This chapter is divided into nine subheadings, The Puritan Pilgrims, The First Theologians and Controversies, The Next Generation, Jonathan Edwards, The Great Awakening, The Aftermath of the Awakening, Decline of New England theology, The Second Great Awakening, and Conclusion.
The Puritan Pilgrims.
The Puritan Pilgrims began in early 17th-century England, with some of them moving in time to the Netherlands, and then passing through England on their way to New England on the Mayflower. During the voyage they wrote the Mayflower Compact, reached Plymouth Bay in November 1620 and decided where to put ashore on December 26. Half of the settlers died the first year. The first Thanksgiving feast was celebrated in October 1621 as an expression of gratitude for answered prayer. The nearby Massachusetts Bay Colony was formed along similar lines with William Bradford and John Winthrop as governors.
The First Theologians and Controversies.
Three paragraphs are found in this subsection, with the concept of preparationism introduced. Mention is made of John Cotton, Thomas Hooker, Thomas Shepard, Roger Williams, Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, and the first missionary to the American Indians, John Elliot. History is not kind to Anne Hutchinson, labelling her an antinomian. My English friend, David H. J. Gay, is of quite a different opinion, writing that instead she was a thinking woman who balked at the legalism and preparationism that was imposed upon her. For her stand she was wrongly labeled antinomian.
The Next Generation.
It is in this subsection that the Halfway Covenant is mentioned, along with John Davenport, Cotton Mather, and Solomon Stoddard, the grandfather of Jonathan Edwards. My opinion is that the introduction of the Halfway Covenant reflects the tendency of pastors to introduce methodology to offset times that are “out of season,” rather than prayerfully waiting on the Lord. Unstated by the author is the reality that Protestantism would not have known anything like open communion observance of the Lord’s Supper but for the error of the Halfway Covenant.
Jonathan Edwards.
Jonathan Edwards was a towering intellect by any measure. Both his father and his grandfather were pastors, and he studied Latin, Greek, and Hebrew before entering Yale College at 13. While still young he fell in love with a godly fifteen year-old named Sarah Pierpoint, but remained distant from her so as to avoid impropriety and interfering with her growth and development. He married her after she turned 18. Not mentioned in this book is the negative attitude toward marriage that had been held by George Whitfield, seeing marriage as an impediment to ministry. His mind was changed, however, when he met and spent several days with Jonathan and Sarah Edwards in their home. He was so impressed by the Edwards marriage and the godliness of Sarah Edwards that he changed his mind about marriage and eventually married himself.
The Great Awakening.
Mention is made of times of revival under the preaching of Solomon Stoddard and the Dutch Reformed pastor Theodorus Frelinghuysen. However, the Great Awakening was another thing altogether. Attention is drawn in this subsection to Samuel Davies, William Tennent and his four preacher sons, George Whitfield, and David Brainerd, a missionary to the American Indians whose diary was published by Jonathan Edwards after Brainerd’s death, spending his last months in Edwards’ home. Not in this book but from another source, it is estimated that 80% of free adult men in the English colonies had heard George Whitefield preach. Thus, if George Washington was the father of our country, who can argue that George Whitefield was the grandfather of our country?
The Aftermath of the Awakening.
In this subsection the author points out that Jonathan Edwards dealt with the issue of false hopes in his Northhampton congregation after the revival subsided, was dismissed from his church because of his opposition to the Halfway Covenant stance introduced by his grandfather, and moved with his family from Northampton to Stockbridge in western Massachusetts, where he served as a preacher to the soldiers and Indians. It was after his dismissal from Northampton that Jonathan Edwards completed and published his greatest works. In 1758 he accepted the call to become president of the College of New Jersey, which later became Princeton University. Sadly, he died of a smallpox inoculation, and his wife, Sarah, and several children, died shortly thereafter. The author writes, “He should be considered one of the three or four greatest Calvinist theologians of all time. Historians have often called him the greatest preacher-theologian-philosopher ever to grace the American landscape. He towered as the Mount Everest of American theologians, who like King Solomon (1 Kings 3:12) surpassed all who preceded and followed him. No study of Reformed theology is complete without studying Edwards.”
Decline of New England Theology.
This subsection records the decline of New England theology following the death of Jonathan Edwards. Mention is made of Joseph Bellamy, Samuel Hopkins, Nathaniel Emmons, and Jonathan Edwards, Jr.
The Second Great Awakening.
While the First Great Awakening was led by Calvinists, the second was led in part by Arminians such as Peter Cartwright and Barton Stone. Mention is also made in this subsection of Timothy Dwight, Nathaniel William Taylor, Asahel Nettleton, Charles Grandison Finney, and Horace Bushnell. I have read two very fine biographies of Asahel Nettleton, who had far more to do with the Second Great Awakening than most people realize.
Then there is my book highlighting the extremely bad influence on contemporary American Christianity owing to the impact of Charles G. Finney and Horace Bushnell.
(available in Kindle format, use complete title)
Conclusion.
New England Calvinism was originally introduced by those who
became Congregationalists. The Congregationalists handed the torch of Orthodox
Calvinist leadership to the Princeton Presbyterians. “With the revival of
historic Calvinism in the twentieth century (owing to D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in
my opinion) came a rediscovery of Jonathan Edwards and the American Puritans.
These new Calvinists should learn the lessons of the past as charted in this
chapter to hold to the truth of Orthodox New England theology and avoid the
pitfalls of modifications and departures from it.”
