EDWARDS, JONATHAN, JR.
(26 May 1745, Northampton, MA-l August 1801, Schenectady, NY). Education: BA. College of New Jersey [Princeton], 1765; studied theology with Joseph Bellamy·, Bethlehem, CT, 1765-66. Career: tutor, College of New Jersey, 1767-69; minister, New Haven CT, 1769-95; minister, Colebrook, CT, 1796-99; president, Union College, 1799-1801.
Although Jonathan Edwards, Jr.'s famous father died when he was only thirteen, the boy had absorbed enough of his father's influence to become one of the leading Edwardseans of his generation. Young Edwards was raised on the Connecticut frontier, where Jonathan Edwards· ministered to the Indians after being dismissed from Northampton. While his father was writing his most famous theological treatises, the boy played with Indian friends, and for a time he spoke Mohegan better than English. Edwards lost both of his parents when he was thirteen, but family friends helped with his education, enabling him to attend college and become a minister.
As a pastor he had some of the same problems as his father in maintaining a contented congregation. Like his father, he upheld a strict standard for baptism, refusing to administer that sacrament to the children of parents who barely attended church. He opposed the Half-Way Covenant, and upheld a strict standard for full communion membership in the church. The result was that many of his parishioners drifted away from the church, or joined other, less demanding congregations. Edwards's ministry was also hampered by his inability to discern the difference between effective preaching and complex theological debate. His father was both a theologian and emotionally powerful preacher. Like the best of the early Puritan preachers, the senior Edwards was sensitive to the spiritual needs of his audience. But Jonathan Edwards, Jr. treated the pulpit as if it were a lectern for a theological debate among scholars. As Henry Bowden has noted, "His reasoning was always closely confined to the topic, following rigid -demonstrations that resembled pure mathematics." The result of strict admission standards and abstruse preaching was that Edwards's congregation dwindled over a quarter century to the point that there were not enough members to support him, and in 1795 he was dismissed.
Edwards's attachment to systematic theology made him an effective proponent of the theology that bears his father's name. Edwards emphasized the governmental theory of atonement, the idea that Christ's life and death should be viewed as a demonstration of the role of moral government in the natural world. The doctrine was not new, but Edwards helped it gain a wider audience among contemporary theologians. Opposing the spread of ideas that tended to soften the rigors of Calvinism, he insisted on maintaining the idea of the eternal punishment of the damned.
While seeking to uphold many of the traditional beliefs of his ancestors, Edwards was sensitive to new problems and opportunities in the new American nation. He was one of the first Congregational leaders to attack slavery. And he was one of the proponents of the Plan of Union with the Presbyterians. In his last months his life again paralleled that of his father: he became president of a college and soon afterwards sickened and died.
Bibliography
A: The Salvation of All Men Strictly Examined (New Haven, Conn., 1790); Tyron Edwards, ed., The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 2 vols. (Andover, MA, 1842).
B: AAP 1,653-60; DAB 6,37-38; NCAB 7, 169-70, SH 4,82-83; Robert L. Ferm, Jonathan Edwards the YOlUlger, 1745-1801: A Colonial Pastor (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1976).
Although Jonathan Edwards, Jr.'s famous father died when he was only thirteen, the boy had absorbed enough of his father's influence to become one of the leading Edwardseans of his generation. Young Edwards was raised on the Connecticut frontier, where Jonathan Edwards· ministered to the Indians after being dismissed from Northampton. While his father was writing his most famous theological treatises, the boy played with Indian friends, and for a time he spoke Mohegan better than English. Edwards lost both of his parents when he was thirteen, but family friends helped with his education, enabling him to attend college and become a minister.
As a pastor he had some of the same problems as his father in maintaining a contented congregation. Like his father, he upheld a strict standard for baptism, refusing to administer that sacrament to the children of parents who barely attended church. He opposed the Half-Way Covenant, and upheld a strict standard for full communion membership in the church. The result was that many of his parishioners drifted away from the church, or joined other, less demanding congregations. Edwards's ministry was also hampered by his inability to discern the difference between effective preaching and complex theological debate. His father was both a theologian and emotionally powerful preacher. Like the best of the early Puritan preachers, the senior Edwards was sensitive to the spiritual needs of his audience. But Jonathan Edwards, Jr. treated the pulpit as if it were a lectern for a theological debate among scholars. As Henry Bowden has noted, "His reasoning was always closely confined to the topic, following rigid -demonstrations that resembled pure mathematics." The result of strict admission standards and abstruse preaching was that Edwards's congregation dwindled over a quarter century to the point that there were not enough members to support him, and in 1795 he was dismissed.
Edwards's attachment to systematic theology made him an effective proponent of the theology that bears his father's name. Edwards emphasized the governmental theory of atonement, the idea that Christ's life and death should be viewed as a demonstration of the role of moral government in the natural world. The doctrine was not new, but Edwards helped it gain a wider audience among contemporary theologians. Opposing the spread of ideas that tended to soften the rigors of Calvinism, he insisted on maintaining the idea of the eternal punishment of the damned.
While seeking to uphold many of the traditional beliefs of his ancestors, Edwards was sensitive to new problems and opportunities in the new American nation. He was one of the first Congregational leaders to attack slavery. And he was one of the proponents of the Plan of Union with the Presbyterians. In his last months his life again paralleled that of his father: he became president of a college and soon afterwards sickened and died.
Bibliography
A: The Salvation of All Men Strictly Examined (New Haven, Conn., 1790); Tyron Edwards, ed., The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 2 vols. (Andover, MA, 1842).
B: AAP 1,653-60; DAB 6,37-38; NCAB 7, 169-70, SH 4,82-83; Robert L. Ferm, Jonathan Edwards the YOlUlger, 1745-1801: A Colonial Pastor (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1976).
