Jonathan Edwards - An Overview

             The time in which Jonathan Edwards lived, the period in which Puritans prospered, shaped the way he thought, and impacted the effect of his sermons and treatises on the people of the time. During the early eighteenth century Protestants and protestant ideas prospered. The life of a Puritan revolved around their religion, only male elite members of the church were allowed a say in government and the education of the young was based off religion and it's aspects. It is for this reason that ministers were so highly regarded in society, and why Jonathan Edwards had such an impact on his audience. Jonathan Edwards" sermons were notorious for leaving his listeners, "trembling in fear"(Cady 257) and at one gathering he was responsible for, "the conversion of at least three hundred people" (Dematteis). Though Edwards consistently produced well versed philosophy, none surpassed those written during the time of the Great Awakening during the 1730s and 1740s (Hatch 102). He was a staunch supporter of the Awakening and believed that it was necessary, "to find ways of distinguishing false from true conversions" (Levin xx). Edwards however, was often criticized by his peers for being over zealous in his methods for obtaining his goals (Cady 258). Jeremiads were a common tactic used preachers at the time so Edwards was not alone, however his deeply intellectual thinking and versatile imagery, served to separate his works from the rest (258-259). The impact of Edwards, or more realistically, the Puritan ideas he preached, has been infinite and, "we continue to inhabit a world formed largely by the Puritans and Edwards" (Hatch 157). All together Edwards was a prominent figure in Puritan society and without Edwards to enforce the beliefs and without the Puritans to follow his beliefs, neither would have prospered. .
             Jonathan Edwards aroused much equivocal opinions of himself through his sermons and treatises, the majority of the negatives coming from the people of his time, and the majority of the positives from critics of a later time.