout the 19th century. Edwards's thought anticipated a 20th-century current of theological aesthetics, and he is regarded as one of America's most important philosophical theologians. His legacy includes a lasting influence on American religious history and the development of evangelicalism.

Did You Know?

• He wrote an essay as an 11-year-old detailing the ballooning behavior of spiders, later edited as 'The Flying Spider'.
• Edwards died from a smallpox inoculation shortly after beginning the presidency at the College of New Jersey in Princeton.
• His sister Esther wrote a semi-humorous tract on the immateriality of the soul often mistakenly attributed to Jonathan.