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Jonathan Edwards (theologian)

Jonathan Edwards (theologian)

:Jonathan Edwards redirects here. For other uses, please see Jonathan Edwards (disambiguation). Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703- March 22, 1758) was a colonial American Congregational preacher and theologian. He is known as one of the greatest and most profound American evangelical theologians. His work is very broad in scope, but he is often associated with his defense of Calvinist theology and the Puritan heritage.

Early life

Puritan Jonathan Edwards, born on October 5, 1703, was the son of Timothy Edwards (1669-1758), a minister at East Windsor, Connecticut who eked out his salary by tutoring boys for college. His mother, Esther Stoddard, daughter of the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, Massachusetts, seems to have been a woman of unusual mental gifts and independence of character. Jonathan, their only son, was the fifth of eleven children. He was trained for college by his father and by his elder sisters, all of whom received an excellent education. When ten years old he wrote a semi-humorous tract on the immateriality of the soul; he was interested in natural history, and at the age of twelve wrote a remarkable essay on the habits of the "flying spider." He entered Yale College in 1716, at just under the age of thirteen. In the following year he became acquainted with John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, which influenced him profoundly. During his college course he kept note books labelled "The Mind," "Natural Science" (containing a discussion of the atomic theory),"The Scriptures" and "Miscellanies," had a grand plan for a work on natural and mental philosophy, and drew up for himself rules for its composition. Even before his graduation in September 1720 as valedictorian and head of his class, he seems to have had a well formulated philosophy. The two years after his graduation he spent in New Haven studying theology. In 1722 to 1723 he was for eight months "stated supply" (a clergyman employed to supply a pulpit for a definite time, but not settled as a pastor) of a small Presbyterian Church in New York City, which invited him to remain, but he declined the call, spent two months in study at home, and then in 1724-1726 was one of the two tutors at Yale, earning for himself the name of a "pillar tutor"; by his steadfast loyalty to the college and its orthodox teaching at the time when Yale's rector (Cutler) and one of her tutors had gone over to the Episcopal Church. The years 1720 to 1726 are partially recorded in his diary and in the resolutions for his own conduct which he drew up at this time. He had long been an eager seeker after salvation and was not fully satisfied as to his own "conversion" until an experience in his last year in college, when he lost his feeling that the election of some to salvation and of others to eternal damnation was "a horrible doctrine," and reckoned it "exceedingly pleasant, bright and sweet." He now took a great and new joy in the beauties of nature, and delighted in the allegorical interpretation of the Song of Solomon. Balancing these mystic joys is the stern tone of his Resolutions, in which he is almost ascetic in his eagerness to live earnestly and soberly, to waste no time, to maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking. On February 5, 1727 he was ordained minister at Northampton and assistant to his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. He was a student minister, not a visiting pastor, his rule being thirteen hours of study a day. In the same year he married Sarah Pierrepont, then aged seventeen, daughter of James Pierpont (1659-1714), a founder of Yale, and through her mother great-granddaughter of Thomas Hooker. Of her piety and almost nun-like love of God and belief in His personal love for her, Edwards had known when she was only thirteen, and had written of it with spiritual enthusiasm; she was of a bright and cheerful disposition, a practical housekeeper, a model wife and the mother of his twelve children. Solomon Stoddard died on February 11th, 1729, leaving to his grandson the difficult task of the sole ministerial charge of one of the largest and wealthiest congregations in the colony, and one proud of its morality, its culture and its reputation.

Great Awakening

In 1731 Edwards preached at Boston the "Public Lecture" afterwards published under the title God Glorified -in Man's Dependence. This was his first public attack on Arminianism. The leading thought was God's absolute sovereignty in the work of redemption: that while it behooved God to create man holy, it was of His "good pleasure" and "mere and arbitrary grace" that any man was now made holy, and that God might deny this grace without any disparagement to any of His perfections. In 1733 a revival of religion began in Northampton, and reached such intensity in the winter of 1734 and the following spring as to threaten the business of the town. In six months nearly three hundred were admitted to the church. The revival gave Edwards an opportunity of studying the process of conversion in all its phases and varieties, and he recorded his observations with psychological minuteness and discrimination in A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton (1737). A year later he published Discourses on Various Important Subjects, the five sermons which had proved most effective in the revival, and of these none, he tells us, was so immediately effective as that on the Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners, from the text, "That every mouth may be stopped." Another sermon, published in 1734, on the Reality of Spiritual Light set forth what he regarded as the inner, moving principle of the revival, the doctrine of a special grace in the immediate, and supernatural divine illumination of the soul. In the spring of 1735 the movement began to subside and a reaction set in. But the relapse was brief, and the Northampton revival, which had spread through the Connecticut valley and whose fame had reached England and Scotland, was followed in 1739-1740 by the Great Awakening, distinctively under the leadership of Edwards. It was at this time that Edwards became acquainted with George Whitefield and preached one of his most famous sermons, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" in Enfield, CT in 1741. The movement met with no sympathy from the orthodox leaders of the church. In 1741 Edwards published in its defence The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, dealing particularly with the phenomena most criticized, the swoonings, outcries and convulsions. These "bodily effects," he insisted, were not distinguishing marks of the work of the Spirit of God; but so bitter was the feeling against the revival in the more strictly Puritan churches that in 1742 he was forced to write a second apology, Thoughts on the Revival in New England, his main argument being the great moral improvement of the country. In the same pamphlet he defends an appeal to the emotions, and advocates preaching terror when necessary, even to children, who in God's sight "are young vipers . . . if not Christ's." He considers "bodily effects" incidentals to the real work of God, but his own mystic devotion and the experiences of his wife during the Awakening (which he gives in detail) make him think that the divine visitation usually overpowers the body, a view in support of which he quotes Scripture. In reply to Edwards, Charles Chauncy anonymously wrote The Late Religious Commotions in New England Considered (1743), urging conduct as the sole test of conversion; and the general convention of Congregational ministers in the Province of Massachusetts Bay protested "against disorders in practice which have of late obtained in various parts of the land." In spite of Edwards's able pamphlet, the impression had become widespread that "bodily effects" were recognized by the promoters of the Great Awakening as the true tests of conversion. To offset this feeling Edwards preached at Northampton during the years 1742 and 1743 a series of sermons published under the title of Religious Affections (1746), a restatement in a more philosophical and general tone of his ideas as to "distinguishing marks." In 1747 he joined the movement started in Scotland called the "concert in prayer," and in the same year published An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God's People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on Earth. In 1749 he published a memoir of David Brainerd; the latter had lived in his family for several months, had been constantly attended by Edwards's daughter Jerusha, to whom he had been engaged to be married, and had died at Northampton on the 7th of October 1747; and he had been a case in point for the theories of conversion held by Edwards, who had made elaborate notes of Brainerd's conversations and confessions.

