Showing results for "Jonathan Edwards" in Biographies & Memoirs

In this definitive and long-awaited biography, Jonathan Edwards emerges as both a great American and a brilliant Christian. George Marsden evokes the world of colonial New England in which Edwards was reared - a frontier civilization at the center of a conflict between Native Americans, French Catholics, and English Protestants. Drawing on newly available sources, Marsden demonstrates how these cultural and religious battles shaped Edwards' life and thought.

Jonathan Edwards is perhaps best known for his "fire and brimstone" approach to preaching which emphasized the sovereignty of God, the depravity of humankind, the reality of hell, and the necessity of a conversion experience. Experience the reasoning of the great Puritan philosopher in his sermons, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," the most famous sermon in American history, and "Pardon for the Greatest of Sinners."

An inspirational and truly dedicated servant of the lord, David Brainerd endured hardship after hardship while maintaining a singularly devoted heart and mind for God. Not only did his faith remain true and steadfast, but his determination to bring God’s light to others provided an even greater element of encouragement even to the pastors and missionaries working alongside him. Traveling thousands of miles and struggling with illness and physical hardships, Brainerd brought the word of God to remote Native Americans despite the many limitations of his day and of his own health and wellbeing.

Jonathan Edwards was just an ordinary American boy but he was different too. The country he lived in wasn't the America of today - but a new world full of adventure and opportunity. Battles and Tomahawks were just some of the thrilling adventures that his family lived through. But Jonathan also loved the small things in life too. In an age of scientific discovery, Edwards saw God's beauty displayed most perfectly through nature. His journals are filled with drawings of plants, animals, and spiders because he knew that each one of them reflected the creativity of its creator.

Two hundred and fifty years later, Jonathan Edwards, America’s consummate pastor-theologian, continues to capture the attention of Christians around the world. Yet Edwards left us over 1,200 sermons and thousands of pages of other publications, not to mention the literal thousands of books that have been written about Edwards since he died. The Essential Jonathan Edwards serves as a perfect introduction to Edwards’s life and thought. It explores Edwards day-to-day life, and his views on beauty, true Christianity, heaven and hell, and the good life. 

When the great preacher Jonathan Edwards wanted to describe what authentic revival looks like, he looked to his wife Sarah. A transformative experience empowered her to delight and trust in God, even through the darkest of times. She could testify: “I felt such a disposition to rejoice in God, that I wished to have the world join me in praising him.” Sharon James gives an engaging account of Sarah’s life, and includes Sarah’s full first-hand account of her formative revival experience.

A Sweet Flame introduces listeners to the piety of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). Dr. Haykin's biographical sketch of Edwards captures the importance the New England minister placed on Scripture, family piety, and the church's reliance upon God. The remainder of the book presents 26 selections from various letters written by Edwards, two written by family members at his death, and an appendix drawing upon Edwards's last will and the inventor of his estate.