Old Age and Religion in the Writings and Life of Jonathan Edwards

• Published in: Church history Vol. 70; no. 4; pp. 674 - 704
• Main Author: Minkema, Kenneth P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.12.2001; American Society of Church History
• Subjects: 17th-18th century; Age; Age groups; Attitudes; Children; Christian history; Christianity; Churches; Clergy; Collectanea; Edwards, Jonathan (1703-1758); History; History and sciences of religions; Modern period; Older adults; Older people; Pastors; Post-Reformation churches; Religion; Religious literature; Religious mentalities; United States of America; England; Grace; Puritanism; Preaching; Youth; Protestantism; Presbyterianism; Sermon; Congregation; Elderly; Minister; Old age
• ISSN: 0009-6407; 1755-2613
• DOI: 10.2307/3654545

In his Faithful Narrative of a Surprising Work of God, an account of the awakening of 1734–35 in his church at Northampton, Massachusetts, Jonathan Edwards excitedly reported a considerable number of old persons among the several hundred converts. “I suppose,” he wrote, “there were … more than twenty of them above fifty, and about ten of them above sixty, and two of them above seventy years of age.” Edwards's evident self-satisfaction stemmed from the widespread belief that conversion among the elderly was unusual. “It has been a thing heretofore rarely to be heard of,” he noted, “that any were converted past middle age; but now we have the same ground to think that many such have in this time been savingly changed, as that others have been so in more early years.”