Later years

In 1748 there had come a crisis in his relations with his congregation. The Half-Way Covenant adopted by the synods of 1657 and 1662 had made baptism alone the condition to the civil privileges of church membership, but not of participation in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Edwards's grandfather and predecessor, Solomon Stoddard, had been even more liberal, holding that the Supper was a converting ordinance and that baptism was a sufficient title to all the privileges of the church. As early as 1744 Edwards, in his sermons on the Religious Affections, had plainly intimated his dislike of this practice. In the same year he had published in a church meeting the names of certain young people, members of the church, who were suspected of reading improper books, and also the names of those who were to be called as witnesses in the case. It has often been reported that the witnesses and accused were not distinguished on this list, and that therefore the congregation was in an uproar. However, Patricia Tracy's research has cast doubt on this version of the events, noting that in the list he read from the names were definitely distinguished. Those involved were eventually disciplined for disrespect to the investigators rather than for the original incident. In any case, the incident further deteriorated the relationship between Edwards and the congregation. In a time of significant cultural foment he was associated with the old guard. Edwards's preaching became unpopular; for four years no candidate presented himself for admission to the church, and when one did in 1748 and was met with Edwards's formal but mild and gentle tests, as expressed in the Distinguishing Marks and later in Qualifications for Full Communion (1749), the candidate refused to submit to them; the church backed him and the break was complete. Even permission to discuss his views in the pulpit was refused him. The ecclesiastical council voted that the pastoral relation be dissolved. The church by a vote of more than 200 to 23 ratified the action of the council, and finally a town meeting voted that Edwards should not be allowed to occupy the Northampton pulpit, though he did this on occasion as late as May 1755. He evinced no rancour or spite; his "Farewell Sermon" was dignified and temperate; nor is it to be ascribed to chagrin that in a letter to Scotland after his dismissal he expresses his preference for Presbyterian to Congregational church government. His position at the time was not unpopular throughout New England, and it is needless to say that his doctrine that the Lord's Supper is not a cause of regeneration and that communicants should be professing Christians has since (very largely through the efforts of his pupil Joseph Bellamy) become a standard of New England Congregationalism. Edwards with his large family was now thrown upon the world, but offers of aid quickly came to him. A parish in Scotland could have been procured, and he was called to a Virginia church. He declined both, to become in 1750 pastor of the church in Stockbridge and a missionary to the Housatonic Indians. To the Indians he preached through an interpreter, and their interests he boldly and successfully defended by attacking the whites who were using their official position among them to increase their private fortunes. In Stockbridge he wrote the Humble Relation, also called Reply to Williams (1752), which was an answer to Solomon Williams (1700-1776), a relative and a bitter opponent of Edwards as to the qualifications for full communion; and he there composed the treatises on which his reputation as a philosophical theologian chiefly rests, the essay on Original Sin, the Dissertation Concerning the Nature of True Virtue, the Dissertation Concerning the End for which God created the World, and the great work on the Will, written in four months and a half, and published in 1754 under the title, An Inquiry into the Modern Prevailing Motions Respecting that Freedom of the Will which is supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency. In 1757, on the death of the Reverend Aaron Burr, who five years before had married Edwards's daughter Esther and was the father of future US vice-president Aaron Burr, he reluctantly agreed to replace his late son-in-law as the president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), where he was installed on the 16th of February, 1758. Almost immediately afterwards he was inoculated for smallpox, which was raging in Princeton and vicinity, and, always feeble, he died of the inoculation on the 22nd of March, 1758. He was buried in the old cemetery at Princeton. He was slender and fully six feet tall, and with his oval, gentle, almost feminine face looked the scholar and the mystic. Edwards had three sons and eight daughters.

Influence

The followers of Jonathan Edwards and his disciples came to be know as the New Light Calvinist ministers, as opposed to the traditional Old Light Calvinist ministers. Prominent disciples included Samuel Hopkins, Joseph Bellany and Jonathan Edwards' son Jonathan Edwards Jr.. Through a practice of apprentice ministers living in the homes of older ministers, they eventually filled a large number of pastorates in the New England area. Many of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards' descendents became prominent citizens in the United States, including the Vice President Aaron Burr and the College Presidents Timothy Dwight, Jonathan Edwards Jr. and Merrill Edwards Gates.

External links

- [http://edwards.yale.edu Jonathan Edwards Center, Yale University. Complete Online Critical Edition of Edwards]
- [http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/edwards.html Jonathan Edwards: America's Greatest Theologian]
- [http://www.jonathanedwards.com/ Jonathan Edwards online]
- [http://www.americanpresbyterianchurch.org/the_atonement.htm The Governmental Theory of the Atonement: Edwards' Atonement Theology]
- [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/edwards/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry]
- [http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap2/edwards.html Bibliography]
- [http://www.yale.edu/je Jonathan Edwards College, Yale] Edwards, Jonathan Edwards, Jonathan Edwards, Jonathan Edwards, Jonathan Edwards, Jonathan Edwards, Jonathan Edwards, Jonathan Edwards, Jonathan Edwards, Jonathan ja:ジョナサン・エドワーズ (神学者)

Jonathan Edwards (disambiguation)

:See also John Edwards Jonathan Edwards is the name of:
- Jonathan Edwards (theologian), an American theologian in the 18th century.
- Jonathan Edwards (athlete), a British triple jumper.
- Jonathan Edwards (journalism), a radio reporter.
- Jonathan Edwards (music), an American musician.
- Jonathan Edwards College at Yale University. ja:ジョナサン・エドワーズ

1703

Events

- February 2 - Earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy
- February 4 - In Japan, the 47 samurai commit seppuku (ritual suicide)
- February 14 - Earthquake in Norcia, Italy
- April 21 - Company of Quenching of Fire (ie. fire brigade) founded in Edinburgh, Scotland
- May 27 - Founding of St Petersburg in Russia. Onlooker throw flowers on him.
- May 26 - Portugal joins Grand Alliance
- July 29-31 - Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet
- September 12 - War of the Spanish Succession – Habsburg Archduke Charles proclaimed King of Spain
- October - A whirlwind blows down the tower of the Gan Takal in Gondar, capital of Ethiopia, killing 30.
- November 19 - Unknown masked prisoner dies in Bastille
- November 24 to December 2 - the Great Storm of 1703 ravages southern England and the English Channel, killing thousands
- December 27 - Portugal and England sign the Methuen Treaty which gives preference to Portuguese imported wines into England.
- A Tale of a Tub, first major satire by Jonathan Swift, published
- George Psalmanazar arrives in London
- Isaac Newton becomes the chairman of Royal Society
- Ahmed III (1703-1730) succeeds Mustafa II (1695-1703) as emperor of the Ottoman Empire.

