View source for Jonathan Edwards (theologian)

{{short description|American preacher and philosopher (1703–1758)}}
 
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix    = [[The Reverend]]
| name                = Jonathan Edwards
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1703|10|05}}<ref name= "Edwards bio">{{cite web | url = http://edwards.yale.edu/research/about-edwards/biography |title= Jonathan Edwards: Biography | website = Jonathan Edwards Center | publisher = Yale University | access-date = September 13, 2009}}</ref>
| birth_place         = [[East Windsor, Connecticut|East Windsor]], Connecticut, British America
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1758|3|22|1703|10|5}}<ref name = "Edwards bio" />
| death_place         = [[Princeton, New Jersey|Princeton]], New Jersey, British America
| alma_mater          = [[Yale College]]
| occupation          = Pastor, theologian, [[missionary]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|[[Sarah Edwards (mystic)|Sarah Pierpont]]|1727}}{{Sfn | Marsden | 2003 | pp = 93–95, 105–12, 242–49, 607}}
| children            = 11, including [[Esther Edwards Burr|Esther]], [[Jonathan Edwards (the younger)|Jonathan]], and [[Pierpont Edwards|Pierpont]]
| relatives           = {{plainlist|
* [[Elizabeth Tuttle]] (grandmother)
* [[Eunice Kanenstenhawi Williams|Eunice Williams]] (cousin)
}}
| image               = Jonathan Edwards (Princeton Portrait).jpg
| signature           = Jonathan Edwards signature.svg
| module              = {{Infobox theologian
  | embed              = yes
  | notable_works      = "[[Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]]" (1741)<br />''[[Religious Affections]]'' (1746)
  | era                = [[Colonial history of the United States|Colonial period]]
  | tradition_movement = [[Evangelical]] [[Calvinist]] ([[Puritan]])<br />[[New England theology]]
  | main_interests     = [[Christian revival|Revivalism]]
 }}
| office              = President of Princeton University
| order               = 3rd
| termstart           = 1758
| termend             = 1758
| predecessor         = [[Aaron Burr Sr.]]
| successor           = [[Jacob Green (pastor)|Jacob Green]] ''(acting)''
}}

'''Jonathan Edwards''' (October 5, 1703 – March 22, 1758) was an American [[Christian revival|revivalist]] preacher, philosopher, and [[Congregationalism in the United States|Congregationalist]] theologian. Edwards is widely regarded as one of America's most important and original philosophical theologians. Edwards's theological work is broad in scope but rooted in the [[Puritans|Puritan]] heritage as exemplified in the [[Westminster Confession of Faith|Westminster]] and [[Savoy Declaration|Savoy]] Confessions of Faith. 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.{{Sfn|Lee|2005|pp=34–41}} Edwards played a critical role in shaping the [[First Great Awakening]] and oversaw some of the first [[Christian revival|revivals]] in 1733–35 at [[First Church of Christ (Northampton, Massachusetts)|his church]] in [[Northampton, Massachusetts]].{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|pp=150–63}} His work gave rise to a doctrine known as [[New England theology]].

At a 1741 revival in Enfield, Ct,  Edwards delivered the sermon "[[Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]]", a classic of early American literature, following [[George Whitefield]]'s tour of the [[Thirteen Colonies]].{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|pp=214–26}} Edwards is well known for his many books, such as ''The End for Which God Created the World'' and ''[[The Life of David Brainerd]]'', which inspired thousands of missionaries throughout the 19th century, and ''[[Religious Affections]]'' which many [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] [[Evangelicalism|Evangelicals]] still read today.{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|p=499}} Edwards died from a smallpox [[Smallpox vaccine#Early vaccination|inoculation]] shortly after beginning the presidency at the [[Princeton University|College of New Jersey in Princeton]].<ref name="princeton.edu">{{cite web|title=Jonathan Edwards at the College of New Jersey|url=https://www.princeton.edu/~mudd/exhibits/edwards/case3.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121224131533/http://www.princeton.edu/~mudd/exhibits/edwards/case3.html|archive-date=December 24, 2012|publisher=[[Princeton University]]}}</ref>

==Biography==

===Early life===
Jonathan Edwards was born on October 5, 1703, the fifth of 11 children and only son of Timothy Edwards, a [[Minister (Christianity)|minister]] at East Windsor, Connecticut (modern-day [[South Windsor, Connecticut|South Windsor]]), who supplemented his salary by tutoring boys for college. His mother, Esther Stoddard, daughter of Rev. [[Solomon Stoddard]] of [[Northampton, Massachusetts]], seems to have been a woman of unusual mental gifts and independence of character.{{Sfn |Marsden|2003}}{{Rp|needed=yes|date=January 2012}}{{Sfn |Gardiner|Webster |1911 |p=3}} Timothy Edwards held at least one person in enslavement in the Edwards's household, a black man named Ansars.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Minkema |first=Kenneth P.|date=1997 |title=Jonathan Edwards on Slavery and the Slave Trade |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2953884 |journal=The William and Mary Quarterly |volume=54 |issue=4 |pages=823–834 |doi=10.2307/2953884 |jstor=2953884 |issn=0043-5597|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Jonathan was prepared for college by his father and elder sisters, all of whom received an excellent education. His sister Esther, the eldest, wrote a semi-humorous tract on the immateriality of the soul, which has often been mistakenly attributed to Jonathan.<ref>Kenneth P. Minkema, "The Authorship of 'The Soul,'" ''Yale University Library Gazette 65'' (October 1990):26–32.</ref>{{Verify source|date=July 2021}}

[[File:A Faithful Narrative of the Surprizing Work of God by Jonathan Edwards 1737.jpg|thumb|right|{{Citation | title = [[A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton|A Faithful Narrative of the Surprizing Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton]] | first = Jonathan | last = Edwards | place = London | year = 1737}}]]
He entered [[Yale University|Yale College]] in 1716 at just under the age of 13. In the following year, he became acquainted with [[John Locke]]'s ''[[An Essay Concerning Human Understanding|Essay Concerning Human Understanding]]'', which influenced him profoundly.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300062045|title=A Jonathan Edwards Reader|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|year=1995|isbn=978-0-300-06203-8|editor-last=Smith|editor-first=John E.|location=New Haven|page=xx|editor-last2=Stout|editor-first2=Harry S.|editor-last3=Minkema|editor-first3=Kenneth P.|url-access=registration}}</ref> During his college studies, he kept notebooks labeled "The Mind," "Natural Science" (containing a discussion of the [[atomic theory]]), "The Scriptures" and "Miscellanies," had a grand plan for a work on natural and mental philosophy, and drew up rules for its composition.{{Sfn |Gardiner|Webster |1911 |p=3}} He was interested in [[natural history]] and, as an 11-year-old, had observed and written an essay detailing the [[Ballooning (spider)|ballooning behavior]] of some spiders. Edwards edited this text later to match the burgeoning genre of scientific literature, and his "The Flying Spider" fit easily into the contemporary scholarship on spiders.{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|p=66}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wilson|first=David S.|date=1971|title=The Flying Spider|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2708360|journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=447–458 |doi=10.2307/2708360 |jstor=2708360 |issn=0022-5037|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Although he studied theology for two years after his graduation from Yale, Edwards continued to be interested in science. Although many European scientists and American clergymen found the implications of science pushing them towards [[deism]], Edwards believed the natural world was [[Teleological argument|evidence]] of God's masterful design. Throughout his life, Edwards often went into the woods as a favorite place to pray and worship in the beauty and solace of nature.<ref>{{cite book|author=Edwards|first=Jonathan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkBDAQAAIAAJ&pg=PR54|title=The Works of Jonathan Edwards, A.M.|publisher=Ball, Arnold, and Co.|others=Essay by Henry Rodgers. Memoir by Sereno E. Dwight.|year=1840|editor-last=Hickman|editor-first=Edward|location=London|page=54|oclc=4577834}}</ref>

Edwards was fascinated by the discoveries of [[Isaac Newton]] and other scientists of this time period. Before he started working as a full-time pastor in Northampton, he wrote on various topics in natural philosophy, including light and optics, in addition to spiders. While he worried about those of his contemporaries who seemed preoccupied by materialism and faith in reason alone, he considered the laws of nature to be derived from God and demonstrating his wisdom and care. Edwards's written sermons and theological treatises emphasize the beauty of God and the role of [[aesthetics]] in the spiritual life. He is thought to anticipate a 20th-century current of theological aesthetics, represented by figures such as [[Hans Urs von Balthasar]].<ref>[https://banneroftruth.org/uk/store/sermons-and-expositions/charity-its-fruits/ Banner of Truth website, ''Charity and Its Fruits'']</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0014524616650381q | doi=10.1177/0014524616650381q | title=Book Review: When Jonathan Edwards Encounters Ecumenical Thinkers: Kyle C. Strobel, ''The Ecumenical Edwards: Jonathan Edwards and the Theologians'' | date=2016 | last1=Zhu | first1=Victor | journal=The Expository Times | volume=127 | issue=11 | pages=569–570 | url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In 1722 to 1723, he was for eight months an un-ordained "supply" pastor (a clergyman employed to preach and minister in a church for a definite time but not settled as a pastor) of a small [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] church on William Street in New York City.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Everdell|first=William R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d5EvEAAAQBAJ&q=everdell+evangelical+counter+enlightenment|title=The Evangelical Counter-Enlightenment: From Ecstasy to Fundamentalism in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam in the 18th Century|date=2021|publisher=Springer Nature|isbn=978-3-030-69762-4|language=en}}</ref> The church invited him to remain, but he declined the call. After spending two months in study at home, in 1724–1726, he was one of the two tutors at Yale tasked with leading the college in the absence of a rector. Yale's previous rector, [[Timothy Cutler]], lost his position when he defected to the [[Anglican Church]]. After two years, he had not been replaced.{{Sfn |Marsden|2003|pp=46, 101}}

He partially recorded the years 1720 to 1726 in his diary and in his resolutions for his conduct which he drew up at this time. He had long been an eager seeker after [[salvation]] and was not fully satisfied as to his own conversion until an experience in his last year in college, when he lost his feeling that the [[Unconditional election|election]] of some to salvation and of others to eternal damnation was "a horrible doctrine," and reckoned it "exceedingly pleasant, bright and sweet." He now took a great and new joy in taking in the beauties of nature and delighted in the allegorical interpretation of the [[Song of Songs|Song of Solomon]]. Balancing these mystic joys is the stern tone of his Resolutions, in which he is almost [[Asceticism|ascetic]] in his eagerness to live earnestly and soberly, to waste no time, to maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking.{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|p=51}}{{Sfn |Gardiner|Webster |1911 |p=3}}

On February 15, 1727, Edwards was ordained minister at Northampton and assistant to his grandfather [[Solomon Stoddard]], a noted minister. He was a scholar-pastor, not a visiting pastor, his rule being 13 hours of study per day.{{Sfn |Gardiner|Webster |1911 |p=3}} In the same year, he married [[Sarah Edwards (mystic)|Sarah Pierpont]]. Then 17, Sarah was from a notable New England clerical family: her father was [[James Pierpont (minister)|James Pierpont]], a founder of Yale College; and her mother was the granddaughter of [[Thomas Hooker]].{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|pp=87, 93}} Sarah's spiritual devotion was without peer, and her relationship with God had long proved an inspiration to Edwards. He first remarked on her great piety when she was 13 years old.{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|pp=93–95, 95–100, 105–9, 241–42}} She was of a bright and cheerful disposition, a practical housekeeper, a model wife, and the mother of his 11 children, who included [[Esther Edwards Burr|Esther Edwards]].{{Sfn|Gardiner|Webster|1911|p=3}} Edwards held to [[Complementarianism|complementarian]] views of marriage and gender roles.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dodds|first=Elisabeth D.|title=Marriage to a Difficult Man: The Uncommon Union of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards|publisher=Westminster Press|year=1971|isbn=978-0-664-20900-1|location=Philadelphia}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=May 2020}}

