return to the Great Awakening
JONATHAN EDWARDS 1703-1758
“I am fitted for no other business but study” (Letter to John Erskine, 5 July 1750)
 
                                                         Awakenings, 1734-35, 1740-42
 
Connecticut River Valley, etc.   Northampton, Mass. Stockbridge, Mass. Princeton, N.J.
5 Oct. 1703 Born at East Windsor, Conn. to Timothy and Esther (Stoddard) Edwards
 
1716 Entered New Haven College (Yale); Undergraduate 1716-20, M.A. 1720-22
 
1719-20 “Of Insects”
 
c. 1720-22 Begins “Of Being”
 
May or June 1721 “That new sense of things”
 
30 July 1722 Began writing “Resolutions”
 
Aug. 1722-April 1723 Pastor, New York Presbyterian Church
 
c. 1722, 23 Begins “Diary,” “The Mind,” “Miscellanies”
 
c. 1723 “Apostrophe to Sarah Pierpont”
 
Oct. 1723 “Spider Letter”; Begins “Notes on Apocalypse”
 
Nov. 1723 Agrees to pastor at Bolton, Conn.
 
1724 Elected tutor at Yale; begins “Notes on Scriptures”
 
1725 “Beauty of the World”
Fall 1726 Called as Assistant Pastor to Solomon Stoddard at Northampton (“harvests” under Stoddard 1679, 1683, 1696, 1712, 1718)
 
20 July 1727 Married Sarah, daughter of Rev. James Pierpont of New Haven
 
1728 Begins “Image of Divine Things”
 
11 Feb. 1729 Death of Solomon Stoddard
 
8 July 1731 Delivered and published  “God Glorified in the Work of Redemption ” at First Church, Boston
 
1734-35 “First Shower” of Awakening at Northampton; The Hampshire Association and the Robert Breck affair
 
Oct. 1737 A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God
 
1738 Discourses on Various Important Subjects (1734-35 awakening sermons); Preached Charity and Its Fruits (pub. 1852)
 
1739 Preached A History of the Work of Redemption (pub. 1774); c. 1739 “Personal Narrative”
 
17-19 Oct. 1740 George Whitefield preached at Northampton
 
8 July 1741 “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Enfield, Conn.; Nov. The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God
 
1742 Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England
 
c. 1742-43 Treatise on Grace (pub. 1865)
 
1744 Bad Book Case
 
1746 A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections
 
1748 An Humble Attempt to Promote Union in Prayer; 26 June “A Strong Rod Broken and Withered,” memorial sermon to Col. John Stoddard
 
1749 An Account of the Life of the Late Reverend Mr. David Brainerd; An Humble Inquiry into . . . the Qualifications Requisite to a Complete Standing and Full Communion . . .
 
2 July 1750 Preached “Farewell Sermon,” Northampton
1751 Called as Pastor and Missionary to the Indians in Stockbridge, Mass.
 
1752 Misrepresentations Corrected and Truth Vindicated (in reply to Solomon Williams’ The True State of the Question . . .)
 
1754 A Careful and Strict Enquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of that Freedom of the Will
 
1755 Concerning the End for Which God Created the World and The Nature of True Virtue (pub. 1765)
 
May 1757 The Great Christian Doctrine of Original Sin Defended
Jan. 1758 Assumes Presidency of College of New Jersey, Princeton (successor to son-in-law Aaron Burr)
 
23 Feb. 1758 Small pox inoculation
 
22 March 1758 Died
Copyright © 1993, 1997
Gary E. Schnittjer