Births

- February 5 - Gilbert Tennent, Irish-born religious leader (d. 1764)
- March 5 (N. S.) - Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky, Russian poet (d. 1768)
- May 14 - David Brearly, delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention (d. 1785)
- June 17 - John Wesley, English founder of Methodism (d. 1791)
- June 26 - Thomas Clap, first president of Yale University (d. 1767)
- June 28 - John Wesley, English founder of Methodism (d. 1791)
- August 2 - Lorenzo Ricci, Italian Jesuit leader (d. 1775)
- October 5 - Jonathan Edwards, American preacher (d. 1758)
- October 28 - Antoine Deparcieux, French mathematician (d. 1768)
- November 25 - Jean-François Séguier, French astronomer and botanist (d. 1784)
- November 26 - Theophilus Cibber, English actor and writer (d. 1758)
- December 2 - Ferdinand Konščak, Croatian explorer (d. 1759)
- François Boucher, French painter (d. 1770)

Deaths

- Phetracha, king of Ayutthaya
- January 11 - Johann Georg Graevius, German classical scholar and critic (b. 1632)
- March 3 - Robert Hooke, English scientist (b. 1635)
- March 31 - Johann Christoph Bach, German composer (b. 1642)
- April 20 - Lancelot Addison, English royal chaplain (b. 1632)
- May 16 - Charles Perrault, French author (b. 1628)
- May 26 - Samuel Pepys, English civil servant and diarist (b. 1633)
- June 14 - Jean Herauld Gourville, French adventurer (b. 1625)
- September 22 - Vincenzo Viviani, Italian mathematician and scientist (b. 1622)
- September 25 - Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll, Scottish privy councillor (b. 1658)
- September 29 - Charles de Saint-Évremond, French soldier (b. 1610)
- October 28 - John Wallis, English mathematician (b. 1616)
- November 30 - Nicolas de Grigny, French organist and composer (b. 1672)
- December 28 - Mustafa II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1664) Category:1703 ko:1703년 ms:1703 simple:1703

March 22

March 22 is the 81st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (82nd in Leap years). There are 284 days remaining.

Events

- 238 - Gordian I and his son Gordian II are proclaimed Roman emperors.
- 1621 - The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony sign a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags.
- 1622 - Jamestown massacre: Algonquian Indians kill 347 English settlers around Jamestown, Virginia, a third of the colony's population.
- 1630 - Massachusetts Bay Colony outlaws the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables.
- 1638 - Anne Hutchinson is expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent.
- 1765 - The British Parliament passes the Stamp Act, the first direct tax levied from England on the American colonies.
- 1809 - Charles XIII succeeds Gustav IV Adolf to the Swedish throne.
- 1849 - The Austrians defeat the Piedmontese at the Battle of Novara.
- 1871 - In North Carolina, William Woods Holden becomes the first governor of a U.S. state to be removed from office by impeachment.
- 1888 - The Football League is formed.
- 1894 - The first playoff game for the Stanley Cup starts.
- 1895 - First display (a private screening) of motion pictures by Auguste and Louis Lumière.
- 1933 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs into law a bill legalizing the sale of beer and wine.
- 1939 - World War II: Germany takes Memel from Lithuania.
- 1941 - Washington's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity.
- 1942 - World War II: In the Mediterranean sea, Regia Marina defeats Royal Navy in the Second Battle of Sirte.
- 1945 - The Arab League is founded when a charter is adopted in Cairo, Egypt.
- 1954 - Closed since 1939, the London bullion market reopens.
- 1958 - Faisal becomes King of Saudi Arabia.
- 1960 - Arthur Leonard Schawlow & Charles Townes receive the first patent for a laser.
- 1963 Please Please Me, the first Beatles album, is released in the UK.
- 1965 - Bob Dylan "goes electric," releasing his first album featuring electric instruments, Bringing It All Back Home.
- 1975 - A fire at the Brown's Ferry nuclear reactor in Decatur, Alabama causes dangerous lowering of cooling water levels.
- 1975 - In Stockholm, Sweden, Teach-In wins the twentieth Eurovision Song Contest for the Netherlands singing "Ding-a-dong."
- 1978 - Karl Wallenda of the Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
- 1984 - Teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with Satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges are later dropped as completely unfounded.
- 1989 - Fawn Hall, Oliver North's former secretary, begins two days of testimony at North's Iran-Contra trial in Washington.
- 1993 - The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ MIPS, and a 64 bit data path.
- 1995 - Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in space.
- 1997 - Tara Lipinski, age 14 years and 10 months, becomes the youngest champion of the women's world figure skating competition.
- 2005 - Pat Summitt, coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Vols (women's college basketball), becomes the all-time leader in victories for both men's and women's college basketball, getting her 880th win as coach of the team.

Births

- 1212 - Emperor Go-Horikawa of Japan (d. 1234)
- 1366 - Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, English politician (d. 1399)
- 1459 - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1519)
- 1503 - Antonio Francesco Grazzini, Italian writer (d. 1583)
- 1599 - Anthony van Dyck, Flemish painter (d. 1641)
- 1609 - King John II Casimir of Poland (d. 1672)
- 1663 - August Hermann Francke, German protestant minister (d. 1727)
- 1712 - Edward Moore, English writer (d. 1757)
- 1720 - Nicolas-Henri Jardin, French architect (d. 1799)
- 1723 - Charles Carroll, American lawyer and delegate to the Continental Congress (d. 1783)
- 1797 - King Wilhelm I of Germany (d. 1888)
- 1812 - Stephen Pearl Andrews, abolitionist (d. 1886)
- 1817 - Bahá'u'lláh, Persian prophet of the Bahá'í Faith (d. 1892)
- 1817 - Braxton Bragg, American Confederate general (d. 1876)
- 1860 - Alfred Ploetz, German physician, biologist, and eugenicist (d. 1940)
- 1868 - Robert Millikan, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)
- 1878 - Michel Théato, Luxembourg athlete (d. 1919)
- 1887 - Chico Marx, American comedian and actor (d. 1961)
- 1901 - Greta Kempton, American artist (d. 1991)
- 1907 - Lucia dos Santos, Portuguese nun (d. 2005)
- 1908 - Louis L'Amour, American author (d. 1988)
- 1909 - Gabrielle Roy, Canadian author (d. 1983)
- 1912 - Wilfrid Brambell, Irish actor (d. 1985)
- 1912 - Karl Malden, American actor
- 1913 - Tom McCall, Governor of Oregon (d. 1983)
- 1915 - Georgiy Zhzhonov, Russian actor and writer
- 1918 - Cheddi Jagan, President of Guyana (d. 1997)
- 1920 - Werner Klemperer, German actor (d. 2000)
- 1920 - Ross Martin, Polish-American actor (d. 1981)
- 1924 - Allen Neuharth, American businessman and writer
- 1923 - Marcel Marceau, French mime
- 1928 - Carrie Donovan, American fashion editor (d. 2001)
- 1928 - Ed Macauley, American basketball player
- 1930 - Derek Bok, American lawyer and educator
- 1930 - Pat Robertson, American televangelist
- 1930 - Stephen Sondheim, American composer and lyricist
- 1931 - Burton Richter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1931 - William Shatner, Canadian actor
- 1933 - May Britt, Swedish actress
- 1933 - Abolhassan Banisadr, President of Iran
- 1934 - Orrin Hatch, U.S. Senator from Utah
- 1935 - M. Emmet Walsh, American actor
- 1936 - Ron Carey, labor leader
- 1936 - Roger Whittaker, British singer
- 1937 - Armin Hary, German athlete
- 1940 - Haing S. Ngor, Cambodian actor (d. 1996)
- 1941 - Jeremy Clyde, British actor and singer
- 1941 - Bruno Ganz, Swiss actor
- 1943 - George Benson, American musician
- 1943 - Keith Relf, British musician (The Yardbirds) (d. 1976)
- 1946 - Rudy Rucker, American author
- 1948 - Wolf Blitzer, American television journalist
- 1948 - Andrew Lloyd Webber, British composer
- 1949 - Fanny Ardant, French actress
- 1952 - Bob Costas, American sports commentator and talk show host
- 1955 - Pete Sessions, American politician
- 1956 - Lena Olin, Swedish actress
- 1957 - Stephanie Mills, American actress, singer
- 1959 - Matthew Modine, American actor
- 1966 - Artis Pabriks, Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs
- 1967 - Mario Cipollini, Italian cyclist
- 1970 - Leontien van Moorsel, Dutch cyclist
- 1972 - Shawn Bradley, American basketball player
- 1972 - Elvis Stojko, Canadian figure skater
- 1973 - Juninho, Brazilian football player
- 1974 - Marcus Camby, American basketball player
- 1976 - Teun de Nooijer, Dutch field hockey player
- 1976 - Reese Witherspoon, American actress

