Jonathan Edwards The First Great Awakening: Theological Determinism

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God has gifted modern society with many exceptional men and women. One of those men is Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards was a great theologian during the time of Colonial America. He is often regarded with being “a key figure in what has come to be called the First Great Awakening” (“Jonathan Edwards American Puritan Theologian and Philosopher”). The First Great Awakening was a religious revival that swept colonial America, and forever changed protestant America. Edwards was also an incredibly intelligent man, graduating from Yale at seventeen, as well as achieving the honor of valedictorian. He then went on to receive his masters three years later (“Jonathan Edwards American Puritan Theologian and Philosopher”). On October 5, 1703 in East Windsor, Connecticut, Jonathan Edwards was born to Timothy Edwards, the pastor of the area. “As a youth, Edwards was unable to …show more content…

Theological determinism is the “view that God determines every event that occurs in the history of the world” (“Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy”). Ironically, theological determinism is the exact aspect of Christianity in which Edward’s was puzzled by as a child. He defends theological determinism in his book Freedom of the Will (“Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy”). In my own opinion theological determinism is a hard topic to wrap my brain around. Man was created to have free will but if God has already determined the events of one’s life then ‘how is it free will?’. This is one question I have always asked myself, not that it affects my beliefs. In class we covered God’s Decreed will, which has clarified some of my confusion on the subject. God knows when things will happen and how they will happen, even if we do not know

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