Jonathan Edwards possessed one of the most fertile minds in the history of Puritanism. Far more than a mere clergyman, Edwards used that penetrating mind to closely examine the world around him and produce volumes of words on subjects related to philosophy, epistemological psychology, entomology and the theological implications of free will existing within a deterministic faith in God. And yet, Edwards is primarily known for her religious sermons; more than that, he is singularly famous throughout the schools of America for his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” The fame that Edwards possesses and his success with his congregation be traced in starkly parallel terms with the rise and fall of the First Great Awakening which took the American colonies by evangelical storm.
In his book on the subject, Edwards placed much of the credit for the beginning of the Great Awakening at the hands of the “ministry of a very pious young gentleman, a Dutch minister, whose name” was Theodorus Frelinghuysen. The coal stoking the fire of the evangelical wave was pietism—in particular German Pietism of which Frelinghuysen was a major figure. He entranced his New Jersey congregation with theatrical fire and brimstone sermons which fanned the flames of renewed religious observance by convincing his listeners of the inadequacy of passive engagement with God and stimulated within them an intense desire to commit to personal participation.
Gilbert Tennent’s adoption of the same messages in sermons preached to Presbyterians in New Jersey would eventually lead to splits among existing denominations and the creation of Methodism and Baptism. Overlying nearly every other Protestant sect and its leader was Anglican George Whitehead who would go on to become a co-founder of Methodism and whose unusually charismatic preaching style created personal animus with traditionalists that was key to the schisms that ultimately became the longest lasting legacy of the Great Awakening. (Teenage slave Phillis Wheatley memorialized Whitefield with her widely printed elegy, “On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield. 1770.”
Interestingly, Edwards would become the central figure of the Great Awakening to be remembered by history despite the fact that his style of delivering the message of fear was far less overtly dramatic than any of the above ministers. To get an idea of just what kind of sermon Edwards was delivering to full houses during the Great Awakening, think of an Afterschool Special where the plot revolves around a character of impeccable moral standing being asked to help turn around a kid who had fallen in with a “bad crowd.” What does one do in such a situation? Convince the kid that sticking around with the troublemakers is going to wind up getting him sent to jail or killed. How does he wind up finally convincing the kid to turn his back on the bad influence and decide to live a good clean life? By playing it cool.
Cool is exactly what made Edwards’ sermons so effective. The imagery was fearsome and melodramatic enough: “a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of fire,” God holds you over the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider over a fire,” and endless litanies of examples reminding his parishioners that enough though God knows everything is all-powerful, there is no escaping the irrefutable evidence that He is indifferent to human misery and even if you labor every day in leading a hard-working, industrious life according to God’s word, salvation could be yanked from on His whim.
Such messages were profoundly effective during the Great Awakening when religious zeal turned into evangelical fervor which made those attending the churches of these superstar ministers willing to accept strict discipline in their pursuit of salvation lest they be allowed to fall back in with the “wrong crowd” who had resisted the movement. The Great Awakening is generally considered by most scholars to have finally petered out for good in 1750. Can it be mere coincidence that 1750 is also the year Edwards was driven out from his position as pastor in response to protests against his own harsh enforcement of disciplinary proceedings against members who failed to adhere to his strict rules for engagement?
