Meet the Author
Jonathan Edwards
American · 1703–1758 · Preacher and theologian
Portrait: Unknown, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A colonial New England minister and theologian, and a leading figure in the religious revival known as the Great Awakening.
1 StoryBites Edition1 Speech or essay
Why read Jonathan Edwards?
Students usually meet Edwards through one sermon, and it is a study in imagery. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God uses slippery ground, a bent bow, and a spider held over a fire to make listeners feel how close they stand to hell. Read it to see how a preacher used images and repetition to move an audience, and to understand the religious world of early America.
A life in six dates
- 1703Born in East Windsor, Connecticut
- 1720Graduates from Yale College
- 1727Becomes a minister in Northampton, Massachusetts
- 1741Preaches Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God at Enfield
- 1750Dismissed by his Northampton congregation
- 1754Publishes Freedom of the Will
- 1758Dies after a smallpox inoculation, weeks after becoming president of the College of New Jersey
Themes across the work
The StoryBites Editions
Context that actually matters
The Great AwakeningA wave of religious revivals swept the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, bringing emotional preaching and many conversions.
Calvinist theologyEdwards believed that God alone decides who is saved, which is why the sermon stresses that only God’s pleasure keeps sinners out of hell.
The sermon as public speechIn colonial New England the sermon was a main form of public address, and printed sermons were widely read.