Family Trip: Jonathan Edwards 2010

Tony Reinke Jonathan Edwards

This fall we are planning a return to homeschooling and along with it we are planning one course for the kids that focuses on colonial American history. My hope is that this learning will lead up nicely to a short road trip in October to track the footprints of Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and the Great Awakening.

The trip goals are simple:

(1) visit key places in the life of Jonathan Edwards,

(2) learn about the Great Awakening,

(3) better appreciate domestic life and architecture in Colonial America,

(4) better understand the 18th century tension between colonists and native Americans,

(5) appreciate the marriage of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards,

(6) learn about the person and preaching of George Whitefield and his initial meeting with Edwards in Northampton,

(7) learn about David Brainerd and the frontier missions work with the indians that Edwards later participated, and

(8) appreciate nature’s beauty.

The route will largely unfold chronologically in an 874 mile long balloon-shaped loop (see map here). The planning is early and things will change but what follows are all the locations I’m planning to hit. Most of them I have found and marked with GPS coordinates (because I’m nerdy like that). I’ll fill in the locations as I find them.

Please tell me if you know of other landmarks of interest that I have not mentioned here. We cannot see everything (sadly New Haven, CT got an early x). Please tell me what I’ve missed.

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East Windsor, CT: 1703-1716

Timothy Edwards’ church
Timothy was Edwards father and he was a pastor. This is the site of the East Windsor awakening of 1716. For background reading see Marsden, 33-34.
Location: 41.830287,-72.617598

Jonathan Edwards’ birthplace (Oct 5, 1703) and childhood
For background reading on Edwards’ childhood and his early memories of the natives see Marsden, 11-24.
Location: 41.844849,-72.611963 (birthplace marker)

Edwards Cemetery
Resting place for his parents (Timothy and Esther Edwards) and two daughters (Jerusha and Lucy).
Location: 41.848644,-72.609842

Hike: Windsor Meadows State Park
We plan to hike a bit along the way so I throw this in as one option.
Location: 41.813263,-72.647379

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Enfield, CT: 1741

“Sinners in the Hands” sermon location
On the July 8, 1741 sermon see Marsden, 219-226; Murray, 168-170. Listen to Mark Dever read/preach the message in 58-minutes (http://bit.ly/BgmwP).
Location: 41.971588,-72.592761 (stone marker)

Windsor Locks Canal State Park Trail
A beautiful <2 mile hike. Read Edwards appreciation for nature’s beauty in Miscellany #108 (Works, 13.278-280)
Location: 41.986587,-72.605060

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Northampton, MA: 1726-1750

Read Marsden, 110-374

Historic Northampton Museum
Gateway to Jonathan Edwards walking tour. The website reads (http://bit.ly/dwgaZD): “The Museum and Gift Shop are open daily, Tuesday through Saturday from 10 AM until 5 PM and on Sunday from Noon until 5 PM. Historic Northampton is closed on Mondays & Holidays.”
Location: 46 Bridge St, Northampton, MA 01060

Edwards’ home
Read about their home (Marsden, 320-323) and the historic meeting there between Jonathan Edwards and Whitefield on Oct. 17, 1740 (see Dallimore, 1:537-540; Marsden, 206-213).
location: ?? Smith College ??

Jonathan Edwards’ church location
See the commemorative plaque for the 1737 church on the front steps and the JE plaque inside. For background read about the periods of awakenings in the church read Marsden, 150-169.
Location: 42.319062,-72.630887

Bridge Street Cemetery
Resting place of David Brainerd, Jerusha Edwards, and many of the Stoddards. Read about Brainerd and Jerusha in Marsden, 320-340.
Location: 42.327452,-72.629693

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Stockbridge, CT: 1750-1758

Read Marsden, 375-428

Morning reading: Sermon, “Christ Is to the Heart Like a River to a Tree,” a brief sacramental message read and translated to the Mahican Indians in Stockbridge in August of 1751 (Works, 25:602-604).

