How Did Jonathan Edwards Influence American Philosophy

I. Introduction

Jonathan Edwards was extraordinary and many peoples' estimates he has the most acute an American philosopher, and he was the most brilliant of all American theologians at his time. There are at least three of Edwards many works such like: Religious Affection, Freedom of the Will and The Nature of True Virtue are standing as masterpieces in the history of the Christian literature. Jonathan Edwards was the machine encourage of Christianity in nineteenth-century. But not only the machine but he brought over lasting influence. His life involve most important things legacy that is religious and social movement. He preached a stronger message what became American’s most famous sermon: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (Marsden

The real war was among spiritual powers. By the time the precocious Jonathan was old enough to read, he would have discovered that one of the most fascinating book in his father’s library was uncle’s The Redeemed Captive, Returning to Zion. John Williams’ vivid narratives recounted the horrors of the Indians attacks. It was an awful plight of the souls of poor Indians subject to the deceptions of antichrist. Jonathan, his only son, followed closely in his father’s footstep (Marsden 15 – 17). Jonathan Edwards from 1703 – 1758 was perhaps the outstanding American theologian and certainly the ablest American philosopher to writer before the great period of Charles S. Peirce in 1839 to 1914, William James in 1842 to 1910, Josiah Royce in 1855 to 1916, John Dewey 1859 to 1952, and George Santayana 1863 to 1952 they were judged over two centuries, but Jonathan Edwards stands out as one of America’s great original minds. He was considered as the foundation stone in the history of American philosophy and the unique theological and philosophical formulated (Zakai 29). Edwards was born in the east parish of Windsor, now the town of South Windsor, Connecticut on October 5, 1703. He was the only son in a family of eleven children his parent were Rev. Timothy Edwards and Esther Stoddard Edwards the daughter of the Rev. Solomon Stoddard of Northampton, Massachusetts. During Edwards’s youth, he was nurtured and instructed in Reformed theology and the practice of puritan piety. At age of thirteen he was admitted to Yale College in 1718 because his father was tutoring at the Yale College he find easily. Edwards’s course of study was including classical and biblical languages, logic, and natural philosophy. When Edwards was at Yale College in 1717 to 1718, he was inspired by the philosopher of Mr. Locke and Sir Isaac Newton. He became acquainted with the ideas of the scientific revelation and the early