Solomon Stoddard died on February 11, 1729, leaving to his grandson the sole ministerial charge of one of the largest and wealthiest congregations in the colony. Its members were proud of its morality, its culture and its reputation.{{Sfn|Marsden|2003}}{{Rp|needed=yes|date=January 2012}} Summing up Edwards's influences during his younger years, scholar John E. Smith writes, "By thus meditating between Berkeley on the one hand and Locke, [[René Descartes|Descartes]], and [[Thomas Hobbes|Hobbes]] on the other, the young Edwards hoped to rescue Christianity from the deadweight of rationalism and the paralyzing inertia of skepticism."<ref>{{cite book|last1=|first1=|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300062045|title=A Jonathan Edwards Reader|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|year=1995|isbn=978-0-300-06203-8|editor-last=Smith|editor-first=John E.|location=New Haven|page=xii|editor-last2=Stout|editor-first2=Harry S.|editor-last3=Minkema|editor-first3=Kenneth P.|url-access=registration}}</ref>

===Great Awakening===
{{Calvinism}}
On July 8, 1731,{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|p=140}} Edwards preached in Boston the "Public Lecture," afterwards published under the title "God Glorified in the Work of Redemption, by the Greatness of Man's Dependence upon Him, in the Whole of It," which was his first public attack on [[Arminianism]]. The emphasis of the lecture was on God's absolute sovereignty in the work of salvation: while it behooved God to create man pure and without sin, it was of his "good pleasure" and "mere and arbitrary grace" for him to grant any person the faith necessary to incline him or her toward holiness, and that God might deny this grace without any disparagement to any of his character. In 1733, a spiritual revival began in Northampton and reached such an intensity in the winter of 1734<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Bass |first=Diana Butler |title=Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening |publisher=[[HarperOne]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-06-200373-7 |editor-last=Bass |editor-first=Diana Butler |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=253 |author-link=Diana Butler Bass}}</ref> and the following spring that it threatened the business of the town. In six months, nearly 300 of 1,100 youths were admitted to the church.{{Sfn |Gardiner|Webster |1911 |p=3}}<ref name=":0" />

The revival gave Edwards an opportunity to study the process of conversion in all its phases and varieties, and he recorded his observations with psychological minuteness and discrimination in ''[[A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton]]'' (1737). A year later, he published ''Discourses on Various Important Subjects'', the five sermons which had proved most effective in the revival. Of these, none was so immediately effective as that on ''[[The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners]]'', from the text, "That every mouth may be stopped." Another sermon, published in 1734, ''A Divine and Supernatural Light, Immediately Imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God'', set forth what he regarded as the inner, moving principle of the revival, the doctrine of a special grace in the immediate, and supernatural divine illumination of the soul.{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|p=|pp=156{{en dash}}157}}{{Sfn |Gardiner|Webster |1911 |p=3}}

By 1735, the revival had spread and appeared independently across the [[Connecticut River]] Valley and perhaps as far as New Jersey. However, criticism of the revival began, and many New Englanders feared that Edwards had led his flock into fanaticism.{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|p=|pp=161{{en dash}}162}}

Over the summer of 1735, religious fervor took a dark turn. Many New Englanders were affected by the revivals but not converted and became convinced of their inexorable damnation. Edwards wrote that "multitudes" felt urged{{snd}}presumably by Satan{{snd}}to take their own lives.{{Sfn |Marsden|2003| p = 168}} At least two people committed suicide in the depths of their [[spiritual distress]], one from Edwards's own congregation{{snd}}his uncle Joseph Hawley II. It is not known if any others took their own lives, but the "suicide craze"{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|p=|pp=168, 541}} effectively ended the first wave of revival, except in some parts of Connecticut.{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|p=|pp=163–169}}

Despite these setbacks and the cooling of religious fervor, word of the Northampton revival and Edwards's leadership role had spread as far as England and Scotland. It was at this time that Edwards became acquainted with [[George Whitefield]], who was traveling the [[Thirteen Colonies]] on a revival tour in 1739–40. The two men may not have seen eye to eye on every detail. Whitefield was far more comfortable with the strongly emotional elements of revival than Edwards was, but they were both passionate about preaching the Gospel. They worked together to orchestrate Whitefield's trip, first through Boston and then to Northampton. When Whitefield preached at Edwards's church in Northampton, he reminded them of the revival they had undergone just a few years before.{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|pp=206–212}} This deeply touched Edwards, who wept throughout the entire service, and much of the congregation too was moved.<ref>[https://www.nhinet.org/ccs/docs/awaken.htm National Humanities Institute website, ''Jonathan Edwards: On the Great Awakening'' (1998)]</ref>

[[File:JE Sinners in the Hands Monument.jpg|thumb|left|Monument in [[Enfield, Connecticut]] commemorating the location where ''[[Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]]'' was preached. The monument is on the grounds of [[Enfield Montessori School]].]] Revivals began to spring up again, and Edwards preached his most famous sermon, ''[[Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]]'', in [[Enfield, Connecticut]], in 1741. Though this sermon has been widely reprinted as an example of "[[fire and brimstone]]" preaching in the colonial revivals, that characterization is not in keeping with descriptions of Edward's actual preaching style. Edwards did not shout or speak loudly, but talked in a quiet, emotive voice. He moved his audience slowly from point to point, towards an inexorable conclusion: they were lost without the grace of God. While most 21st-century readers notice the damnation looming in such a sermon text, historian [[George Marsden]] reminds us that Edwards was not preaching anything new or surprising: "Edwards could take for granted... that a New England audience knew well the Gospel remedy. The problem was getting them to seek it.".{{Sfn |Marsden|2003| p = 224}}

The movement met with opposition from conservative [[Congregational church|Congregationalist]] ministers. In 1741, Edwards published in the defense of revivals ''The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God'', dealing particularly with the phenomena most criticized: the swoonings, outcries, and convulsions. These "bodily effects," he insisted, were not distinguishing marks of the work of the Spirit of God one way or another. So bitter was the feeling against the revival in some churches that in 1742 he felt moved to write a second apology, ''Thoughts on the Revival in New England,'' where his main argument concerned the great moral improvement of the country. In the same pamphlet he defends an appeal to the emotions and advocates preaching terror when necessary, even to children, who in God's sight "are young vipers... if not Christ's."{{Sfn |Gardiner|Webster |1911 |p=3}}

