Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards, one of the most renowned and influential American pastors and theologians, was born in 1703 in Connecticut. At the age of thirteen, Edwards enrolled at Yale, where he nurtured interests in philosophy, science, and theology. In college, Edwards experienced a religious awakening that would change the course of his life. In 1727, after several years of preaching intermittently around the northeastern United States, Edwards became the minister of a congregation in Northampton, Massachusetts. That year, he also married Sarah Pierpont, a woman whose devotion to God had long inspired him. In the 1730s, as the Protestant revivals that would become known as the First Great Awakening were building steam in New England, Edwards gained a reputation as one of the most powerful and effective pastors in New England. This led him to be called to the unruly congregation in Enfield, Connecticut, where he preached “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in 1741. Edwards’ theology was controversial, and his radical beliefs on salvation and grace eventually got him fired from Northampton. After this, he presided over a Native American congregation in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and began to write prolifically, producing many books on theology. In 1758, Edwards became president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton), but he died of smallpox almost immediately. He and Sarah had eleven children, many of whom went on to prolific careers in public life.