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Joseph Vaughan
Dr. Rowe
English 2327
Essay Exam I
7 March 2012
In Search of the Straight and Narrow: Woolman, Edwards, and the Redemption of Souls
There is perhaps no greater joint testament to the intellectual and ecclesiastical diversity
that is embedded in the fabric of American religious culture than the perpendicular lives and
works of Jonathan Edwards and John Woolman. In spite of their superficial—one might say
demographic—homogeneity, these two men pursued virtually opposing public and religious
trajectories. The distinction that exists between the two is all the more remarkable given that
their individual beliefs and principles bifurcated so acutely under what is, at least ostensibly, a
shared theological tradition—i.e., the Christian faith. Accordingly, the two men urged, each in
his own way, others to strive toward dramatically different religious ends within the framework
of Christianity. In spite of their obvious dissimilarities, however, it is essential to establish both
Woolman and Edwards as bona fide evangelists. Although their methods could hardly have been
more distinct, they nevertheless shared the same objective: to save the souls of their fellow men.
It is only in the accomplishment of that aim that the two men diverged.
Edwards and Woolman occupied entirely different stations in their two communities—a
reality that determined to a large extent the manner in which they sought to influence the lives
and convictions of others. Edwards was, in every sense, a public intellectual—one whose
writings and sermons utterly dominated Protestant thought in eighteenth-century New England.
In part because of his celebrity, but also as a result of his position as a minister, Edwards
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cultivates a certain quality of remoteness that pervades his works. In his famous sermon,
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Edwards writes, “How dreadful is the state of those
that are daily and hourly in the danger of [God’s] great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the
dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born again” (434-435). Contrast
this impersonal, somewhat supercilious adjudication with the almost tender biographical
intimacy of Woolman, who explicates his own agonizing process of spiritual growth: “I
remember one evening I had spent some time in reading a pious author, and walking out alone I
humbly prayed to the Lord for His help, that I might be delivered from all those vanities which
so ensnared me” (591). While Edwards reveals nothing of the state of his own salvation—
presumably his soul has been safely ransomed long ago—Woolman takes the approach of
recreating, often in painstaking detail, his innermost struggles with faith and obedience.
Again from Woolman: “Being thus awakened to a sense of my wickedness, I felt remorse
in my mind […] and prayed to the Lord to forgive me” (589). It is difficult to imagine Edwards
ever giving such a public testimony, as he apparently regards his place of authority to be
incompatible with any revelation of personal deficiency. Instead, all his exertions are devoted to
prompting the members of his congregation to look inward; consequently, he endeavors to
remove himself from consideration as much as possible. Another aspect of that sense of
detachment is his tendency to speak on behalf of the Almighty. He states in the same sermon,
"God seems now to be hastily gathering in His elect in all parts of the land; and probably the
greater part of adult persons that ever shall be saved, will be brought in now in a little time"
(Edwards 436). His reputation as a scholar and intellectual, combined with his standing in the
church, allows Edwards to take certain liberties than many others, Woolman included, would
probably avoid. In fact, John Woolman represents himself very much as one of the common
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people, someone who is endowed with no special gift for interpreting the divine will.
Another important theme undergirding the works of Edwards is the degree to which,
given his capacities as both a minister and a public intellectual, his writings tend to view similar
concepts differently depending on who it is he seeks to influence. In his “Letter to Rev. Dr.
Benjamin Colman,” for example, Edwards writes, “People are brought off from inordinate
engagedness after the world, and have been ready to run into the other extreme of too much
neglecting their worldly business and to mind nothing but religion” (420). The freedom to speak
openly that is allotted Edwards in a clergyman-to-clergyman correspondence reveals a side of the
man that is perhaps less rigidly focused than one might suspect solely on the basis of his public
persona. Place the above statement in juxtaposition with the following proclamation, this time
from the pulpit: “[I]t would be no wonder if some persons, that now sit here, in some seats of this
meetinghouse, in health, quiet and secure, should be [in hell] before tomorrow morning” (435).
He quite deliberately attempts to exploit that fear of death—and of that which lies beyond it—
that is all but innate to human nature, yet he is not so fanatical as to believe it wise to take no
care for the morrow, as it were, in a fully literal sense.
While Edwards’s multiple societal roles often occasion subtle contradictions in his
writings, Woolman’s autobiography testifies of a unique steadfastness of character and purpose.
He relates, for instance, a particular incident in which he gently chastised the proprietor of a
public house for allowing his patrons to carouse and cavort seemingly without restraint. Of that
same event the author writes, “I often thought that had I neglected my duty in that case it would
have given me great trouble, and I was humbly thankful to my gracious Father, who had
supported me herein” (594). Woolman earnestly struggled both to live out his beliefs as he
expressed them, and to formulate those same convictions within the flawed context of his own
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experience. The spirit of frankness and simplicity that permeates his writings diminishes the
possibility that any unspoken internal incongruities might yet exist, especially since Woolman
strives diligently to make known beforehand any inconsistencies that he recognizes in himself.
A close analysis of the writings of Edwards and Woolman reveals both the extent to
which deeply held religious beliefs can shape a person, and the degree to which individuals
choose to emphasize those aspects of a given belief system that are most compatible with their
distinct personalities and motives. Edwards takes advantage of his audience’s fear and emotional
insecurity by emphasizing the Christian doctrine of hell and divine judgment. In his sermon, he
states, “Almost every natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it […]
Every one lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself
that he contrives well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail” (429). Edwards tries to put
himself in the position of a young parishioner in desperate need of redemption, whose anxieties
with respect to death he then seeks to integrate into a lecture focused on eternal punishment.
Though Woolman is less concerned with the afterlife, his style of openness and honesty is
designed, in part, to influence. At one point he writes, “I was filled with confusion, and in great
affliction both of mind and body I lay and bewailed myself. I had not confidence to lift up my
cries to God […] but in a deep sense of my great folly I was humbled before Him" (590).
Humility before God and others is a major characteristic both of Woolman’s life and of his
writings. He seeks to nudge others in the direction of repentance by the power of his own
example, rather than through the force of their terror of death and condemnation.
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Works Cited
Edwards, Jonathan. "Letter to Rev. Dr. Benjamin Colman." The Norton Anthology of American
Literature: Volume A. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007.
417-425. Print.
---. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." The Norton Anthology of American Literature:
Volume A. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007. 425-436. Print.
Woolman, John. "The Journal of John Woolman." The Norton Anthology of American
Literature: Volume A. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007.
588-595. Print.