edwards and franklin

＊Representatives: Voltaire, Rousseau, Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Samuel Johnson, Benjamin Franklin
Ⅱ Great Awakening (1730-1755)
＊The idea of an "awakening" implies a slumber
＊Critical elements of deist thought included:
Rejection of all religions based on books that claim to contain the revealed word of God. Rejection of reports of miracles, prophecies and religious "mysteries".
The Formation of American Character:
Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin Ⅰ. Deism
1. Terminology The words deism and theism are both derived from the word god: The root of the word deism is the Latin word deus, which means "god". The root of the word theism is the Greek word theos (θεός), which also means "god".
The first time was when I was a boy, some years before I went to college at a time of remarkable awakening in my father’s congregation. I was then very much affected for many months, and concerned about the things of religion, and my soul’s salvation; and was abundant in duties. I used to pray five times a day in secret, and to spend much time in religious talk with other boys; and used to meet with them to pray together. I experienced I know not what kind of delight in religion…I had particular secret places of my own in the woods, where I used to retire by myself; and was from time to time much affected. …I began to have a new kind of apprehensions and ideas of Christ, and the work of redemption, and the glorious way of salvation by Him. An inward, sweet sense of these things, at times, came into my heart; and my soul was led away in pleasant views and contemplations of them. …my sense of divine things gradually increased, and became more and more lively, and had more of that inward sweetness. The appearance of every thing was altered; there seemed to be, as it were, a calm, sweet cast, or appearance of divine glory, in almost everything. God’s excellence, His wisdom, His purity and love, seemed to appear in every thing; in the sun, and moon, and stars; in the clouds and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water, and all nature…Before, I used to be uncommonly terrified with thunder, and to be struck with terror when I saw a thunder rising; but now, on the contrary, it rejoiced me. I felt God, so to speak, at the first appearance of a thunder storm…
3. Contents
Deism holds that God does not intervene with the functioning of the natural world in any way, allowing it to run according to the Laws of nature that he configured when he created all things.
Ⅲ Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin
Edwards and Franklin were two philosophers appearing in the 18th century. They embodied Puritan naï idealism and crude materialism ve respectively. Both of them were inheritors of the Puritan tradition. Both adopted it to the new ways of thinking of the 18th century. Edwards used Calvinist belief and tenets to stage a series of religious revivals known as the “Great Awakening” in North America from 1730 to 1755. But Franklin used deism as an effective practical support to the new ideas of progress.
2. Backgrounds Scientific Revolution of Seventeenth Century; Newton: “Philosophiae naturalis Principia Mathematica” (1687 ) (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy); the laws of motion and the idea of universal gravitation The world became mechanic.
or passivity during secular or less religious times. Thus, awakening is a term which originates and is embraced often and primarily by evangelical Christians.
＊The First Great Awakening (or The Great Awakening) was a period of
heightened religious activity, primarily in the United Kingdom and its North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. ＊a religious revival in American religious history. They were characterized by widespread revivals led by evangelical Protestant ministers, a sharp increase in interest in religion, a profound sense of guilt and redemption on the part of those affected. ＊representatives: Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, etc.
＊Constructive elements of deist thought included: God exists, created and governs the universe. God gave humans the ability to reason. God wants human beings to behave morally. Human beings have souls that survive death; That is, there is an afterlife.
The heaven I desired was a heaven of holiness; to be with God, and to spend my eternity in divine love, and holy communion with Christ. My mind was very much taken up with contemplations on heaven, and the enjoyments there; and living there in perfect holiness, humility, and love; and it used at that time to appear a great part of the happiness of heaven, that there the saints could express their love to Christ.
1. Jonathan Edwards （1703-1758）
＊The first modern American and the counபைடு நூலகம்ry’s last medieval man
＊making efforts to reconcile Puritan ideas with the new rationalism ＊representing the element of piety, the religious passion, the aspect of emotion and ecstasy; sweet delight in religion; believe in the regeneration of man; God’s overwhelming presence ＊anticipating the nature symbolism of nineteenth-century Transcendentalism ＊masterpieces: The Freedom of the Will (1754) The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended (1758) The Nature of True Virtue (1765) The Personal Narrative (1765)