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History Series: Jonathan Edwards
History of Jonathan Edwards
America’s greatest theologian
Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) was the most important American preacher during the Great Awakening. He has been called “America’s greatest philosophical theologian.”
A revival in his church in Northampton, Massachusetts, between 1734 and 1735, was considered a harbinger of the Awakening, which unfolded a few years later. Edwards was more than an effective evangelical preacher, however. He was the principal intellectual chronicler, interpreter, and apologist for the Awakening.
What did he preach, what was the impact, and what was his legacy?
Edwards: Theologian and Revivalist
He wrote analytical descriptions of the revival, situating it within a broader theological context. Edwards was a world-class theologian, writing some of the most original and important treatises ever produced by an American.
Perhaps Jonathan Edwards’ only writing familiar to most modern audiences, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1741), was not representative of his vast theological output, which includes some of the most learned and profound religious works ever written in America.
