Editing Jonathan Edwards (theologian) (section)

===Early life===
Jonathan Edwards was born on October 5, 1703, the fifth of 11 children and only son of Timothy Edwards, a [[Minister (Christianity)|minister]] at East Windsor, Connecticut (modern-day [[South Windsor, Connecticut|South Windsor]]), who supplemented his salary by tutoring boys for college. His mother, Esther Stoddard, daughter of Rev. [[Solomon Stoddard]] of [[Northampton, Massachusetts]], seems to have been a woman of unusual mental gifts and independence of character.{{Sfn |Marsden|2003}}{{Rp|needed=yes|date=January 2012}}{{Sfn |Gardiner|Webster |1911 |p=3}} Timothy Edwards held at least one person in enslavement in the Edwards' household, a black man named Ansars.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Minkema |first=Kenneth P.|date=1997 |title=Jonathan Edwards on Slavery and the Slave Trade |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2953884 |journal=The William and Mary Quarterly |volume=54 |issue=4 |pages=823–834 |doi=10.2307/2953884 |jstor=2953884 |issn=0043-5597}}</ref> Jonathan was prepared for college by his father and elder sisters, all of whom received an excellent education. His sister Esther, the eldest, wrote a semi-humorous tract on the immateriality of the soul, which has often been mistakenly attributed to Jonathan.<ref>Kenneth P. Minkema, "The Authorship of 'The Soul,'" ''Yale University Library Gazette 65'' (October 1990):26–32.</ref>{{Verify source|date=July 2021}}

[[File:A Faithful Narrative of the Surprizing Work of God by Jonathan Edwards 1737.jpg|thumb|right|{{Citation | title = [[A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton|A Faithful Narrative of the Surprizing Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton]] | first = Jonathan | last = Edwards | place = London | year = 1737}}]]
He entered [[Yale University|Yale College]] in 1716 at just under the age of 13. In the following year, he became acquainted with [[John Locke]]'s ''[[An Essay Concerning Human Understanding|Essay Concerning Human Understanding]]'', which influenced him profoundly.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300062045|title=A Jonathan Edwards Reader|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|year=1995|isbn=978-0-300-06203-8|editor-last=Smith|editor-first=John E.|location=New Haven|page=xx|editor-last2=Stout|editor-first2=Harry S.|editor-last3=Minkema|editor-first3=Kenneth P.|url-access=registration}}</ref> During his college studies, he kept notebooks labeled "The Mind," "Natural Science" (containing a discussion of the [[atomic theory]]), "The Scriptures" and "Miscellanies," had a grand plan for a work on natural and mental philosophy, and drew up rules for its composition.{{Sfn |Gardiner|Webster |1911 |p=3}} He was interested in [[natural history]] and, as an 11-year-old, had observed and written an essay detailing the [[Ballooning (spider)|ballooning behavior]] of some spiders. Edwards edited this text later to match the burgeoning genre of scientific literature, and his "The Flying Spider" fit easily into the contemporary scholarship on spiders.{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|p=66}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wilson|first=David S.|date=1971|title=The Flying Spider|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2708360|journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=447–458 |doi=10.2307/2708360 |jstor=2708360 |issn=0022-5037}}</ref> Although he studied theology for two years after his graduation from Yale, Edwards continued to be interested in science. Although many European scientists and American clergymen found the implications of science pushing them towards [[deism]], Edwards believed the natural world was [[Teleological argument|evidence]] of God's masterful design. Throughout his life, Edwards often went into the woods as a favorite place to pray and worship in the beauty and solace of nature.<ref>{{cite book|author=Edwards|first=Jonathan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkBDAQAAIAAJ&pg=PR54|title=The Works of Jonathan Edwards, A.M.|publisher=Ball, Arnold, and Co.|others=Essay by Henry Rodgers. Memoir by Sereno E. Dwight.|year=1840|editor-last=Hickman|editor-first=Edward|location=London|page=54|oclc=4577834}}</ref>

Edwards was fascinated by the discoveries of [[Isaac Newton]] and other scientists of this time period. Before he started working as a full-time pastor in Northampton, he wrote on various topics in natural philosophy, including light and optics, in addition to spiders. While he worried about those of his contemporaries who seemed preoccupied by materialism and faith in reason alone, he considered the laws of nature to be derived from God and demonstrating his wisdom and care. Edwards's written sermons and theological treatises emphasize the beauty of God and the role of [[aesthetics]] in the spiritual life. He is thought to anticipate a 20th-century current of theological aesthetics, represented by figures such as [[Hans Urs von Balthasar]].<ref>[https://banneroftruth.org/uk/store/sermons-and-expositions/charity-its-fruits/ Banner of Truth website, ''Charity and Its Fruits'']</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0014524616650381q | doi=10.1177/0014524616650381q | title=Book Review: When Jonathan Edwards Encounters Ecumenical Thinkers: Kyle C. Strobel, ''The Ecumenical Edwards: Jonathan Edwards and the Theologians'' | date=2016 | last1=Zhu | first1=Victor | journal=The Expository Times | volume=127 | issue=11 | pages=569–570 }}</ref>