Deaths

- 1322 - Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, English politician (b. 1278)
- 1418 - Dietrich of Nieheim, German historian
- 1421 - Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence, second son of Henry IV of England (killed in battle) (b. 1388)
- 1471 - Pope Paul II (b. 1418)
- 1544 - Johannes Magnus, last Catholic Archbishop of Sweden (b. 1488)
- 1602 - Agostino Carracci, Italian artist (b. 1557)
- 1685 - Emperor Go-Sai of Japan (b. 1638)
- 1687 - Jean Baptiste Lully, Italian-born French composer (b. 1632)
- 1758 - Jonathan Edwards, American minister (b. 1703)
- 1758 - Richard Leveridge, English bass and composer (b. 1670)
- 1772 - John Canton, English physicist (b. 1718)
- 1820 - Stephen Decatur, American naval officer (b. 1779)
- 1832 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer (b. 1749)
- 1896 - Thomas Hughes, English novelist (b. 1822)
- 1913 - Sung Chiao-jen, Chinese Nationalist (b. 1882)
- 1924 - William Macewen, Scottish surgeon (b. 1848)
- 1945 - John Hessin Clarke, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1857)
- 1951 - Willem Mengelberg, Dutch conductor (b. 1871)
- 1952 - Uncle Dave Macon, American musician (b. 1870)
- 1958 - Michael Todd, American film producer (b. 1909)
- 1977 - A.K. Gopalan, Indian communist leader (d. 1904)
- 1978 - Karl Wallenda, German acrobat (b. 1905)
- 1981 - James "Jumbo" Elliott, American track coach (b. 1915)
- 1986 - Charles Starrett, American actor
- 1990 - Gerald Bull, Canadian engineer (b. 1928)
- 1994 - Dan Hartman, American musician, songwriter, and record producer (b. 1950)
- 1994 - Walter Lantz, American cartoonist (b. 1899)
- 1999 - David Strickland, American actor (b. 1969)
- 2001 - William Hanna, American animator and studio founder (b. 1910)
- 2003 - Terry Lloyd, English reporter (b. 1952)
- 2004 - Ahmed Yassin, Palestinian co-founder of Hamas
- 2005 - Kenzo Tange, Japanese architect (b. 1913)

Holidays and observances

- The fourth day of Quinquatria in ancient Rome, held in honor of Minerva.
- Easter Sunday - 1818, 2285. In the Gregorian Calendar 22 March is the earliest date on which Easter Sunday can fall (25th April is the latest).
- World Water Day

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/22 BBC: On This Day] ---- March 21 - March 23 - February 22 - April 22 -- listing of all days ko:3월 22일 ms:22 Mac ja:3月22日 simple:March 22 th:22 มีนาคม

Calvinism

Calvinism is a system of Christian theology advanced by John Calvin, a Protestant Reformer in the 16th century, and further developed by his followers, associates and admirers. The term also refers to the doctrines and practices of the Reformed churches, of which Calvin was an early leader. Calvinism is perhaps best known for its doctrine of predestination, and its history is associated with some notable experiments in Christian theocracy.

Historical background

John Calvin's international influence on the development of the doctrine of the Protestant Reformation began at the age of 25, when he started work on his first edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1534 (published 1536). This work underwent a number of revisions in his lifetime. Through it and together with his polemical and pastoral works, his contributions to confessional documents for use in churches, and a massive collection of commentaries on the Bible, Calvin continues to have a direct personal influence on Protestantism. But he is only one of many, eventually the most prominent influence, on the doctrine of the Reformed churches. The rising importance of the Reformed churches, and of Calvin, belongs to the second phase of the Protestant Reformation, when evangelical churches began to form after Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. Calvin was a French exile in Geneva. He had signed the Lutheran Augsburg confession in 1540 but his influence was first felt in the Swiss Reformation, which was not Lutheran, but rather followed Huldrych Zwingli. It became evident early on that doctrine in the Reformed churches was developing in a direction independent of Luther's, under the influence of numerous writers and reformers, among whom Calvin eventually became pre-eminent. Much later, when his fame was attached to the Reformed churches, their whole body of doctrine came to be called Calvinism.

General description

Given that its present form has multiple main tributaries, the name "Calvinism" is somewhat misleading if taken to imply that every major feature of the doctrine of the "Calvinist churches", or of all Calvinist movements, can be found in the writings of Calvin. Others are often credited with as much of a final formative influence on what is now called Calvinism as Calvin himself had: for example Calvin's successor Theodore Beza, the Dutch theologian Franciscus Gomarus, the founder of the Presbyterian church, John Knox, and any number of later writers such as the English Baptist John Bunyan, the American Jonathan Edwards, or neo-orthodox theologians like Karl Barth. But there is a simple central issue in Calvinism that often serves to represent the whole, and that is a particular soteriology (doctrine of Salvation), which emphasizes that man is incapable of adding anything from himself to obtain salvation, and that God alone is the initiator at every stage of salvation, including the formation of faith and every decision to follow Christ. This doctrine was definitively formulated and codified during the Synod of Dordrecht (1618-1619), which rejected the alternate system known as Arminianism. Calvinism is sometimes called "Augustinianism" because the central issues of Calvinistic soteriology were articulated by St. Augustine in his dispute with the British monk Pelagius. In contrast to the free-will decisionism advocated by Charles Finney and other dissenters, Calvinism places strong emphasis not only on the abiding goodness of the original creation, but also on the total ruin of man's accomplishments and the frustration of the whole creation caused by sin, and therefore views salvation as a new creating work of God rather than an achievement of those who are saved from sin and death. More broadly, "Calvinism" is virtually synonymous with "Reformed Protestantism", encompassing the whole body of doctrine taught by Reformed churches. In addition to maintaining a Calvinist soteriology, one of the more important features of this system is "the regulative principle of worship" — which in principle rejects any form of worship not explicitly instituted for the early church in the Holy Bible.

Summaries of Calvinist theology

Holy Bible

The five solas

The five solas are a summary of Calvinism, indeed of the Reformation, in the sense that they delineate the difference between the evangelical doctrine of salvation from the Roman Catholic doctrine. The substance of Calvinism with respect to the solas is total dependence on God, who created the universe, and now sustains it to fulfill his own purposes. Every good thing, according to Calvinism, exists because of God's unmerited grace, and salvation especially is entirely dependent on grace.