He considered "bodily effects" incidental to the real work of God. But his own mystic devotion and the experiences of his wife during the Awakening (which he recounts in detail) make him think that the divine visitation usually overpowers the body, a view in support of which he quotes Scripture. In reply to Edwards, [[Charles Chauncy (1705–1787)|Charles Chauncy]] wrote ''Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England'' in 1743 and anonymously penned ''The Late Religious Commotions in New England Considered'' in the same year. In these works, he urged conduct as the sole test of conversion. The general convention of Congregational ministers in the Province of Massachusetts Bay seemed to agree, protesting "against disorders in practice which have of late obtained in various parts of the land." In spite of Edwards's able pamphlet, the impression had become widespread that "bodily effects" were recognized by the promoters of the Great Awakening as the true tests of conversion.{{Sfn |Gardiner|Webster |1911 |p=4}}

To offset this feeling, during the years 1742 and 1743, Edwards preached at Northampton a series of sermons published under the title of ''[[Religious Affections]]'' (1746), a restatement in a more philosophical and general tone of his ideas as to "distinguishing marks." In 1747, he joined the movement started in Scotland called the "concert in prayer," and in the same year published ''An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God's People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on Earth''. In 1749, he published a memoir of [[David Brainerd]], who had lived with his family for several months and had died at Northampton in 1747. Brainerd had been constantly attended by Edwards's daughter Jerusha, to whom he was rumored to have been engaged to be married,{{Sfn |Gardiner|Webster |1911 |p=4}} though there is no surviving evidence of this. In the course of elaborating his theories of conversion, Edwards used David Brainerd and his ministry as a case study,<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1509706 | jstor=1509706 | title=The Melancholy Saint: Jonathan Edwards's Interpretation of David Brainerd as a Model of Evangelical Spirituality | last1=Weddle | first1=David L. | journal=The Harvard Theological Review | date=1988 | volume=81 | issue=3 | pages=297–318 | doi=10.1017/S0017816000010117 | url-access=subscription }}</ref> making extensive notes of his conversions and confessions.

[[File:Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards 1741.jpg|thumb|right|{{citation | title = Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, A Sermon Preached at Enfield | date = July 8, 1741 | first = Rev. Jonathan | last = Edwards }}]]

==Later years==

In 1748, there had come a crisis in his relations with his congregation. The [[Half-Way Covenant]], adopted by the synods of 1657 and 1662, had made [[baptism]] alone the condition to the civil privileges of church membership, but not of participation in the [[sacrament]] of the [[Eucharist|Lord's Supper]]. Stoddard had been even more liberal, holding that the Lord's Supper was a converting ordinance and that baptism was a sufficient title to all the privileges of the church.{{Sfn |Gardiner|Webster |1911 |p=4}}

As early as 1744, Edwards, in his sermons on ''Religious Affections'', had plainly intimated his dislike of this practice. In the same year, he had published in a church meeting the names of certain young people, members of the church, who were suspected of reading improper books, and also the names of those who were to be called as witnesses in the case. It has often been reported{{By whom|date=January 2025}} that the witnesses and accused were not distinguished on this list, and so the entire congregation was in an uproar. However, Patricia Tracy's research has cast doubt on this version of the events, noting that in the list he read from, the names were definitely distinguished. Those involved were eventually disciplined for disrespect to the investigators rather than for the original incident. In any case, the incident further deteriorated the relationship between Edwards and the congregation.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tracy|first=Patricia J.|title=Jonathan Edwards, Pastor: Religion and Society in Eighteenth Century Northampton|publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-59752-612-8 |location=Eugene |orig-year=1980}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=July 2021}}

Edwards's preaching became unpopular. For four years, no candidate presented himself for admission to the church, and when one eventually did, in 1748, he was met with Edwards's formal tests as expressed in the {{Citation | title = Distinguishing Marks}} and later in {{Citation | title = Qualifications for Full Communion | year = 1749}}. The candidate refused to submit to them, the church backed him, and the break between the church and Edwards was complete. Even permission to discuss his views in the pulpit was refused. He was allowed to present his views on Thursday afternoons. His sermons were well attended by his fans but not his own congregation. A council was convened to decide the communion matter between the minister and his people. The congregation chose half the council, and Edwards was allowed to select the other half of the council. His congregation, however, limited his selection to one county where the majority of the ministers were against him. The ecclesiastical council voted by 10 to 9 that the pastoral relation be dissolved.{{Sfn |Gardiner|Webster |1911 |p=4}}

The church members, by a vote of more than 200 to 23, ratified the action of the council, and finally a town meeting voted that Edwards should not be allowed to occupy the Northampton pulpit, though he continued to live in the town and preach in the church by the request of the congregation until October 1751. In his "Farewell Sermon" he preached from 2 Corinthians 1:14 and directed the thoughts of his people to that far future when the minister and his people would stand before God. In a letter to Scotland after his dismissal, he expresses his preference for [[Presbyterian polity|Presbyterian]] to [[congregational polity]]. His position at the time was not unpopular throughout New England. His doctrine that the Lord's Supper is not a cause of regeneration and that communicants should be professing Protestants has since (largely through the efforts of his pupil [[Joseph Bellamy]]) become a standard of New England Congregationalism.{{Sfn |Gardiner|Webster |1911 |p=4}}

Edwards was in high demand. A parish in Scotland could have been procured for him, and he was called to a Virginia church.{{cn|date=February 2024}} He declined both of these to become pastor in 1751 of the church in [[Stockbridge, Massachusetts|Stockbridge]], Massachusetts and a missionary to the [[Housatonic River|Housatonic]] Indians,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-03-18 |title=Jonathan Edwards - Dismissal from Northampton of Jonathan Edwards |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jonathan-Edwards/Dismissal-from-Northampton |access-date=2023-05-20 |publisher=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |language=en}}</ref> taking over for the recently deceased [[John Sergeant (missionary)|John Sergeant]]. To the Indians, he preached through an interpreter, and their interests he boldly and successfully defended, by attacking the whites who were using their official positions among them to increase their private fortunes. During this time he got to know Judge [[Joseph Dwight]] who was trustee of the Indian Schools. In Stockbridge, he wrote the ''Humble Relation'', also called ''Reply to Williams'' (1752), which was an answer to Solomon Williams, a relative and a bitter opponent of Edwards as to the qualifications for full communion. He composed the treatises on which his reputation as a philosophical theologian chiefly rests, the essay on [[Original sin|Original Sin]], the ''Dissertation Concerning the Nature of True Virtue'', the ''Dissertation Concerning the End for which God created the World'', and the great work on the ''Will'', written in four and a half months and published in 1754 under the title, ''An Inquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions Respecting that Freedom of the Will which is supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency''.{{Sfn |Gardiner|Webster |1911 |p=4}}

