Key People
Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards is commonly remembered for being a christian preacher during the time of The Great Awakening. He wrote many books about religion and Christianity during his life. However, two would stand out among them. Those being Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God. Sinners stood out because of the urgentness to know the sin of man. “For Edwards,” writes Marilynne Robinson, “sin was a state everyone was in, in the absence of a conversion experience, which was a kind of religious ecstasy that began with a profound awareness of guilt and a sense of utter dependency on God’s grace.” 8 Without God’s grace, humans would keep living in sin.
Sharing and spreading sermons was not uncommon. While mostly shared through Church services, the books Edwards wrote hoped to spread the message of grace further. An example is his A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God. As Ann Mo writes, “...the Holy Spirit worked among the townspeople in extraordinary ways, drawing large numbers of unbelievers, across all age groups, to faith in Christ alone.”9 A Faithful Narrative stood out because of what God could do.
8 Robinson, Marilynne, Steve Moyer, and Edward G. Gray. “Jonathan Edwards in a New Light: Remembered for Preaching.” National Endowment for the Humanities. https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/novemberdecember/feature/jonathan-edwards-in-new-light-remembered-preaching-fire-and.
9 Mo, Ann. “A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God Book Review.” Grace Presbyterian Church: Yorba Linda, CA, October 22, 2020. https://www.gracepresbyterian.net/blog/post/a-faithful-narrative-of-the-surprising-work-of-god-book-review.
Jonathan Mayhew
Jonathan Mayhew was a pastor during this time. However, he also preached about political matters. Like Edwards, he made writings, yet his writings would contain values of both religious and political topics. As Kegan Foley writes, “These liberal values included freedom of belief and speech, the right to personal conscience, the importance of reason, the separation of church and state, and individual liberty.” 10 One of his writings, which is titled A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers, shows this. “Tyranny brings ignorance and brutality along with it. It degrades men from their just rank into the class of brutes… …It makes naturally-strong and great minds, feeble and little; and triumphs over the ruins of virtue and humanity.” 11 Mayhew would go on to preach during the awakening.
10 Foley, Kegan. “Jonathan Mayhew – the West End Museum.” Edited by Grace Clipson. The West End Museum – Boston’s Neighborhood Museum, June 12, 2024. https://thewestendmuseum.org/history/era/new-fields/jonathan-mayhew/.
11 Mayhew, Jonathan. A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to Higher Powers, 1750. https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/becomingamer/american/text5/mayhewsubmission.pdf.
George Whitefield
George Whitefield was known as an English minister and preacher. He toured the colonies during The Great Awakening. He also brought a new style to sermons as he spoke. “George Whitefield,” Mallory Dean writes, “...would let his emotions shine through as he spoke, passionately yelling while he preached.” 12 This gained him popularity. With his unique style of preaching, people would travel to where he would speak to listen to his sermons. However, not all of his preachings would go smoothly. One of his sermons in Boston would become too crowded. Mallory Deen writes that this particular sermon “...resulted in pushing and crowding so severe that a few colonists even died during his congregation because of the “sheer madness” and desperation of the people who wanted to hear him speak.”13 Whitefield was just one of the many preachers to have sermons during The Great Awakening.
12 Dean, Mallory. “The Great Awakening and George Whitefield.” Mapping the Great Awakening. https://people.smu.edu/mappingthega/stories/s1/.
13 Ibid., 4.