Happy Birthday, Jonathan Edwards

307 years ago, my hero was born. Happy Birthday to Jonathan Edwards.

Through Edwards's life, writings, and influence on others, I have become the man I am today. I'm thankful to Jonathan Edwards for so many reasons. Here are a few:

1. He married Sarah Pierpont at the age of twenty-four, and was faithful to her for the rest of his life (which ended early, and tragically, at the age of 58, when he died from complications from a smallpox vaccine).

2. He raised eleven children, and considered them his primary flock, more important than his ministry and work.

3. When controversies broke out, he was well-known for being a voice of peace and reason. For example, he tried to bring together vying opinions on the revivals of the First Great Awakening by appealing to Scripture, rather than to feelings or tradition. At one point, he even worked himself out of a job in order that his congregation might be peacefully reunited to the congregation and pastor from whom they had split.

4. Edwards was a scholar. He wrote voluminously, and he wrote with incredible breadth. Theological essays on the nature of God, philosophical works on the freedom of the will, and scientific inquiries on light and spiders all flowed from his pen. His brilliance was recognized by Princeton University when they asked him to take over as President late in his life. Perry Miller, one of the greatest historians of America, and a professed atheist, considered Edwards the greatest mind that America has ever produced.

5. Edwards was a passionate man. Being a scholar did not preclude him from experiencing and expressing deep emotion toward God or his fellow humans.

6. Jonathan Edwards had a missionary mind. He was never content to hole up at home, but always looked for ways to extend the kingdom of God. This led him to become a pastor to all sorts of people, including white colonists, Indians in Massachusetts, and university students.


Thank you, Jonathan Edwards, for your life of passionate faithfulness. I hope, I pray that I will imitate you, as you imitated Christ.


If you're interested in reading about Edwards (and I hope you are!), check out:

Jonathan Edwards: A Life (THE biography to read)

A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards (excellent, succinct, less-scholarly, biography)
God's Passion for His Glory (a short bio, along with a text from Edwards)
To Live Upon Hope: Mohicans and Missionaries in the Eighteenth-Century Northeast (broad look at missions to the Mohicans, which includes an excellent chapter on Edwards's work as a missionary)

The Essential Edwards Collection (five-volume explanation of major themes in Edwards's writings)

If you're interested in reading some of Edwards's work, I recommend:

The Religious Affections (my personal favorite)

The End for Which God Created the World

Charity and its Fruits