SOURCE: Shea, William M. “Jonathan Edwards and Sarah Pierpont: An Uncommon Union.” In Foundations of Religious Literacy, edited by John V. Apczynski, pp. 107-26. Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1983.

In the following essay, Shea argues that Jonathan Edwards's theological defense of the first Great Awakening was dependent upon his wife's descriptions of her religious experience.

I

Ritual printing in college anthologies of Jonathan Edwards' gripping sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” exhausted religious interest in him for the past century.¹ In an unusual compliment to the literary power of this Calvinist, even Catholics read it, perhaps because he said so well what they already believed. But now no one seems to believe it any longer, and college students these days know little more of him than they do of hell or the angry God.

Edwards contributed to the first Great Awakening of 1740. He was one of...