Writings from the Great Awakening

Library of America #245

by Jonathan Edwards, Philip F. Gura (Editor)

In 1734–35 the frontier town of Northampton, Massachusetts, experienced a surge in religious conversions, something that had occurred several times before in its eighty-year history. What made this revival (now known as “the Little Awakening”) different was the conviction of the town’s young minister that the holy spirit was undertaking world-shaking work in the wilds of western New England, and his determination to publicize it in A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls, a dramatic account that quickly became an inspiration for evangelicals on both sides of the Atlantic.

Jonathan Edwards is recognized today as a great theologian and philosopher, “one of America’s five or six major artists,” in the words of the historian Perry Miller, possessed of “an intelligence which, as much as Emerson’s, Melville’s, or Mark Twain’s, is both an index of American society and a comment upon it.” But during his lifetime Edwards was best known as a leader of what is now called the Great Awakening. Now, in authoritative new texts prepared from first editions and manuscript sources, The Library of America brings together in one volume all of Edwards’s essential writings from and about the Awakening, vivid works whose psychological penetration and spiritual insight still startle with their freshness and force.

The full text of Edwards’s Faithful Narrative, drawn from its first American edition of 1738, is presented here along with The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God (1741) and Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New-England (1743), longer works written as itinerant preachers like George Whitefield spread the tumult of revivalism throughout the British colonies. Refuting critics who viewed the awakening as spiritually counterfeit and socially disruptive, Edwards employs an extraordinary fusion of enlightenment empiricism and orthodox Calvinism to identify and anatomize the subtle workings of the Spirit in the soul.

Rounding out the volume are “Justification by Faith Alone” and “Pressing into the Kingdom of God,” the sermons that Edwards himself thought responsible for the Little Awakening; later sermons—including the stirring Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, with its harrowing imagery of the wages of sin—that show the range and evolution of Edwards’s preaching style; revealing letters to Whitefield and other evangelical ministers, as well as his famous pastoral letter to Deborah Hatheway, widely reprinted in the nineteenth century as “advice to Young Converts”; and his Personal Narrative, a landmark of eighteenth-century American autobiography that recounts his own conversion experience.

Genres: Christianity, Theology, Nonfiction, Religion

800 pages, Hardcover

First published October 17, 2013

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database named Jonathan Edwards.

Jonathan Edwards was the most eminent American philosopher-theologian of his time, and a key figure in what has come to be called the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s.

The only son in a family of eleven children, he entered Yale in September, 1716 when he was not yet thirteen and graduated four years later (1720) as valedictorian. He received his Masters three years later. As a youth, Edwards was unable to accept the Calvinist sovereignty of God. However, in 1721 he came to what he called a "delightful conviction" though meditation on 1 Timothy 1:17. From that point on, Edwards delighted in the sovereignty of God. Edwards later recognized this as his conversion to Christ.

In 1727 he was ordained minister at Northampton and assistant to his maternal grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. He was a student minister, not a visiting pastor, his rule being thirteen hours of study a day. In the same year, he married Sarah Pierpont, then age seventeen, daughter of Yale founder James Pierpont (1659–1714). In total, Jonathan and Sarah had eleven children.

Stoddard died on February 11th, 1729, leaving to his grandson the difficult task of the sole ministerial charge of one of the largest and wealthiest congregations in the colony. Throughout his time in Northampton his preaching brought remarkable religious revivals.

Yet, tensions flamed as Edwards would not continue his grandfather's practice of open communion. Stoddard believed that communion was a "converting ordinance." Surrounding congregations had been convinced of this, and as Edwards became more convinced that this was harmful, his public disagreement with the idea caused his dismissal in 1750.

Edwards then moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, then a frontier settlement, where he ministered to a small congregation and served as missionary to the Housatonic Indians. There, having more time for study and writing, he completed his celebrated work, The Freedom of the Will (1754).

Edwards was elected president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in early 1758. He was a popular choice, for he had been a friend of the College since its inception. He died of fever at the age of fifty-four following experimental inoculation for smallpox and was buried in the President's Lot in the Princeton cemetery beside his son-in-law, Aaron Burr.