Sovereign grace

Calvinism stresses the complete ruin of man's ethical nature against a backdrop of the sovereign grace of God in salvation. It teaches that people are utterly unable to follow God or escape their condemnation before him and that only by drastic divine intervention in which God must overrule their unwilling hearts can people be turned from rebellion to willing obedience. In this view, all people are entirely at the mercy of God, who would be just in condemning all people for their sins but has chosen to be merciful to some in order to bring glory to his own name. One person is saved while another is condemned, not because of a willingness, a faith, or any other virtue in the first person, but because God sovereignly chose to have mercy on him. Although the person must act in order to believe and to be saved, this obedience of faith is God's gift according to Calvinism, and thus God accomplishes the salvation of sinners. In practice, Calvinists teach these doctrines of grace primarily for the encouragement of the church because they believe the doctrines demonstrate the extent of God's love in saving those who could not and would not follow him. Gratitude is the primary motivator for continuing sanctification. ^{[http://www.modernreformation.org/jb03gospel.htm]}

"Life is religion"

The theological system and practical theories of church, family, and political life, all ambiguously called "Calvinism", are the outgrowth of a fundamental religious consciousness that centers on "the sovereignty of God". In principle, the doctrine of God has pre-eminent place in every category of theology, including the Calvinist understanding of how a person ought to live. Calvinism presupposes that the goodness and power of God have a free, unlimited range of activity, and this works out as a conviction that God is at work in all realms of existence, including the spiritual, physical, and intellectual realms, whether secular or sacred, public or private, on earth or in heaven. According to this viewpoint, the plan of God is worked out in every event. God is seen as the creator, preserver, and governor of each and every thing. This produces an attitude of absolute dependence on God, which is not identified only with temporary acts of piety (for example, prayer); rather, it is an all-encompassing pattern of life that, in principle, applies to any mundane task just as it also applies to taking communion. For the Calvinist Christian, all of life is the Christian religion.

The five points

Calvinist theology is often identified in the popular mind as the so-called "five points of Calvinism," which are a summation of the judgments (or canons) rendered by the Synod of Dordrecht and which were published as a point-by-point response to the five points of the Arminian Remonstrance (the Quinquarticular Controversy). They therefore function as a summary of the differences between Calvinism and Arminianism but not as a complete summation of Calvin's writings or of the theology of the Reformed churches in general. The central assertion of these canons is that God is able to save every person upon whom he has mercy and that his efforts are not frustrated by the unrighteousness or the inability of men. The five points of Calvinism, which can be remembered by the English acronym TULIP are:
- Total depravity (or total inability): As a consequence of the Fall of man, every person born into the world is enslaved to the service of sin. According to the view, people are not by nature inclined to love God with their whole heart, mind, or strength, but rather all are inclined to serve their own interests over those of their neighbor and to reject the rule of God. Thus, all people by their own faculties are unable to choose to follow God and be saved.
- Unconditional election: God's choice from eternity of those whom he will bring to himself is not based on foreseen virtue, merit, or faith in those people. Rather, it is unconditionally grounded in God's mercy.
- Limited atonement (or particular redemption or definite atonement): The death of Christ actually takes away the penalty of sins of those on whom God has chosen to have mercy. It is "limited" to taking away the sins of the elect, not of all humanity, and it is "definite" and "particular" because atonement is certain for those particular persons.
- Irresistible grace (or efficacious grace): The saving grace of God is effectually applied to those whom he has determined to save (the elect) and, in God's timing, overcomes their resistance to obeying the call of the gospel, bringing them to a saving faith in Christ.
- Perseverance of the saints (or preservation of the saints): Any person who has once been truly saved from damnation must necessarily persevere and cannot later be condemned. The word saints is used in the sense in which it is used in the Bible to refer to all who are set apart by God, not in the technical sense of one who is exceptionally holy, canonized, or in heaven (see Saint). Calvinism is often further reduced in the popular mind to one or another of the five points of TULIP. The doctrine of unconditional election is sometimes made to stand for all Reformed doctrine, sometimes even by its adherents, as the chief article of Reformed Christianity. However, according to the doctrinal statements of these churches, it is not a balanced view to single out this doctrine to stand on its own as representative of all that is taught. The doctrine of unconditional election, and its corollary in the doctrine of predestination are never properly taught, according to Calvinists, except as an assurance to those who seek forgiveness and salvation through Christ, that their faith is not in vain, because God is able to bring to completion all whom He intends to save. Nevertheless, non-Calvinists object that these doctrines discourage the world from seeking salvation. An additional point of disagreement with Arminianism implicit in the five points is the Calvinist understanding of the doctrine of Jesus' substitutionary atonement as a punishment for the sins of the elect, which was developed by St. Augustine and especially St. Anselm. Calvinists argue that if Christ takes the punishment in the place of a particular sinner, that person must be saved since it would be unjust for him then to be condemned for the same sins. The definitive and binding nature of this "satisfaction model" has led Arminians to subscribe instead to the governmental theory of the atonement in which no particular sins or sinners are in view.

Attempts to reform Calvinism

Many efforts have been undertaken to reform Calvinism and especially the doctrine of the Reformed churches. The most notable and earliest of these was the theological and political movement called Arminianism, already mentioned in connection with the Synod of Dordrecht. Arminianism was rejected by most Reformed churches, but ultimately prevailed in the Church of England, despite Calvinism being the formally adopted system of doctrine in that church.

"Four-point Calvinism"

Another revision of Calvinism is called Amyraldism, "hypothetical universalism", or "four-point Calvinism", which drops the point on Limited Atonement in favor of an unlimited atonement saying that God has provided Christ's atonement for all alike, but seeing that none would believe on their own, he then elects those whom he will bring to faith in Christ, thereby preserving the Calvinist doctrine of unconditional election. This doctrine was most thoroughly systematized by the French Reformed theologian at the University of Saumur, Moses Amyraut, for whom it is named. His formulation was an attempt to bring Calvinism more nearly alongside the Lutheran view. It was popularized in England by the Reformed pastor Richard Baxter and gained strong adherence among the Congregationalists and some Presbyterians in the American colonies, during the 17th and 18th centuries. In the United States, Amyraldism can be found among various evangelical groups, but "five point" Calvinism is prevalent especially in conservative and moderate groups among the Reformed churches, Reformed Baptists, and some non-denominational churches.

Neo-Orthodoxy

In the mainline Reformed churches, Calvinism has undergone significant revision through the influence of Karl Barth and neo-orthodox theology. Barth was an important Swiss Reformed theologian who began writing early in the 20th century, whose chief accomplishment was to counter-act the influence of the Enlightenment in the churches, especially as this had led to the toleration of Nazism in the Germanic countries of Western Europe. The Barmen declaration is an expression of the Barthian reform of Calvinism. The revisions Barth proposed are radical and impossible to concisely discuss in comparison to classical Calvinism but generally involve the complete rejection of natural theology. Conservative Calvinists (as well as some liberal reformers) regard it as confusing to use the name "Calvinism" to refer to neo-orthodoxy or other liberal revisions stemming from Calvinist churches.

Other Calvinist movements

Besides the traditional movements within the conservative Reformed churches, several trends have arisen through the attempt to provide a contemporary, but theologically conservative approach to the world.

