Jonathan Edwards: A Life

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), a towering figure in American history, was a controversial theologian who ignited the momentous Great Awakening of the eighteenth century. He was trained at Yale and is considered America's first philosopher. He tried to combine the theories of John Locke and John Calvin, and believed that all people at all times are on the precipice of sin, that when people fall it is their own fault, that nothing keeps wicked men out of Hell except the choice of God, and that there is no defense against Hell. More succinctly, he believed in divine excellency, human depravity, and grace-producing salvation for the divinely-chosen few. It was a tough religious philosophy to hold but his belief was strong and he soon had many adherents.

He began preaching in 1729, spoke out against Arminianism, and defended itinerant preaching in the 1740s. He became an itinerant preacher, himself, in 1741 and had by then achieved fame as a successful preacher and champion of religious revivals.

The first Great Awakening lasted from about 1740 to 1742. It was a British Empire-wide phenomenon; religion was transformed throughout England, Canada, and America. New religions and denominations were created. Hundreds of thousands of people converted to active Christianity. Specific to America, religion became a primary part of every-day life and the movement's anti-authority and anti-English sentiments may have helped spark the Revolutionary War.

Edwards lived in colonial New England, a frontier civilization at the center of conflict between Native Americans, French Catholics, and English Protestants. George Marsden demonstrates how these cultural and religious battles shaped Edwards' life and thought, and reveals the complex thinker who struggled to reconcile his Puritan heritage with the secular, modern world emerging out of the Enlightenment. (Edwards would, in fact, die from a self-inflicted scientific test. He took a dose of smallpox virus in search of a cure.)

Drawing on newly available sources, the author has produced a meticulously written and beautifully composed biography of an eminent American.