[[Aaron Burr Sr.]], Edwards's son-in-law, died in 1757 (he had married Esther Edwards five years before, and they had made Edwards the grandfather of [[Aaron Burr]], later U.S. vice president). Edwards felt himself in "the decline of life", and inadequate to the office, but was persuaded to replace Burr as president of the College of New Jersey (now [[Princeton University]]). He was installed on February 16, 1758. He gave weekly essay assignments in theology to the senior class.{{Sfn|Leitch|1978|p=|pp=151–152}}

== Death and legacy ==
[[File:Jonathan Edwards engraving.jpg|thumb|right|Engraving of Edwards by R Babson & J Andrews]]Almost immediately after becoming president of the College of New Jersey, Edwards, a strong supporter of [[Variolation|smallpox inoculations]], decided to get inoculated in order to encourage others to do the same. Never having been in robust health, he died as a result of the inoculation on March 22, 1758. Edwards left behind eleven children (three sons and eight daughters).{{Sfn|Gardiner|Webster|1911|p=3}} The grave of Edwards is located in [[Princeton Cemetery]]. Written in Latin, the long emotional [[epitaph]] inscription on the horizontal gravestone eulogizes his life and career and laments the great loss of his passing.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dod|first=William Armstrong |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PFQbAAAAYAAJ|title=History of the College of New Jersey: From Its Commencement, A.D., 1746, to 1783|publisher=J.T. Robinson|year=1844|location=Princeton|pages=15|oclc=32788003}}</ref> It draws from the classical tradition in extolling the virtues of the deceased and directly inviting the passerby to pause and mourn.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

The followers of Jonathan Edwards and his disciples came to be known as the [[Old and New Lights|New Light]] Calvinist ministers. Prominent disciples included the [[New England theology|New Divinity]] school's [[Samuel Hopkins (theologian)|Samuel Hopkins]], [[Joseph Bellamy]], [[Jonathan Edwards (the younger)|Jonathan Edwards Jr.]],<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jonathan-Edwards Britannica website, ''Jonathan Edwards'', article by Thomas A. Schafer dated Jan 12, 2024]</ref> and Gideon Hawley. Through a practice of apprentice ministers living in the homes of older ministers, they eventually filled a large number of pastorates in the [[New England]] area.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} Many of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards's descendants became prominent citizens in the United States, including Burr and college presidents [[Timothy Dwight IV|Timothy Dwight]], Jonathan Edwards Jr. and [[Merrill Edwards Gates]]. Jonathan and Sarah Edwards were also ancestors of [[Edith Roosevelt]], the writer [[O. Henry]], the publisher [[Frank Nelson Doubleday]], and the writer [[Robert Lowell]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=pKiM74AgJlwC&dq=jonathan+edwards+princeton+theological+descendants+Edith+Roosevelt%2C+the+writer+O.+Henry%2C++Frank+Nelson+Doubleday%2C+and+the+writer+Robert+Lowell&pg=PA57 Google Books website, ''Antebellum Slavery: The Orthodox Christian View'', by Gary Lee Roper, p. 57]</ref><ref>[https://www.abebooks.co.uk/first-edition/careful-strict-Enquiry-Modern-Prevailing-Notions/30763687346/bd ABE Books website, ''A careful and strict Enquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of that Freedom of Will, which is supposed to be essential to Moral Agency, Virtue and Vice, Reward and Punishment, Praise and Blame'', by Jonathan Edwards]</ref> The eminence of many descendants of Edwards led some [[Progressive Era]] scholars to view him as proof of [[eugenics]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Winship |first=Albert E. |title=Jukes-Edwards: A Study in Education and Heredity |publisher=R. L. Myers & Co. |year=1900 |location=Harrisburg |chapter=A Study of Jonathan Edwards |oclc=22842812 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/jukesedwardsstud1900wins/page/15/mode/1up?view=theater}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Popenoe |first1=Paul |last2=Johnson |first2=Roswell Hill |date=February 10, 1921 |title=Applied Eugenics |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/106752a0 |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |language=en |volume=106 |issue=2676 |pages=752–753 |bibcode=1921Natur.106..752. |doi=10.1038/106752a0 |issn=1476-4687 |s2cid=4095859|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lombardo |first=Paul A. |date=2012-04-01 |title=Return of the Jukes: Eugenic Mythologies and Internet Evangelism |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/01947648.2012.686798 |journal=[[Journal of Legal Medicine]] |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=207–233 |doi=10.1080/01947648.2012.686798 |issn=0194-7648 |pmid=22694094 |s2cid=38739509|url-access=subscription }}</ref> His descendants have had a disproportionate effect upon American culture: his biographer [[George Marsden]] notes that "the Edwards family produced scores of clergymen, thirteen presidents of higher learning, sixty-five professors, and many other persons of notable achievements."{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|pp=500–501}}

