Letters and Personal Writings (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 16 | WJE)
Overview
This volume gathers together for the first time all known extant letters of Jonathan Edwards, along with his major personal writings. For more than three decades George S. Claghorn has scoured America, Great Britain, and Scotland for letters and documents by and about Edwards. The result is an unparalleled compendium of 235 letters—including 116 never before published or never reprinted since Edwards’ death—and four autobiographical texts—Edwards’ meditation “On Sarah Pierpont,” his future wife, and “Diary,” "Resolutions," and "Personal Narrative."
These letters and personal writings reveal the private man behind the treatises and sermons. They trace his relations with parents, siblings, college classmates, friends, and family, as well as with political, religious, and educational leaders of his day. New documents include Edwards’ only known statement on slavery and letters on the Indian mission at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, that display Edwards’ interest in Native Americans and his efforts on their behalf. These writings show the human face of Edwards as he applied theological and philosophical insights to the events of his daily life. They provide an unprecedented resource for understanding the man, his times, and his personal connections.
Top Highlights
“I had then, and at other times, the greatest delight in the holy Scriptures, of any book whatsoever. Oftentimes in reading it, every word seemed to touch my heart. I felt an harmony between something in my heart, and those sweet and powerful words. I seemed often to see so much light, exhibited by every sentence, and such a refreshing ravishing food communicated, that I could not get along in reading. Used oftentimes to dwell long on one sentence, to see the wonders contained in it; and yet almost every sentence seemed to be full of wonders.” (Page 797)
“It appeared to me, that all happiness consisted in living in pure, humble, heavenly, divine love” (Page 796)
“Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself (as much happiness, in the other world,) as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.” (Page 754)
“It has often been sweet to me to go to God, and adore him as a sovereign God, and ask sovereign mercy of him.” (Page 799)
“Prayer seemed to be natural to me; as the breath, by which the inward burnings of my heart had vent” (Page 794)
- Title: Letters and Personal Writings
- Author: Jonathan Edwards
- Series: The Works of Jonathan Edwards
- Volume: 16
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Print Publication Date: 1998
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Edwards, Jonathan, 1703-1758 › Correspondence; Congregational churches › New England--Clergy--Correspondence
- ISBNs: 9780300072952, 0300072953
- Resource ID: LLS:EDWARDS16
- Resource Type: text.monograph.collected-work
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T23:37:18Z
Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) is considered one of America’s greatest theologians. While attending Yale College, he encountered the same Calvinism that had influenced his own Puritan upbringing.
Three years after Edwards was ordained as a minister, the First Great Awakening began in his church, which prompted Edwards to study conversion and revival within the context of Calvinism. During the revival, Edwards preached his most famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” and penned many of his most popular works, including Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, and Life and Diary of the Rev. David Brainerd.
In 1757, Edwards reluctantly became president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton University), where he hoped to complete two major works—an expansion of his treatise on the history of redemption and a study of the harmony of the Old and New Testaments. The Works of Jonathan Edwards (26 vols.) is a massive collection containing five decades’ worth of study and scholarship on and from Edwards.