Jonathan Edwards
- Lived
- 1703–1758
- Era
- Modern
- Where
- Northampton, Massachusetts
- Tradition
- Congregational
The theology of the Great Awakening
A Congregational minister in western Massachusetts, at the centre of the revival of the 1730s and 40s, dismissed by his own congregation after twenty-three years in a dispute over communion, and later president of the college that became Princeton, dying of a smallpox inoculation weeks after taking office.
Why it matters
He is generally reckoned the most powerful mind America produced in that century. His serious work is about the nature of true religious affection and how to tell genuine conversion from excitement — written to defend the revival against its critics and to discipline it against its enthusiasts. He is remembered instead for one sermon about spiders and fire. He also owned slaves, which his admirers spent two centuries not mentioning.
In the record
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1730–1840 AD Revival
The Great Awakenings
Gave the revival its theological account, and its criteria
All the figures, from the apostolic age to the present, or the timeline they stand in.