Neo-Calvinism

A version of Calvinism that has been adopted by both theological conservatives and liberals gained influence in the Dutch Reformed churches, late in the 19th century, dubbed "neo-Calvinism", which developed along lines of the theories of Dutch theologian, statesman and journalist, Abraham Kuyper. More traditional Calvinist critics of the movement characterize it as a revision of Calvinism, although a conservative one in comparison to modernist Christianity or neo-orthodoxy. Neo-calvinism, "calvinianism", or the "reformational movement", is a response to the influences of the Enlightenment, but generally speaking it does not touch directly on the articles of salvation. Neo-Calvinists intend their work to be understood as an update of the Calvinist worldview in response to modern circumstances, which is an extension of the Calvinist understanding of salvation to scientific, social and political issues. To show their consistency with the historic Reformed movement, supporters may cite Calvin's Institutes, book 1, chapters 1-3, and other works. In the United States, Kuyperian neo-Calvinism is represented among others, by the Center for Public Justice, a faith-based political think-tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. Neo-Calvinism branched off in more theologically conservative movements in the United States. The first of these to rise to prominence became apparent through the writings of Francis Schaeffer, who had gathered around himself a group of scholars, and propagated their ideas in writing and through a Calvinist study center in Switzerland, called L'Abri. This movement generated a reawakened social consciousness among Evangelicals, especially in response to abortion, and was one of the formative influences which brought about the "Moral Majority" phenomenon in the United States, in the early 1980s.

Christian Reconstructionism

Another Calvinist movement called Christian Reconstructionism is much smaller, more radical, and theocratic, but by some believed to be widely influential in American family and political life. Reconstructionism is a distinct revision of Kuyper's approach, which sharply departs from that root influence through the complete rejection of pluralism, and by formulating suggested applications of the sanctions of Biblical Law for modern civil governments. These distinctives are the least influential aspects of the movement. Its intellectual founder, the late Rousas J. Rushdoony, based much of his understanding on the apologetical insights of Cornelius Van Til, professor at Westminster Theological Seminary. It has some influence in the conservative Reformed churches in which it was born, and in Calvinistic Baptist and Charismatic churches mostly in the United States, Canada, and to a lesser extent in the U.K. Reconstructionism aims toward the complete rebuilding of the structures of society on Christian and Biblical presuppositions, not, according to its promoters, in terms of "top down" structural changes, but through the steady advance of the Gospel of Christ as men and women are converted, who then live out their obedience to God in the areas for which they are responsible. In keeping with the Theonomic Principle, it seeks to establish laws and structures that will best instantiate the ethical principles of the Bible, including the Old Testament as expounded in the case laws and summarized in the Decalogue. Not a political movement, strictly speaking, Reconstructionism has nonetheless been influential in the development of the Christian Right and what some critics have called, "Dominionism".

Supralapsarianism - "High Calvinism"

Supralapsarianism refers to the view that before time began God chose ("elected") people to be saved or condemned before (supra) the decree to allow man to fall (lapse) from perfection into sin. In this context God chose to desplay his glory in both his mercy and justice by creating people who would, indeed, all sin and among all of those, particular persons who would repent and believe in Christ as Lord and Savior and receive God's mercy (the elect) and particular persons who would not and would receive God's justice (the reprobate). As such, Supralapsarianism suggests a double decree of predestination (some to salvation and some to condemnation). Supralapsarianism lost out to Infralapsarianism at the Syond of Dordtrecht (1618) in the Netherlands (see Infralapsarianism), but remains a current theological stance among some present-day calvinists.

Infralapsarianism - "Low Calvinism"

Infralapsarianism refers to the view that before time began God chose ("elected") people to be saved in the context of or after (infra) the decision to allow man to fall (lapse) from perfection into sin. In this context God chose to save some people while allowing others to remain in the sin and misery into which they had fallen. As such, Infralapsarianism avoids the idea that God created some people to be condemned. (See Supralapsarianism) Infralapsarianism vied with Supralapsarianism at the Syond of Dordtrecht (1618) in the Netherlands. There this international body representing calvinist (Reformed/Anglican/Presbyterian) Christian churches from around Europe inclined toward the Infralapsarian position, stating in the Canons of Dordt, First Point of Doctrine, Article 7: "Before the foundation of the world, by sheer grace, according to the free good pleassure of his will, he chose in Christ to salvation a definite number of particular people out of the entire human race which had fallen by its own fault from its orignial innocence into sin and ruin. (Translation from Ecumenical Creeds and Reformed Confessions, CRC Publications, Grand Rapids, MI, 1988, page 124, italics and bolding added.)

Puritan

The Puritans were members of a group of English Protestants seeking further reforms or even separation from the established church during the Reformation.

Terminology

The word Puritan is now applied unevenly to a number of Protestant churches from the late 16th century to the early 18th century. Puritans did not, by and large, use the term for themselves. It was a term of abuse that first surfaced in the 1560s. "Recusants", "Precisemen", and "Precisions" were other early antagonistic terms for Puritans who preferred to call themselves "the godly." The word "Puritan" was thus always a descriptor of a type of religious belief, rather than a particular religious sect. That said, the single theological movement most consistently self-described by the term "Puritan" was Reformed or Calvinist and led to the establishment of the Presbyterian Church. The term was used by the group itself mainly in the sixteenth century, though it seems to have been used often and in its earliest recorded instances as a term of abuse. By the middle of the 17th century the group had become so divided that "Puritan" was most often used by opponents and detractors of the group, rather than by the practitioners themselves. The practitioners knew themselves as members of particular churches or movements, and not by the simple term.

