Jonathan edwards and george marsden and review of jonathan edwards and edwards in new york city and sweetness of nature

When I first opened Marsden's highly-touted biography of Edwards, I did so as if I was a young boy about to bite into one of those huge chocolate chip cookies that cost $1.75 that they serve you with tongs and put into a little paper bag. My mouth was watering; my eyes were bulging out with delight; I could scarcely contain the prickles of anticipation in my mouth. Then I "bit into" the first four chapters of Marsden, and it was a raisin rather than a chocolate chip cookie. Well, I don't really mind raisin cookies but when I think I am getting chocolate chip, well raisin just disappoints immensely. So, that was my first reaction to Marsden, after reading the first 80 pages of the biography. But then I kept reading and discovered that chs. 5-7 were little gems. I think that Marsden's ship has now righted itself after a shaky departure from the New Haven pier.

Getting a Take on Edwards

And, just in time. By the time we get to ch. 5, Edwards has returned to East Windsor from NYC in summer 1723 and is exploring the future as a boy/man not yet 20 (he was born in Oct. 1703). The next three years will be unsettling for him. He would be pastor of a tiny congregation in Bolton, CT, not far from Windsor, from 1723-24 and then, from mid-1724 to 1726 he would be a tutor at Yale. Beginning in Fall 1726 he became the pastoral assistant to his grandfather, the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, in Northampton, MA. Stoddard had served as that congregation's pastor for more than 55 years at the time and was recognized as one of the leading figures in the Connecticut Valley (some from Boston derisively called him the "Pope" of New England). But just so that you know how power "flowed" in those years, it tended to flow from Northamption in two directions. First, like the Connecticut River it flowed south to New Haven, and so the "Northampton-New Haven axis" was a central one for more than 100 years in maintaining a more strict Calvinistic orthodoxy in this area than, say, in Boston or Providence. Second, Northampton was part of the colony of MA, and Stoddard was a member of the General Court of MA, and so he "preached" to the leaders of that community, too, even though its power was concentrated 100 miles to the East in Boston/Cambridge. Latitudinarian longings and breezes were more apt to arise in those Eastern, more cosmopolitan climes even though they didn't waft over into the Connecticut Valley until well into the 19th century.

Ah, back to Edwards. His personality starts to emerge as Marsden treats this formative three-year period of his life. Since you read a biography to get to know a person, who is the Edwards that we meet? He is a complex man, shaped by his familial past, his reading, his own intellectual make up. Three things stand out to me. First is his deeply-rooted Puritan sense of duty. He is troubled in a summer 1723 diary entry by his acedia (my word)--he resolves, therefore "to do whatever I think to be duty, prudence and diligence in the matter..." But what is striking to me is that he says he will not afflict himself anymore "according to the 57th Resolution." 57th Resolution?! Well, by the ripe young age of 19 he had compiled a series of resolutions about how he would live life. This one reads: "Resolved, when I fear misfortunes and adversities, to examine whether I have done my duty and resolve to do it..." Kind of puts Poor Richard to shame, doesn't it?

Other Traits

Second, is Edwards' intellectual/spiritual ambition. He knows he has enormous talents as a thinker, and he reads widely and deeply. For example, he introduced John Locke's Essay on Human Understanding to the Yale students when he was one of the two tutors there in 1724-26. And, on ambition, Marsden nicely says: "He viewed himself as having a high calling from God, nothing less than to present the definitive defense of the Christian religion in relation to all knowledge and all possible objections" (p. 110). No shrinking violet was Edwards, even though he knew about his tendency toward pride and tried to curtail it (must have been one of the resolutions).

Third is Edwards' growing awareness of his own sensuality. I hesitated to use that word for quite some time because it seemingly is out of place for a 18th century Reformed theologian whose major works are such intellectual ballbusters as Freedom of the Will and Original Sin. Yet the most alluring thing about Edwards this time around for me is his obvious delight in the beauty and complexity of nature, and his subsequent use of words first applied to things in nature to apply to spiritual realities. That is, when he was a supply Pastor in NYC in 1722-23, he used to take walks along the Hudson River, reveling passionately in the beauty of the fields, in the intricate patterns of the lives of spiders in those fields, in the color, smell and sweetness of the verdant meadows before him. The beauty of creation filled his heart to overflowing and drew his vision to the true God who was behind it all.

I will close this essay by quoting a passage that shows how Edwards used his distinct vocabulary of sensuality to describe a girl, Sarah Pierpont, who would eventually become his wife. She was the daughter of a renowned Puritan pastor from New Haven and was five years Edwards' junior, making her no more than about 14 when he wrote the following rhapsody to her.

"They say there is a young lady in New Haven who is beloved of that almighty Being, who made and rules the world, and that there are certain seasons in which this great Being, in some way or other invisible, comes to her and fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight...There (in heaven) she is to dwell with him, and to be ravished with his love, favor, and delight, forever...She has a strange sweetness in her mind, and sweetness of temper, uncommon purity in her affections; is most just and praiseworthy in her actions...She is of wonderful sweetness, calmness and universal benevolence of mind.." (Marsden, 94-95).

Now, I ask you honestly, wouldn't you like to get to know not only Sarah but also this young man whose heart speaks such words?

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