Edwards's writings and beliefs continue to influence individuals and groups to this day. Early [[American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions]] missionaries were influenced by Edwards's writings, as is evidenced in reports in the ABCFM's journal "The Missionary Herald," and beginning with [[Perry Miller]]'s seminal work, Edwards enjoyed a renaissance among scholars around the time of the [[Second World War]].<ref name=JES>[https://jestudies.yale.edu/index.php/journal/article/view/161/0 Yale University website, Jonathan Edwards section ''Studying the History of American Protestantism through Jonathan Edwards: Versions of ‘America’s Theologican’ at mid-century'', article by Jan Stievermann, published in the Jonathan Edwards Journal, Volume 4 No 2 (2014)]</ref> The [[Banner of Truth Trust]] and other publishers continue to reprint Edwards's works, and most of his major works are now available through the series published by [[Yale University Press]], which has spanned three decades and supplies critical introductions by the editor of each volume. Yale has also established the Jonathan Edwards Project online.<ref name=JES /> Author and teacher, Elisabeth Woodbridge Morris, memorialized him, her paternal ancestor (3rd great-grandfather) in two books,'' The Jonathan Papers'' (1912), and ''More Jonathan Papers'' (1915).<ref>[https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/author/elisabeth-woodbridge ABE Books website, ''Jonathan Papers'']</ref><ref>[https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/isbn/9781018878942/   ABE Books website, ''More Jonathan Papers'']</ref> In 1933, he became the namesake of [[Jonathan Edwards College]], the first of the 12 [[residential colleges]] of Yale, and [[The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University]] was founded to provide scholarly information about Edwards's writings.<ref>[https://je.yalecollege.yale.edu/about-us/history Yale University website, Jonathan Edwards College section, ''History'']</ref><ref>[https://catalog.yale.edu/div/research-outreach/jonathan-edwards-center-online-archive/  Yale Divinity School website, ''The Jonathan Edwards Center and Online Archive'']</ref> Edwards is remembered today as a teacher and missionary by the [[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]] on March 22.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} The contemporary poet [[Susan Howe]] frequently describes the composition of Edwards's manuscripts and notebooks held at the [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]] in a number of her books of poetry and prose, including {{Citation | title = Souls of the Labadie Tract | date = 2007}} and {{Citation | title = That This | year = 2010}}.  She notes how some of Edwards's notebooks were hand sewn from silk paper that his sisters and wife used for making fans.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Howe|first=Susan|date=2009|title=Choir answers to Choir: Notes on Jonathan Edwards and Wallace Stevens|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25742542|journal=Chicago Review|volume=54|issue=4|pages=51–61|jstor=25742542|issn=0009-3696}}</ref> Howe also argues in ''My Emily Dickinson'' that [[Emily Dickinson]] was formatively influenced by Edwards's writings, and that she "took both his legend and his learning, tore them free from his own humorlessness and the dead weight of doctrinaire Calvinism, then applied the freshness of his perception to the dead weight of American poetry as she knew it."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Howe|first=Susan|title=My Emily Dickinson|publisher=[[North Atlantic Books]]|year=1985|isbn=978-0-938190-53-0|location=Berkeley|pages=51|author-link=Susan Howe}}</ref>

He was the maternal grandfather of [[Aaron Burr]], the third United States vice president and the murderer of [[Alexander Hamilton]].<ref name="Edwards bio" />

=== Slavery ===
Edwards [[Slavery in the colonial history of the United States|was a slave owner]]. In June 1731, he purchased a young black teenager named Venus. In subsequent years, he acquired at least five more slaves: Joab and Rose Binney, Titus, Joseph, and Sue. Edwards married Joab and Rose in 1751; Titus was their son. Joseph and Sue were also a married couple. Edwards also owned a slave by the name of Leah, though this is likely the biblical name given to Venus as she was admitted as a full member to Edwards's church by 1736.<ref>{{cite news |last=Stinson |first=Susan |author-link=Susan Stinson |date=April 5, 2012 |title=The Other Side of the Paper: Jonathan Edwards as Slave-Owner |newspaper=[[Daily Hampshire Gazette|Valley Advocate]] |url=http://valleyadvocate.com/2012/04/05/the-other-side-of-the-paper-jonathan-edwards-as-slave-owner/ |access-date=October 5, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Sweeney |first=Douglas A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uvhaQ3Ju9dYC&q=%22they+owned+several+slaves.+Beginning+in+June+1731%2C+Edwards+joined+the+slave+trade%2C+buying%22+Girle+%22named+Venus%22&pg=PA66 |title=Jonathan Edwards and the Ministry of the Word: A Model of Faith and Thought |publisher=[[InterVarsity Press]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8308-7941-0 |location=Downers Grove |pages=66–68 |quote=...they owned several slaves. Beginning in June 1731, Edwards joined the slave trade, buying 'a Negro Girle named Venus ages Fourteen years or thereabout' in Newport, at an auction, for 'the Sum of Eighty pounds.'}}</ref> In a 1741 pamphlet, Edwards defended the institution for those who were debtors, war captives, or were born enslaved in North America, but rejected the [[Atlantic slave trade]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Minkema |first=Kenneth P. |year=2002 |title=Jonathan Edwards's Defense of Slavery |url=https://edwardseducationblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/minkema-defense-slavery.pdf |journal=[[Massachusetts Historical Society|Massachusetts Historical Review]] |type=Race & Slavery |volume=4 |pages=23–59 |issn=1526-3894 |quote=Edwards defended the traditional definition of slaves as those who were debtors, children of slaves, and war captives; for him, the trade in slaves born in North America remained legitimate.}}</ref>

Attention to this fact became prominent during the 2010s and 2020s. Responses have ranged from condemnation<ref>{{cite web |last=Raymond |first=Kaymarion |date=June 19, 2021 |title=Slavery in Northampton |url=https://fromwickedtowedded.com/2021/06/19/slavery-in-northampton/ |website=From Wicked to Wedded}}</ref>  to the view that he was a man of his time.<ref name="Gateway">{{cite web |title=Jonathan Edwards and Slavery |url=https://thegateway.press/jonathan-edwards-and-slavery/}}</ref> Other commentators have sought to maintain what they see as valuable in Edwards's theology, while deploring his involvement in slavery.<ref name="lament">{{cite web |title=Jonathan Edwards and His Support of Slavery: A Lament |date=February 27, 2019 |url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/jonathan-edwards-support-slavery-lament/}}</ref>

==Works==
The [[Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library]] at Yale University holds the majority of Edwards's surviving manuscripts, including over one thousand sermons, notebooks, correspondence, printed materials, and artifacts.<ref>{{cite web|title=Jonathan Edwards Collection|url=https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/collections/highlights/jonathan-edwards-collection|access-date=October 15, 2017|website=Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library|publisher=Yale University}}</ref> Two of Edwards's manuscript sermons and other related historical texts are held by The [[Presbyterian Historical Society]] in Philadelphia.<ref>{{cite web|title=Guide to the Jonathan Edwards and Jonathan Edwards the Younger Papers| date=May 5, 2014 |url=http://www.history.pcusa.org/collections/findingaids/fa.cfm?record_id=332|access-date=October 15, 2017|publisher=[[Presbyterian Historical Society]]}}</ref> The entire corpus of Edwards's works, including previously unpublished works, is available online through the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University website.<ref>{{cite web|title=Browse WJE Online|url=http://edwards.yale.edu/research/browse|access-date=October 15, 2017|website=Jonathan Edwards Center|publisher=Yale University}}</ref> The Works of Jonathan Edwards project at Yale has been bringing out scholarly editions of Edwards based on fresh transcriptions of his manuscripts since the 1950s; there are 26 volumes so far. Many of Edwards's works have been regularly reprinted. Some of the major works include:

