onathan Edwards has been described as the first and greatest homegrown American philosopher. He was an ordained minister, a theologian, a missionary, and a man of letters, producing some 100,000 pages during his lifetime. Briefly, towards the end of his life, he was President of The College of New Jersey (later renamed Princeton University).
In these period with the exception of outstanding political writing, such as Common sense, Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers and so on, few works of note appeared. Even if there appeared poetry and fiction, they were full of imitativeness and vague universality. So most Americans were painfully aware of their excessive dependence on English literary models. The search for a native literature became a national obsession.
Revolutionary Period (1775-1783)
• ―The Age of Reason‖ ―American Enlightenment‖
• 1700年，新大陆形成殖民地联合体，效忠英王， 以新教为主，主事农业，以英语为主。人们的欲 望：物质+精神。朴实的理想主义+粗俗的物质至 上主义。
• As the first modern American---trying to reconciling Puritan ideas with the new rationalism of John Lock (knowledge is empirical, its sources being the sense) and Newton’s mechanical view of the universe
Historical background
• 1 The great awakening (1730s—1740s) series of religious revivals, led by Jonathan Edwards—the greatness of God’s sovereign and human being’s sinfulness • 2. The enlightenment/the age of reason –it is an intellectual revolution originated in the European Continent, and then its impact found expression in American the enlighteners advocated publicly to study man instead of God • The enlightenment emphasized on “reason”, and required people to pay attention to the social reality, and advocating eduation and scientific research • 3. The War of independence
• Roger Williams (1603-1683) • Preach for civil and religious liberty and against the puritan oligarchy of Boston. • Call for democratic government and oppose to the eviction of the Indians. • Works: The Bloody Tenet of Persecution for the Cause of Conscience
• • • •
John Woolman(1720-1772) From a pious Quaker family Transcendentalism humanitarianism Plea for the rights of all men and the abolition of the slavery system. • Works: Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes; A Plea for the Poor.
• As the last medieval man--I have had a …constant sense of the absolute sovereignty of God (1)doctrine of inward communication of soul with God 2) belief in the regeneration of man; urging his people to enjoy “conversion” with the help of God 3) doctrine of the immanence of God in nature)
• His work as a whole is an expression of two themes — the absolute sovereignty of God and the beauty of God's holiness.
Metaphysics
• 2.1 Theological Determinism • 2.2 Occasionalism, Idealism, Mental Phenomenalism, and Views on Identity • 2.3 God as Being in General • 2.4 God's End in Creation
Enlightenment thinkers and writers, such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine, were devoted to the ideals of justice, liberty, and equality as the natural rights of man.
• Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) is widely acknowledged to be America's most important and original philosophical theologian
Works
• A History of the Work of Redemption - Series of sermons preached in 1739 and published posthumously by his son of the same name. • Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards - EText with seven sermons. 1904 edition with introduction and notes by H. Norman Gardiner. • Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God - Sermon preached at Enfield, Connecticut on July 8, 1741. Evans Early American Imprint Collection. • The Jonathan Edwards Collection
4) Despite these we should pay attention to several points in this period: William Hill Brown (1765-1793) published the first American novel The Power of Sympathy in 1789. Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) was the first American author to attempt to live from his writing. He developed the genre of American Gothic. He employed new narrative techniques. Another significance was his description of his characters’ inner world, so his works can be read as psychological novel.
Chapter 2
Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin
Jonathan Edwards
(1703-1758)
• Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) the first modern American and the country’s last medieval man • Edwards double identities reflected in his works
1.
The 18th-century American enlightenment as a movement marked by an emphasis on rationality rather than tradition, scientific inquiry instead of unquestioning religious dogma, and representative government in place of monarchy. With Franklin as its spokesman, the 18th century America experienced an age of reason.