Stockbridge Library Association
Jonathan Edwards artifacts on display.
Location: 46 Main St, Stockbridge, MA

Mission House
Read about the mission house in Marsden, 375-380, 390-391. The website reads (http://bit.ly/dm8zWc): “Open Memorial Day Weekend to Columbus Day [2nd Mon in Oct], Thursday through Monday, 11am–3pm.”
Location: 42.283161,-73.315984

Edwards’ home
Where Edwards wrote Freedom of the Will, The End for Which God Created the World, and Original Sin.
Location: perhaps 42.283143,-73.314487 (Directions “Go down street [W] a little ways from library, home site on right marked by small marble fountain.”)

UPDATED: Edwards’ church location
Location: perhaps in the area of 42.283788,-73.319806 [HT: Martyn]

UPDATED: Edwards’ monument
Location: 42.284223,-73.320254 [HT: Martyn]

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Princeton, NJ: 1758

Princeton Cemetery
Resting place for Jonathan and Sarah Edwards. Readings: Marriage summary (find a good one); passings and burials in Marsden, 490-498.
Location: 40.352509,-74.660135

Nassau Hall
Period building
Location: 40.348641,-74.659301

MacLean House
Period building (back side only)
Location: 40.349063,-74.660211

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Philadelphia, PA

George Whitefield statue
On the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, which began in 1740 as a meeting place for the crowds who flooded to hear Whitefield preach. The statue was commissioned and purchased by Benjamin Franklin. Franklin said: “I knew him intimately upwards of thirty years. His integrity, disinterestedness and indefatigable zeal in prosecuting every good work I have never seen equaled and shall never see excelled.”
Location: 39.950452,-75.197347

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Misc. places of interest we will not see

George Whitefield Rock
Whitefield preached from this boulder to a gathering of a few hundred people on Oct 16, 1740 on his way to Northampton.
Location: 42.231930,-72.126419

Old Testament Theology

Tony Reinke Biblical Theology, Old Testament, Paul House

Paul House is the author of Old Testament Theology (IVP, 1998), one of my favorite biblical theology texts (also available in Logos). I highly recommend it for understanding the theological purpose driving each block of the OT text. This weekend I discovered 20 lectures Dr. House delivered at Beeson Divinity School in 2002 on OT theology. Those lectures are available online from biblicaltraining.org where users can stream the lectures online and—after a free registration and login—download the mp3s for free. For the lectures click here.

Affirm, Share, Serve

Tony Reinke Community, Timothy Keller

Here’s a helpful organization of the “one anothers” of Scripture as they appear in Tim Keller’s study guide, Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything [ht JT]:

Affirm

1. Affirm one another’s strengths, abilities, and gifts.

2. Affirm one another’s equal importance in Christ.

3. Affirm one another through visible affection.

Share

4. Share one another’s space, goods, and time.

5. Share one another’s needs and problems.

6. Share one another’s beliefs, thinking, and spirituality.

Serve

7. Serve one another through accountability.

8. Serve one another through forgiveness and reconciliation.

9. Serve one another’s interests rather than our own.

Martin Luther, marriage counselor

Tony Reinke Marriage, Martin Luther

As Martin Luther talked his friends and associates wrote. But only a small portion of the recorded table talk conversations have been translated from the German into English, making me slightly jealous of friends who can read German, but slightly less so since Charles Daudert translated and published his 500-page Off the Record with Martin Luther: An Original Translation of the Table Talks (Hansa-Hewlett, 2009).

I’m no translation expert but it’s clear the book was carefully translated because the back cover warns readers to expect “blunt, explosive, often abusive, and many times course” language. Sounds authentic. The new book reveals a number of glimpses into Luther’s life and ministry that we would not get from any other sources, like Luther’s marriage reconciliation strategy (as recorded in the winter of 1532):

Doctor Martin Luther had traveled with Count Johann [Johann von Küstrin] to his sister [Margarehte von Brandenburg] and attempted a reconciliation between her and her husband [Johann II von Anhalt-Zerbst]. When he returned, he said: Oh, Dear God, how much energy and work will it take to bring them back together, and then after that much more effort just to keep them together! Adam’s fall so damaged our nature that we are completely unstable. It flows back and forth like quicksilver. Oh, if we could only get them to sit down at table and go to bed together! [p. 53]

There you have it.