*''Charity and its Fruits''
*''Protestant Charity or The Duty of Charity to the Poor, Explained and Enforced'' (1732)
*''[[A Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World]]''
*''Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God''
*''A Divine and Supernatural Light, Immediately Imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God'' (1734)
*''[[A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton]]''
*''[[The Freedom of the Will]]''
*''A History of the Work of Redemption including a View of Church History''
*''[[The Life of David Brainerd]]''
*''[[The Nature of True Virtue]]''
*''Original Sin''
*''Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival in New England and the Way it Ought to be Acknowledged and Promoted''
*''[[Religious Affections]]''
*''A Careful and Strict Enquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of that Freedom of Will, which is Supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency, Vertue and Vice, Reward and Punishment, Praise and Blame'' (1754).<ref>{{cite book|author=Jonathan Edwards|title=A Careful and Strict Enquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of that Freedom of Will, which is Supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency, Vertue and Vice, Reward and Punishment, Praise and Blame|location=Boston, Mass.|publisher=Printed and sold by [[Samuel Kneeland (printer)|S[amuel] Kneeland]], in Queen-Street, Boston, N.E.|year=1754|oclc=5718762}}</ref>

===Sermons===
The text of many of Edwards's sermons have been preserved, some are still published and read today among general anthologies of American literature. Among his more well-known sermons are:

*"[[The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners]]"
*"The Manner of Seeking Salvation"
*"Pressing into the Kingdom of God"
*"[[Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]]"
*"The Folly Of Looking Back In Fleeing Out Of Sodom"<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.apuritansmind.com/puritan-favorites/jonathan-edwards/sermons/the-folly-of-looking-back-in-fleeing-out-of-sodom/ | title=The Folly of Looking Back in Fleeing Out of Sodom &#124; Reformed Theology at a Puritan's Mind }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|United States|New Jersey|Biography}}
* [[Atonement (governmental view)]]
* [[Mission House (Stockbridge, Massachusetts)]]
* [[New England Dwight family]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==
* {{EB1911 |wstitle=Edwards, Jonathan |volume=9 |first1=Harry Norman |last1= Gardiner |first2=Richard |last2=Webster |pages=3–6 |inline=1}}
* {{Cite book|last=Leitch|first=Alexander|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13x0zx2|title=A Princeton Companion|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|year=1978|isbn=978-0-691-04654-9|location=Princeton|jstor=j.ctt13x0zx2}}.
* {{Cite book|last=Marsden|first=George M.|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1npmjj|title=Jonathan Edwards: A Life|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|year=2003|isbn=978-0-300-09693-4|location=New Haven|jstor=j.ctt1npmjj}}
* {{Cite book|title=The Princeton Companion to Jonathan Edwards|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|year=2005|isbn=978-0-691-12108-6|editor-last=Lee|editor-first=Sang Hyun|location=Princeton}}.

