Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin were both prominent leaders in colonial America who were dedicated to hard work and a belief in the basic goodness of all men. Sharing in these basic concepts they went about making a major contribution to society but did so in different ways.
The personalities of Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin could not have been any different. Edwards was a strict Calvinist who was serious and reserved while Franklin was a Deist whose warmth and gregarious personality was legendary. Taking different views in many ways to life they still adhered to their basic beliefs that there was no substitute for hard work.
As a Deist, Franklin believed that every life situation could be resolved through the use of reason. Franklin's writings on life and his extensive work in the areas of philosophy and science are evidence of his basic attitude toward life. Edwards, meanwhile, believed strongly in the Calvinist concept of predestination and the idea that a strong belief...
For Edwards, everything was explainable through God. For Franklin, reason was the key. Nevertheless, both men were reflective and determined to spend their days examining their own lives and considering how they could improve themselves. In the process, Edwards felt it his obligation to be an example for others and to go about preaching his beliefs. Franklin, however, never viewed himself as a role model for others or did he set out to suggest to others how to lead their lives.
Both Franklin and Edwards were highly driven men who had an intense desire to succeed. Franklin began his wide and varied professional career as a printer who eventually became actively involved in the political affairs of the day. Reading and learning were his passion and he spent his entire life educating himself on a variety of matters. He may have been the most Renaissance man of his times. Edwards was a preacher whose primary concern was preparing himself…
American Literature Listen to Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God preached. Discuss in the discussion group. Jonathan Edwards gives us a perfect example of the Calvinist beliefs of the Puritan settlers in early New England. Edwards studied theology at Yale University -- where today there is still a dormitory named after him -- but then became a noteworthy preacher in the Great Awakening, which exhorted an entire generation to renew
Self-Made Man and the Recipient of Divine Grace: Benjamin Franklin vs. Jonathan Edwards Despite the fact that both Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Edwards are honored as two of the greatest authors of colonial America, they could not be more different in their ideological orientations. Edwards (1703-1758) is perhaps most famous for penning the image of the human soul as a spider in the hand of a merciful God, suspended above the
Benjamin Franklin termed himself a pragmatic deist. He believes "there is one Supreme must perfect being," however that this being is distant, and that it is not necessary to build a personal relationship with such a supreme God. He concluded that it was useful and correct to believe that a faith in God should inform our daily actions. However, he did not believe in sectarian dogma, burning spirituality or deep
Sinners in the hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards, and "The Autobiography - Part 1" by Benjamin Franklin. Specifically, it will discuss the major changes in religious belief between the angry God of Jonathan Edwards and the benevolent Deism of Benjamin Franklin. It is quite clear these two men have very different ideas about God, his ideals, and their own religious goals. Both men have a strong
nature in American literature, from earliest writings to the Civil War period. It is my purpose to outline the connection between spirituality, freedom and nature and explain how American writers have chosen to reflect and interpret these themes in relation to their historical realities. At the beginning of the colonization process there were two congruent depictions of nature. Initially, the tribes comprising The Iroquois League lived in close contact with
The multitudes of all sects and denominations that attended his sermons were enormous, and it was matter of speculation to me, who was one of the number, to observe the extraordinary influence of his oratory on his hearers (Brannan 1998). Franklin, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence and a true Democrat, saw both Whitefield's democratic tendencies and the threat that he posed to the Established Church. He noted that