History

Puritanism seems to have arisen out of discontent with the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, which was felt by the more radical Protestants to be giving in to "Popery" (i.e., the Catholic Church). While Protestant movements in Europe were being driven by issues of theology and had broken radically with Catholic models of church organization, the English Reformation had brought the church under control of the monarchy while leaving many of its practices intact; in the eyes of the Puritans, this had made doctrine unacceptably subservient to politics. Persecuted under Mary I of England ("Bloody Mary"), Protestants like Thomas Cartwright, Walter Travers and Andrew Melville had gone into exile as Puritans in Europe, where they came into close contact with the radical reformers in Calvinist Geneva and Lutheran Germany. These contacts shaped their position towards Elizabeth's religious via media (middle way). Although all influenced by Calvinism, Puritans were not united on every issue of doctrine. This is an outgrowth of the origins of the movement, which went through several phases. They shared a belief that all existing churches had become corrupted by practice, by contact with pagan civilizations (particularly Rome), by the impositions of kings and popes. They all argued for a restructuring and "purifying" of church practice through biblical supremacy, and they shared, to one degree or another, a belief in the priesthood of all believers. However, in church polity (organization of church power), they differed. At the outset, Puritans were simply the informed, committed, and relatively radical Protestants. As a group, they wanted the Church of England to resemble more closely the Protestant churches of Europe, especially Geneva. The Puritans objected to ornaments and ritual in the churches as idolatrous (vestments, organs, genuflection), which they castigated as "popish pomp and rags." (See Vestments controversy.) They also objected to ecclesiastical courts. They refused to endorse completely all of the ritual directions and formulas of the Book of Common Prayer; the imposition of its liturgical order by legal force and inspection sharpened Puritanism into a definite opposition movement. By the 1570s, Puritans were arguing for a Presbyterian model or a Congregationalist model, but all were outspoken in their criticism of the structure and liturgy that the monarchy required. Attempts by the bishops of the Church of England to enforce uniformity of usage in the Book of Common Prayer turned the episcopal hierarchy into a specific target of their grievances. Tracts such as the Martin Marprelate series lampooned the government and the church hierarchs. The issue of church hierarchy was difficult, and Elizabeth sponsored Richard Hooker to write Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity to counter presbyterian arguments. Hooker writes in direct refutation of the "brothers of the Geneva Church," and he outlines a via media for the English church that, rather than being the absence of doctrine, is a set of specifically ordained rules. His thinking on the matter became the backbone of the Anglican church and would later be put to use by Archbishop William Laud. These radicals were looked down on by the dominant Anglo-Catholic faction in the Church of England and were given the name "Puritan", in mockery of the radicals' apparent obsession with "purifying" the Church. Contemporarily with the English Reformation, the Church of Scotland had been created on a Calvinist Presbyterian model, which many Puritans hoped to extend to England. When James VI of Scotland became James I of England, he appointed several known Puritans to powerful positions within the Church of England, and he checked the rise of William Laud. Nevertheless, he was no Puritan, and he regarded Puritans with great suspicion. Since he believed in royal control of the Church he saw Puritanism as a potentially dangerous movement; he authorized the King James Bible partly to reinforce Anglican orthodoxy against the Geneva Bible, which had become popular among Puritans. Luther had insisted on a vulgar Bible for each language, as well as for vernacular church services. Since all Puritan sects were, essentially, believers in biblical supremacy, the presence of an English language Bible was paramount. The Geneva Bible, however, had peculiarly anti-royalist translations and interpolated revolutionary notes. Each new round of political disappointments during this period faced each individual Puritan and the Puritan congregations with a new crisis. The question was whether they were to continue in outward conformity with a distasteful religious regime, or did they take the separatist and illegal step of withdrawal from the state church? Each fresh controversy led to a new round of schisms, and as such the groundwork was set for the eventual heirs of Puritanism, from the "low-church" Protestant and Evangelical wing of the Church of England, to the various dissenting sects. During the reign of Charles I, a committed High Churchman, relations soured and it is generally held among historians that religious tensions created by the dominance of the Laudian faction during the Personal Rule were a major factor in the outbreak of the English Civil War. Puritans certainly agitated against the king, and reform of the religion was a rallying cry for the Parliamentary forces. However, Puritanism by this point had become not merely a religion, but a cultural entity. By this time, Puritans were more often referred to as Dissenters. English Dissenters were barred from any profession that required official religious conformity, and so Puritans had been instrumental in a number of new industries. First, export/import was dominated by Puritans. Second, Puritans were eager colonials. With the flourishing of the trans-Atlantic trade with America, Puritans in England were growing quite wealthy. Similarly, the artisan classes had become increasingly Puritan, thanks to the Puritan emphasis on preaching and evangelizing. Therefore, the economic issues of the Civil War (tax levies, liberalization of royal charters), the political issues of the Civil War (purchasing of peerages, increasing disconnect between the House of Lords and the people, rebellion over the attempt to introduce a Divine right of kings to Charles I), and the religious tensions were all bound together into a general issue of Church of England Cavaliers and Puritan Roundheads. Puritan factions played a key role in the Parliamentarian victory and became a majority in Parliament, while Puritan military leader Oliver Cromwell became head of the English Commonwealth. In the Commonwealth period, the Church of England was removed from Royal control and reorganized to grant greater authority to local congregations, most of which developed in a Puritan and semi-Calvinist direction. There was never an official Puritan denomination; the Commonwealth government tolerated a somewhat broader debate on doctrinal issues than had previously been possible, and considerable theological and political conflict between Puritan factions continued throughout this period. The label "Puritan" fell out of use when their movement became the status quo; it was replaced by the broader term Nonconformist, which was used after the Restoration to refer to all Protestant denominations outside of the official Church, as well as the continuing use of the pejorative name "Dissenter" (for non-Conforming Protestants, as opposed to Catholics). The influence of the Puritan movement persisted in England as the Evangelical faction of the Church of England, sometimes called "Low Anglican", while in the United States the Puritan settlement of New England was a major influence on American Protestantism. The Puritans were one branch of dissenters who decided that the Church of England was beyond reform. Escaping persecution from church leadership and the King, they came to America. Most of the Puritans settled in the New England area. As they immigrated and formed individual colonies, their numbers rose from 17,800 in 1640 to 106,000 in 1700. [http://www.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/puritans.html] (See Pilgrim fathers and Mayflower). The largest denominational group to emerge from the Puritan experience is the group of Presbyterian denominations, historically Calvinist, and practising a church policy that rejects episcopacy, though, of course, Presbyterianism had been strong in Scotland from the late sixteenth century (the Church of Scotland was and still is Presbyterian). The various Baptist denominations also grew in strength in England during the Commonwealth. During this period, the Religious Society of Friends (popularly known as "Quakers") was founded and grew remarkably in strength, though the theology of the Society of Friends is radically different from that of Puritanism (for example, they rejected the doctrine of predestination), and can be seen as a reaction against Calvinist belief in a period of religious upheaval. This period of religious upheaval also saw the appearance of more radical sects, such as the Diggers (Christian communists) and the allegedly antinomian Ranters. The modern Congregational Church (which merged with the Evangelical and Reformed Church in 1957 to form the United Church of Christ) is the direct descendant of New England Puritan congregations, although in the early 19th century a few of these old congregations adopted Unitarianism.