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book|last=Crisp|first=Oliver D.|title=Jonathan Edwards Among the Theologians|publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]]|year=2015|isbn=978-0-8028-7172-5|location=Grand Rapids}}
* {{Cite book|last=Delattre|first=Roland André|title=Beauty and Sensibility in the Thought of Jonathan Edwards: An Essay in Aesthetics and Theological Ethics|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|year=1968|location=New Haven|oclc=422152084}}
* {{Cite book|last=Fiering|first=Norman|title=Jonathan Edwards's Moral Thought and Its British Context|publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]]|year=1981|isbn=978-0-8078-1473-4|location=Chapel Hill}}
* {{cite book|last=Frazer|first=Greg L.|title=The Religious Beliefs of America's Founders: Reason, Revelation, and Revolution|publisher=[[University Press of Kansas]]|year=2012|isbn=978-0-7006-1845-3|location=Lawrence|url=}}
* {{cite book|last=Gerstner|first=John H|title=The Rational Biblical Theology of Jonathan Edwards, in three volumes|publisher=Berea Publications|location=Powhatan|year=1991–1993|author-link=John Gerstner}}
* {{Cite book|last=Gerstner|first=John H.|title=Jonathan Edwards: A Mini-theology|publisher=Tyndale House|year=1987|isbn=978-0-8423-1956-0|location=Wheaton|author-link=John H. Gerstner}}
* {{Cite book|last=Glazier|first=Stephen D.|title=Jonathan Edwards and Isaac Backus on Freedom of the Will. Unpublished STM Thesis, 2021. Yale University. This thesis examined the language of Jonathan Edwards's ''Freedom of the Will'' and its influence (or lack of influence) on Isaac Backus (1724–1806). The focus was on Edwards's and Backus's ideas about Liberty and Freedom from the perspective provided by Kenneth Burke in The Rhetoric of Religion and A Grammar of Motives.}}
* {{Cite book|title=A Speaking Aristocracy: Transforming Public Discourse in Eighteenth-Century Connecticut|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0-8078-4772-5|location=Chapel Hill|last=Grasso|first=Christopher}}
* {{Cite book|title=Jonathan Edwards and the American Experience|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=1988|isbn=978-0-19-505118-6|editor-last=Hatch|editor-first=Nathan Orr|location=New York|editor-last2=Stout|editor-first2=Harry S.}}
* {{cite book|author=Holmes|first=Stephen R.|title=God of Grace, God of Glory: The Theology of Jonathan Edwards|publisher=T & T Clark|location=Edinburgh|year=2000|isbn=978-0-567-08748-5}}
* {{cite book|author=Jenson|title=America's Theologian: A Recommendation of Jonathan Edwards|first=Robert W.|url=https://archive.org/details/americastheologi0000jens|url-access=registration|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|location=New York|year=1988|isbn=978-0-19-504941-1|author-link=Robert Jenson}}
* {{Cite book|title=Jonathan Edwards's "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God": A Casebook|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|year=2010|isbn=978-0-300-14038-5|editor-last=Kimnach|editor-first=Wilson H.|location=New Haven|editor-last2=Maskell|editor-first2=Caleb J.D.|editor-last3=Minkema|editor-first3=Kenneth P.}}
* {{Cite book|last=Lee|first=Sang Hyun|title=The Philosophical Theology of Jonathan Edwards: Expanded Edition|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|year=1988|isbn=978-0-691-07325-5|location=Princeton}}
* {{Cite book|last=McClenahan|first=Michael|title=Jonathan Edwards and Justification by Faith|publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]]|year=2012|isbn=978-1-4094-4178-6|location=Farnham}}
* {{Cite book|last=McDermott|first=Gerald R.|title=One Holy and Happy Society: The Public Theology of Jonathan Edwards|publisher=[[Pennsylvania State University Press]]|year=1992|isbn=978-0-271-00850-9|location=University Park}}
* {{cite book |author=Murray |title=Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography |publisher=[[Banner of Truth]] |location=Edinburgh |year=1987 |author-link=Iain Murray (author)|isbn=978-0-85151-494-9|first=Iain H.}}
* {{cite book|last=Noll|first=Mark A.|author-link=Mark Noll|title=America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2002|isbn=978-0-19-515111-4|location=Oxford|url=}}
* {{cite book|last=Parkes|first=Henry Bamford|title=Jonathan Edwards, the Fiery Puritan|url=|publisher=Minton, Balch & Company|location=New York|year=1930|author-link=Henry Bamford Parkes|oclc=250776093}}
* {{cite book|author=Piper|first=John|title=A God Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards|publisher=[[Crossway Books]]|location=Wheaton|year=2004|isbn=978-1-58134-563-6|author-link=John Piper (theologian)}}
* {{cite book|author=Stein|first=Stephen J.|title=The Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Edwards|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=2007|isbn=978-0-521-85290-6|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_x7l9}}
* {{Cite book|title=The Jonathan Edwards Encyclopedia|publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]]|year=2017|isbn=978-0-8028-6952-4|editor-last=Stout|editor-first=Harry S.|location=Grand Rapids|editor-last2=Minkema|editor-first2=Kenneth P.|editor-last3=Neele|editor-first3=Adriaan C.}}
* {{cite book|author=Winslow|first=Ola Elizabeth|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.155623|title=Jonathan Edwards, 1703–1756|publisher=[[Macmillan Company]]|year=1940|location=New York|oclc=749006808|author-link=Ola Elizabeth Winslow}}
* {{Cite book|last=Zakai|first=Avihu|title=Jonathan Edwards's Philosophy of History: The Reenchantment of the World in the Age of Enlightenment|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|year=2003|isbn=978-0-691-09654-4|location=Princeton}}
* {{Cite book |last=Blight |first=David W. |url=https://yaleandslavery.yale.edu/sites/default/files/2024-02/Yale%20and%20Slavery%20A%20History%20Feb2024%20David%20Blight%20with%20the%20Yale%20and%20Slavery%20Research%20Project.pdf |title=Yale and Slavery : a history |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2024 |isbn=978-0-300-27384-7 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241224152503/https://yaleandslavery.yale.edu/sites/default/files/2024-02/Yale%20and%20Slavery%20A%20History%20Feb2024%20David%20Blight%20with%20the%20Yale%20and%20Slavery%20Research%20Project.pdf |archive-date=2024-12-24}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links
|display=Jonathan Edwards
|wikt=no
|s=Author:Jonathan Edwards
|v=no
|n=no
|commons=Category:Jonathan Edwards
|q=Jonathan Edwards
|b=no
}}
* [http://edwards.yale.edu/ Jonathan Edwards Center, Yale University]. Complete online critical edition of Edwards.
* [https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/614 Jonathan Edwards Collection]. General Collection located at the [[Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library|Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]].
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/edwards/ The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051025043345/http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap2/edwards.html Perspectives in American Literature – A Research and Reference Guide]. A bibliography for Edwards.
* {{PRDL|267}}. A finding list of eighteenth-century published works by Edwards in the public domain.
* {{Internet Archive author |search=(  ("Jonathan Edwards" OR "Edwards, Jonathan" OR "Edwards, J." OR "J. Edwards") AND 1758 )}}
* {{Librivox author |id=140}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{s-bef
| before = [[Aaron Burr Sr.]]
}}
{{s-ttl
| title = [[President of Princeton University|President of the College of New Jersey]]
| years = 1758–1758
}}
{{s-aft
| after = [[Jacob Green (pastor)|Jacob Green]] ''(Acting)''<br />[[Samuel Davies (Presbyterian educator)|Samuel Davies]]
}}
{{s-end}}
{{Princeton presidents}}
{{Princeton University President}}
{{Hall of Fame for Great Americans}}
{{Evangelical Protestantism in the United States}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Jonathan}}
[[Category:1703 births]]
[[Category:1758 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century American philosophers]]
[[Category:18th-century apocalypticists]]
[[Category:18th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians]]
[[Category:American Calvinist and Reformed theologians]]
[[Category:18th-century American Congregationalist ministers]]
[[Category:American Congregationalists]]
[[Category:American evangelicals]]
[[Category:American people of English descent]]
[[Category:American political philosophers]]
[[Category:American sermon writers]]
[[Category:Slave owners from the Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:Burials at Princeton Cemetery]]
[[Category:Calvinist and Reformed philosophers]]
[[Category:Calvinist and Reformed writers]]
[[Category:Christian ethicists]]
[[Category:Christian revivalists]]
[[Category:Christian humanists]]
[[Category:Congregationalist writers]]
[[Category:Environmental writers]]
[[Category:Hall of Fame for Great Americans inductees]]
[[Category:Hellfire preachers]]
[[Category:Family of Jonathan Edwards (theologian)| ]]
[[Category:Modern Latin inscriptions]]
[[Category:Ontologists]]
[[Category:People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar]]
[[Category:People from Northampton, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:People from South Windsor, Connecticut]]
[[Category:People from Stockbridge, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:People of the American Enlightenment]]
[[Category:People from colonial Connecticut]]
[[Category:Clergy from colonial Massachusetts]]
[[Category:People from colonial New Jersey]]
[[Category:American philosophers of mind]]
[[Category:American philosophers of religion]]
[[Category:Presidents of Princeton University]]
[[Category:Protestant philosophers]]
[[Category:Writers about religion and science]]
[[Category:Yale University alumni]]
[[Category:Yale University faculty]]
[[Category:Lutheran saints]]
[[Category:Deaths from smallpox in the United States]]