Jonathan Edwards was born on October 5, 1703 in East Windsor, Connecticut. The proud parents were Reverend Timothy Edwards and Esther Stoddard Edwards. Jonathan Edwards was the fifth of eleven children, but he was the only boy. Reverend Solomon Stoddard was Jonathan Edward's maternal grandfather. Reverend Stoddard was "one of the most influential and independent figures in the religious life of New England" (Gura 396). Edwards started going to Yale a little before he turned thirteen, and graduated four years later as valedictorian. In 1727, Edwards married Sarah Pierpoint and they had eleven children. Edwards and his family moved to Northampton, Massachusetts so that he could assist his grandfather. When Reverend Stoddard died in 1729, Jonathan Edwards took over. Edwards has become the minister most associated with The Great Awakening. His most famous sermon was "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". It scared many people into completely changing their lives. "A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God" described the awakening in Edwards' church, and it gained him international fame during the First Great Awakening. On June 22, 1750 he was dismissed from the church because he tried to raise the standards for church membership and communion, and because he began calling people out from the pulpit. Edwards was voted out by a vote of two hundred to twenty. After he was voted out, he served as a missionary in Stockbridge, Massachusetts for seven years. Edwards made it his mission to spread the word of God to the Housatonic Indians. While in Stockbridge, Edwards still had the chance to minister to the English sometimes. At the end of 1757, Jonathan Edwards got called to become the president of College of New Jersey, which is now Princeton. On March 22, 1758, Edwards died after only three months of presidency. A smallpox inoculation gone wrong ended the ministers life. Jonathan Edwards was buried in Princeton Cemetery.
Works Cited
Gura, Phillip F. "Jonathan Edwards." The Norton Anthology American Literature: Beginnings to 1820 Volume A. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: Norton, 2012. 396-398. Print.
Stout, Harry S., ed. "Jonathan Edwards: Biography." The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University.Jonathan Edwards Center, 2011. Web. 20 Sep 2012. http://edwards.yale.edu/research/aboutedwards/biography
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