In 1722 to 1723, he was for eight months an un-ordained "supply" pastor (a clergyman employed to preach and minister in a church for a definite time but not settled as a pastor) of a small [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] church on William Street in New York City.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Everdell|first=William R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d5EvEAAAQBAJ&q=everdell+evangelical+counter+enlightenment|title=The Evangelical Counter-Enlightenment: From Ecstasy to Fundamentalism in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam in the 18th Century|date=2021|publisher=Springer Nature|isbn=978-3-030-69762-4|language=en}}</ref> The church invited him to remain, but he declined the call. After spending two months in study at home, in 1724–1726, he was one of the two tutors at Yale tasked with leading the college in the absence of a rector. Yale's previous rector, [[Timothy Cutler]], lost his position when he defected to the [[Anglican Church]]. After two years, he had not been replaced.{{Sfn |Marsden|2003|pp=46, 101}}

He partially recorded the years 1720 to 1726 in his diary and in his resolutions for his conduct which he drew up at this time. He had long been an eager seeker after [[salvation]] and was not fully satisfied as to his own conversion until an experience in his last year in college, when he lost his feeling that the [[Unconditional election|election]] of some to salvation and of others to eternal damnation was "a horrible doctrine," and reckoned it "exceedingly pleasant, bright and sweet." He now took a great and new joy in taking in the beauties of nature and delighted in the allegorical interpretation of the [[Song of Songs|Song of Solomon]]. Balancing these mystic joys is the stern tone of his Resolutions, in which he is almost [[Asceticism|ascetic]] in his eagerness to live earnestly and soberly, to waste no time, to maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking.{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|p=51}}{{Sfn |Gardiner|Webster |1911 |p=3}}

On February 15, 1727, Edwards was ordained minister at Northampton and assistant to his grandfather [[Solomon Stoddard]], a noted minister. He was a scholar-pastor, not a visiting pastor, his rule being 13 hours of study per day.{{Sfn |Gardiner|Webster |1911 |p=3}} In the same year, he married [[Sarah Edwards (mystic)|Sarah Pierpont]]. Then 17, Sarah was from a notable New England clerical family: her father was [[James Pierpont (minister)|James Pierpont]], a founder of Yale College; and her mother was the granddaughter of [[Thomas Hooker]].{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|pp=87, 93}} Sarah's spiritual devotion was without peer, and her relationship with God had long proved an inspiration to Edwards. He first remarked on her great piety when she was 13 years old.{{Sfn|Marsden|2003|pp=93–95, 95–100, 105–9, 241–42}} She was of a bright and cheerful disposition, a practical housekeeper, a model wife, and the mother of his 11 children, who included [[Esther Edwards Burr|Esther Edwards]].{{Sfn|Gardiner|Webster|1911|p=3}} Edwards held to [[Complementarianism|complementarian]] views of marriage and gender roles.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dodds|first=Elisabeth D.|title=Marriage to a Difficult Man: The Uncommon Union of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards|publisher=Westminster Press|year=1971|isbn=978-0-664-20900-1|location=Philadelphia}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=May 2020}}

Solomon Stoddard died on February 11, 1729, leaving to his grandson the sole ministerial charge of one of the largest and wealthiest congregations in the colony. Its members were proud of its morality, its culture and its reputation.{{Sfn|Marsden|2003}}{{Rp|needed=yes|date=January 2012}} Summing up Edwards' influences during his younger years, scholar John E. Smith writes, "By thus meditating between Berkeley on the one hand and Locke, [[René Descartes|Descartes]], and [[Thomas Hobbes|Hobbes]] on the other, the young Edwards hoped to rescue Christianity from the deadweight of rationalism and the paralyzing inertia of skepticism."<ref>{{cite book|last1=|first1=|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300062045|title=A Jonathan Edwards Reader|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|year=1995|isbn=978-0-300-06203-8|editor-last=Smith|editor-first=John E.|location=New Haven|page=xii|editor-last2=Stout|editor-first2=Harry S.|editor-last3=Minkema|editor-first3=Kenneth P.|url-access=registration}}</ref>