Reviews

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was going to be the centerpiece of my Lenten reading this year, but I wound up only reading excerpts.
I don't think Jonathan Edwards would be hired to preach by many churches in the 21st century. His sermons are long and devoid of anecdotes, illustrations, personal stories and humor. They are deeply theological, meticulously detailed analyses of the text. Much of it seems suited for an advanced-level seminary class in our time, but it's hard to imagine most congregations sitting through it.
Yet in the early part of the 18th century, these sermons were instrumental in sparking the Great Awakening in the American colonies. With no TV, no Internet, no sound bites, no talk radio, our forefathers and foremothers apparently were smarter than we are, or at least better able to concentrate.
It's heavy swimming, at least for me.
To add to the challenge, many of the sermons appear to actually be Edwards' notes for the sermon -- of historical interest, but baffling for the many abbreviations used.
Somewhat of an exception is Edwards' sermon that is best-remembered today, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." This was easily the most readable among the sections I read. It's also a sermon that probably wouldn't be tolerated in too many churches today, but perhaps it would be good if it were. His theme, developed in excruciating detail, is that we deserve to go to hell, that only the hand of God (an angry God at that) is keeping us out of it, and that only by being born again can we avoid that fate.
I realize that today many Christians, even many evangelical Christians, don't even believe there is a hell. But if there is no hell, why did Jesus go to the cross? How can we be "saved" if we don't know what we're saved from?

[Chan-joo Moon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a detailed account of the Great Awakening in the middle of the 18th Century in New England. It is very informative in describing the things that happened as well as pitfalls such as confusing emotional outbursts with the Holy Spirit or placing too much emphasis and pre-eminence based on spiritual experiences. The 18th Century style of writing gives an interesting window into how people communicated at the time and also shows a deep sense of spirituality. However, it tends to be drawn out and sometimes feels repetitive, so it will take some patience to get through this book.

[Jim Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an older book which I found in the basement of the Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Hershey, PA.
As you can see, there are not many (any) reviews here on GoodReads, and no current readers.

This is an excellent helicopter-view of Jonathan Edwards, his life, and his works. Jonathan Edwards has been called the best theologian America has produced.

I enjoy his practical, pastoral works and find them very profitable.

However, I have always found his academic works to be slightly beyond my grasp. I can follow most of it, but the remaining leaves me wondering what he meant. I think much of his work moves between the theological to the philosophical. It is the philosophical that I struggle with.

This book is a great survey of the works of Jonathan Edwards, and explains his thought and history behind each of his books. This has been very helpful when reading Edwards.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

EDWARDS' WRITINGS CONCERNING THE 1730-1749 "REVIVAL"

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was a Calvinist minister---who played a key role in the Great Awakening---and theologian.

This handsome edition of Edwards' writings from the Great Awakening period (1730s-1740s) contains a large introduction, then "A Faithful Narrative," "The Distinguishing Marks," "Some Thoughts Concerning the Revival," and various letters and other miscellany.

In a letter of 1735, he noted that people in the fervor of the Revival have turned from "inordinate engagedness after the world," but have been ready to run to the other extreme: "neglecting their worldly business and to mind nothing but religion." (Pg. 103) He notes with satisfaction that the Revival was not spurred by any "sudden and distressing calamity," such as a storm, earthquake, flood, fire, pestilence, etc. (Pg. 133)

In recounting the history of the Revival, he notes with disapproval the "great noise" being made about Arminianism (i.e., free will theology), which had a "very threatening aspect upon the interest of religion here." (Pg. 148) At the later Revival's height, Satan "seemed to be unusually restrained"; persons were no longer melancholy, entangled with temptations, or sick. (Pg. 205)

He states that he didn't expect a restoration of the "miraculous gifts," and he saw no need for them; "I have seen so much of the power of God in a more excellent way, as to convince me that God can easily do it without [them]." (Pg. 281-282) He solemnly notes, however, that the Devil may attempt to subvert a revival "to drive 'em to excesses and extravagances"; by this, he has at times been able to overthrow the most hopeful and promising beginnings." (Pg. 410) He notes that the revival "has an awful aspect upon those that are advanced in years," and is chiefly found among the young, since God "has cast off the old and stiff-necked generation." (Pg. 504)

This is a wonderful edition of Edwards' works from this historically-significant period.

[Benoit Guillot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un excellent livre qui compile quelques extraits des témoignages, sermons et "auto-biographie" de Jonathan Edwards sur ce réveil opéré par Dieu dans les années 1735. La puissance de l'Évangile était à l'oeuvre. L'Esprit Saint agissait puissamment.

[Mills College Library]

810.8 E2653 2013

[Katy M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm just impressed that I managed to read the whole thing in 10 days before I had to return it to the library. This would be a better book to own and read one section/sermon at a time.

[David Keith]

Still a very difficult book to accomplish to an exercised reader, the findings are as relevant to today as they were yesterday as the Great Awakening takes it's shape as a milestone of wondrous awe.