Beliefs

The central tenet of Puritanism was God's supreme authority over human affairs, particularly in the church, and especially as expressed in the Bible. This view led them to seek both individual and corporate conformance to the teaching of the Bible, and it led them to pursue both moral purity down to the smallest detail as well as ecclesiastical purity to the highest level. On the individual level, the Puritans emphasized that each person should be continually reformed by the grace of God to fight against indwelling sin and do what is right before God. A humble and obedient life would arise for every Christian. The Puritans tended to admire the early church fathers and quoted them liberally in their works. In addition to arming the Puritans to fight against later developments of the Roman Catholic tradition, these studies also led to the rediscovery of some ancient scruples. Chrysostom, a favorite of the Puritans, spoke eloquently against drama and other worldly endeavors, and the Puritans adopted his view when decrying what they saw as the decadent culture of England, famous at that time for its plays and bawdy London. The Pilgrims (the separatist, congregationalist Puritans who went to North America) are likewise famous for banning from their New England colonies many secular entertainments, such as games of chance, maypoles, and drama, all of which were perceived as kinds of immorality. At the level of the church body, the Puritans believed that the worship of the church ought to be strictly regulated by what is commanded in the Bible (known as the regulative principle). The Puritans condemned as idolatry many worship practices regardless of the practices' antiquity or widespread adoption among Christians, which their opponents defended with tradition. Like some of Reformed churches on the European continent, Puritan reforms were typified by a minimum of ritual and decoration and by an unambiguous emphasis on preaching. Like the early church fathers they eliminated the use of musical instruments in their worship services, for various theological and practical reasons. Another important distinction was the Puritan approach to church-state relations. They opposed the Anglican idea of the supremacy of the monarch in the church (Erastianism), and following Calvin they argued that the only head of the Church in heaven or earth is Christ (not the Pope or Archbishop of Canterbury). However, they believed that secular governors are accountable to God (not through the church, but alongside it) to protect and reward virtue, including "true religion", and to punish wrongdoers — a policy that is best described as non-interference rather than separation of church and state. The separating Congregationalists, a segment of the Puritan movement more radical than the Anglican Puritans, believed the Divine Right of Kings was heresy, a belief that became more pronounced during the reign of Charles I of England. Other notable beliefs included:
- An emphasis on private study of the Bible
- A desire to see education and enlightenment for the masses (especially so they could read the Bible for themselves)
- The priesthood of all believers
- The Pope was an Antichrist
- Simplicity in worship, the exclusion of vestments, images, candles, etc.
- Some approved of the church hierarchy, but others sought to reform the episcopal churches on the presbyterian model. Some separatist Puritans were presbyterian, but most were congregationalists. In addition to promoting lay education, it was important to the Puritans to have knowledgeable, educated pastors, who could read the Bible in its original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, as well as ancient and modern church tradition and scholarly works, which were most commonly written in Latin, and so most of their divines undertook rigorous studies at the University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge before seeking ordination. Diversions for the educated included discussing the Bible and its practical applications as well as reading the classics such as Cicero, Virgil, and Ovid. They also encouraged the composition of poetry that was religious nature, though they eschewed religious-erotic poetry except for the Song of Solomon, which they considered magnificent poetry, without error, regulative for their sexual pleasure, and, especially, as an allegory of Christ and the Church. In modern usage, the word puritan is often used as an informal pejorative for someone who has strict views on sexual morality, disapproves of recreation, and wishes to impose these beliefs on others. None of these qualities were unique to Puritanism or universally characteristic of the Puritans themselves, whose moral views and ascetic tendencies were no more extreme than many other Protestant reformers of their time, and who were relatively tolerant of other faiths — at least in England. The popular image is slightly more accurate as a description of Puritans in colonial America, who were among the most radical Puritans and whose social experiment took the form of a Calvinist theocracy.

Controversy

Today, Puritans are subjected to various interpretations and criticisms. One common criticism is that Puritans were close-minded and fundamentalists. Many pundits posit a Puritan spirit in the United States' political culture, especially in its historical tendency to oppose things such as alcohol and sexuality. This view has been criticized by some authors such as Michael Moore, who in Stupid White Men identifies American prohibitionism and fear of sexuality as having roots in slavery rather than in Puritanism. On the contrary, some critics have credited Puritanism as being the very spirit that founded American democracy. This view first appeared in Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America. According to Tocqueville, Puritans were hard-working, egalitarian and studious. There are authors who stake out a middle ground, such as John A. Morone, who in his book Hellfire Nation credits opposing tendencies within Puritanism with being the roots of both American democracy, through the desire to improve society and the world as a whole, and on the other hand with paranoia, hate, racism, sexism, and hatred of sexuality and youth.

Orthography

In the United States, "Puritan" has not always been the only acceptable spelling. Through the twentieth century, "Puritain" was an acceptable alternative spelling in British English. During the seventeenth and eighteenth century in England, the word was spelled both with and without the second i. "Puritain" was more common in the sixteenth century. The word derives from "purity" in English, and the third syllable formation can be justifiably spelled -ain or -an, depending upon which language one derives "dweller"/"practitioner" from.

1669

Events

- March 11 - Mount Etna erupts - the eruption destroys the town of Nicolasi and kills 20.000
- June 22 - Roux de Marsilly publicly tortured to death in Paris accused of plotting to assassination of the Louis XIV
- June 25 - Francois de Vendome, Duke of Beaufort, disappears during a battle in a siege of Candia in Crete
- September 23 - Leopold I Habsburg grants the status and privileges of a university to the Jesuit Academy in Zagreb, the precursor to the modern University of Zagreb
- Samuel Pepys stops writing his diary.
- The Mogul Emperor Aurangzeb destroys several Hindu temples and banned the whole religion, so Hindus rebel.
- Antonio Stradivari makes his first violin
- Famine in Bengal kills 3 million people
- The Hanseatic League, formed 400 years ago, holds its final meeting
- Ottoman Turks take Candia, the Venetians lose Crete
- Francois de Beaufort, grandson of Henry IV of France, goes missing at Candia, presumed dead
- The Chinese herbal medicine company Tongrentang, or 同仁堂 in Chinese, is established.

Births

- February 2 - Louis Marchand, French organist and harpsichordist (d. 1732)
- May 26 - Sébastien Vaillant, French botanist (d. 1722)
- August 24 - Alessandro Marcello, Italian composer (d. 1747)

Deaths

- February 23 - Leo Aitzema, Dutch historian and statesman (b. 1600)
- March 10 - John Denham, English poet (b. 1615)
- May 14 - Georges de Scudéry, French writer (b. 1601)
- May 16 - Pietro da Cortona, Italian artist (b. 1596)
- June 25 - François de Vendôme, duc de Beaufort, French soldier (b. 1616)
- September 10 - Henrietta Maria, queen of Charles I of England (b. 1609)
- October 4 - Rembrandt, Dutch painter (b. 1606)
- October 14 - Antonio Cesti, Italian composer (b. 1623)
- October 24 - William Prynne, English Puritan leader (b. 1600)
- November 4 - Johannes Cocceius, Dutch theologian (b. 1603)
- December 9 - Pope Clement IX (b. 1600)
- December 16 - Nathaniel Fiennes, English politician

Publications

- Algemeene Verhandeling van de bloedeloose dierkens by Jan Swammerdam, groundbreaking work in microscopy as well as entomology
- Der Abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch by Hans von Grimmelshausen, the first major German novel
- Tyrannic Love by John Dryden
- Tartuffe by Molière
- Britannicus by Jean Racine Category:1669 ko:1669년

East Windsor, Connecticut

East Windsor is a town located in Hartford County, Connecticut. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 9,818.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 69.5 km² (26.8 mi²). 68.1 km² (26.3 mi²) of it is land and 1.4 km² (0.5 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 1.98% water.

Demographics

As of the census ² of 2000, there are 9,818 people, 4,078 households, and 2,556 families residing in the town. The population density is 144.2/km² (373.5/mi²). There are 4,356 housing units at an average density of 64.0/km² (165.7/mi²). The racial makeup of the town is 91.47% White, 4.09% African American, 0.16% Native American, 2.00% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.83% from other races, and 1.41% from two or more races. 2.11% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 4,078 households out of which 27.5% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.7% are married couples living together, 10.1% have a female householder with no husband present, and 37.3% are non-families. 30.0% of all households are made up of indiv

Jonathan Edwards (theologian)

Early life

Great Awakening

Later years

Influence

See also

External links

Jonathan Edwards (disambiguation)

1703

Events

Births

Deaths

March 22

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links

Calvinism

Historical background

General description

Summaries of Calvinist theology

The five solas

Sovereign grace

"Life is religion"

The five points

Attempts to reform Calvinism

"Four-point Calvinism"

Neo-Orthodoxy

Other Calvinist movements

Neo-Calvinism

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Puritan

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East Windsor, Connecticut

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