Surprisingly, Jonathan Edwards had a great impact on feminine speech and, by extension, the feminist movement. It is very surprising that the roots of the American feminist movement lie in the sermons of a Calvinist Puritan pastor. Although Jonathan Edwards called for a return to God and faith and in many ways was a conservative force of his time, he was a forward thinker. In order for us to get a grasp of who Edwards was and how he viewed God and his grace, we must get a grasp of how the Edwards viewed not only God and men, but also women, children and slaves as well. Edwards, due to the economy and their not being much demand for slaves in the American colonies, did not preach much on slavery. However, he did preach that God’s grace extends towards every man, woman and child in creation and he, unlike many of his contemporaries, encouraged women to talk about these spiritual things. This laid the ground for many of the “feminine” movements that rose up throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including the temperance movement, the abolitionist movement, the child-labor movement and ultimately the feminist movement. I would use this text to show that Edwards’ work has had great repercussions throughout history and continues to affect our lives today.

The extensive use of lights and shadows are important motifs the great sermons of Jonathan Edwards. Although many people believe that Edwards’ use of light and shadow was a spiritual way of how he viewed the world, I would have to say that I would agree…to a point. Edwards uses light and shadow motifs because of his position as a pastor whose job was to be a spiritual compass to his people, but also to teach the truth of the Bible. Teaching the truth of the Bible, I believe, is why he uses so many of these analogies throughout his sermons. Many people forget that much of Hebrew literature is full of light and shadow analogies, and I believe that because of Edwards’ extensive background in the Scriptures, the light/shadow motif is not original material but rather borrowed from numerous passages in the Old and New Testament. I would use this article and use it as an example of how some people can misinterpret Edwards and, in conjunction with several passages of Biblical scripture, refute the idea that Edwards was more poetic than he seemed. Although Edwards was a good writer, he wasn’t original. Just about everything he wrote came from the Bible, including his numerous references to light and shadow.