Synopses & Reviews
This definitive biography of America’s most important religious figure draws on newly available sources to reveal how he was shaped by the cultural and religious battles of his time.
“A magisterial biography.”—Wall Street Journal
“The finest biography of this towering figure.”—Benjamin Schwarz, Atlantic Monthly
“One way to make sense of contemporary evangelicalism is to consider how it has both hewed to and strayed from the path laid down by one of its most brilliant founding fathers. Thanks to Marsden’s authoritative new biography . . . the path is now more clear.”—Jay Tolson, U.S. News & World Report
“In this conscientious and eloquent biography, pious Jonathan Edwards comes to unruly life with all his unresolved complexity intact.”—Thomas D’Evelyn, Christian Science Monitor
“Superb and engrossing.”—Robert D. Richardson, Washington Post Book World
“[Marsden] writes with such verve that he has given us not only the definitive biography but also a narrative that reads like a novel.”—Edward T. Oakes, Commonweal
Review
"Miracle of miracles—a biography, and a big one at that, that is actually tailored to the size of its subject. Most biographies today are bloated, garbage-scow behemoths, with footnotes flying like carrion birds above the text, picking away at all possible goodies. Marsden's book hides away its learning, neither providing a running commentary on the author's erudition nor exhibiting an obsessive, stalker-like knowledge of his prey. Rather, we have here a story, the story of Edwards' life; and what a story it is. Edwards was and remained a subject of the English Crown, and he was and remained a colonial throughout his life—two facts about him that shape Marsden's reading, in usefully illuminating ways. Furthermore, for a great theological genius, he was particularly vulnerable to the vicissitudes of his congregation, and suffered a great downfall in being thrown out of Northampton and forced to mission the Indians, before regaining something of his stature by the end of his life, as president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton). The work does not shy away from exploring Edwards' thought, yet neither does it use his life as an excuse to present his philosophical theology. It even succeeds in presenting a fresh picture of colonial America in the first half of the 18th century. The closest work in ambition and achievement must be Peter Brown's Augustine of Hippo, and the lauds which still echo around that work will surely echo around this, on America's own Augustine. Highly recommended." Reviewed by d T. Gies, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Review
Jonathan Edwards, a towering figure in the history of American theology, was both a great American and a brilliant Christian. This definitive biography draws on newly available sources to reveal how the internationally famous preacher was shaped by cultural and religious battles of his time and how he struggled to reconcile his Puritan heritage with the secular world emerging out of the Enlightenment.
Review
"This is the finest biography of Edwards that I have read. It will be the standard benchmark for Edwards scholarship for generations to come."and#8212;Harry Stout, Yale University
Review
Winner of the Bancroft Prize in American History for 2004 The Bancroft Prize
Synopsis
This definitive biography of America's most important religious figure draws on newly available sources to reveal how he was shaped by the cultural and religious battles of his time.
Synopsis
2003 Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is a towering figure in American history. A controversial theologian and the author of the famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, he ignited the momentous Great Awakening of the eighteenth century.
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's life and thought. Marsden reveals Edwards as a complex thinker and human being who struggled to reconcile his Puritan heritage with the secular, modern world emerging out of the Enlightenment. In this, Edwards's life anticipated the deep contradictions of our American culture.
Meticulously researched and beautifully composed, this biography offers a compelling portrait of an eminent American.
Synopsis
2003 Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography "The finest biography of this towering figure. . . . Marsden guides readers through Edwards's profoundly alien world with authority and fluidity."--Benjamin Schwarz, Atlantic Monthly
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is a towering figure in American history. A controversial theologian and the author of the famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, he ignited the momentous Great Awakening of the eighteenth century.
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's life and thought. Marsden reveals Edwards as a complex thinker and human being who struggled to reconcile his Puritan heritage with the secular, modern world emerging out of the Enlightenment. In this, Edwards's life anticipated the deep contradictions of our American culture.
Meticulously researched and beautifully composed, this biography offers a compelling portrait of an eminent American.
Synopsis
A finalist for the 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography and winner of the 2004 Bancroft Prize and of the American Society of Church History's Philip Schaff Prize "The finest biography of this towering figure. . . . Marsden guides readers through Edwards's profoundly alien world with authority and fluidity."--Benjamin Schwarz, Atlantic Monthly
A controversial theologian and the author of the famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) ignited the momentous Great Awakening of the eighteenth century. 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's life and thought. Marsden reveals Edwards as a complex thinker and human being who struggled to reconcile his Puritan heritage with the secular, modern world emerging out of the Enlightenment. In this, Edwards's life anticipated the deep contradictions of our American culture.
Meticulously researched and beautifully composed, this biography offers a compelling portrait of an eminent American.
Synopsis
This definitive biography of America’s most important religious figure draws on newly available sources to reveal how he was shaped by the cultural and religious battles of his time.
“A magisterial biography.”--Wall Street Journal
“In this conscientious and eloquent biography, pious Jonathan Edwards comes to unruly life with all his unresolved complexity intact.”--Thomas D’Evelyn, Christian Science Monitor
“Superb and engrossing.”--Robert D. Richardson, Washington Post Book World
“[Marsden] writes with such verve that he has given us not only the definitive biography but also a narrative that reads like a novel.”--Edward T. Oakes, Commonweal
• Finalist for a 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award in biography
• Winner of the 2004 Bancroft Prize
• Named one of Atlantic Monthly’s Books of the Year
• Winner of the 2004 Merle Curti Award from the Organization of American Historians and the 2001–2003 Annibel Jenkins Biography Prize
Synopsis
This definitive biography of America's most important religious figure draws on newly available sources to reveal how he was shaped by the cultural and religious battles of his time.
A magisterial biography.--Wall Street Journal
The finest biography of this towering figure.--Benjamin Schwarz, Atlantic Monthly
One way to make sense of contemporary evangelicalism is to consider how it has both hewed to and strayed from the path laid down by one of its most brilliant founding fathers. Thanks to Marsden's authoritative new biography . . . the path is now more clear.--Jay Tolson, U.S. News & World Report
In this conscientious and eloquent biography, pious Jonathan Edwards comes to unruly life with all his unresolved complexity intact.--Thomas D'Evelyn, Christian Science Monitor
Superb and engrossing.--Robert D. Richardson, Washington Post Book World
Marsden writes with such verve that he has given us not only the definitive biography but also a narrative that reads like a novel.--Edward T. Oakes, Commonweal
Synopsis
Jonathan Edwards (1703and#150;1758) is a towering figure in American history. A controversial theologian and the author of the famous sermon
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, he ignited the momentous Great Awakening of the eighteenth century.
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 rearedand#151;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 Edwardsand#8217;s life and thought. Marsden reveals Edwards as a complex thinker and human being who struggled to reconcile his Puritan heritage with the secular, modern world emerging out of the Enlightenment. In this, Edwardsand#8217;s life anticipated the deep contradictions of our American culture.
Meticulously researched and beautifully composed, this biography offers a compelling portrait of an eminent American.
About the Author
George M. Marsden is Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. He has written numerous books, including
The Soul of the American University and
The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship.