The Importance of a Historical Perspective

Historical perspective is especially important in substantiating Jonathan Edwards’ concept of the love between the sexes as a way to think of Christ’s love toward the soul. Since it has been claimed and evidenced that Sarah is indeed the illustration of Edwards’ conception of the soul, there should also be contextual evidence that supports this postulation. This evidence will be found in two places: first, looking at the documents (i.e., miscellanies nos. 108, 189 and the letter to Sarah) time of composition and, second, personal eyewitness testimony of Jonathan and Sarah’s relationship.

The principal evidence that supports Edwards’ conception of human and divine love in relation to Sarah has to do with the time of composition between the early miscellanies’ and his letter to Sarah. As noted, the letter to Sarah was composed very early on in the courting process between the two. The general date of assumed composition of the letter to her was sometime in 1723, and this would have meant that she was only thirteen years old while Edwards was twenty.[1] This is very important for understanding the nature of Edwards’ conception of love because although he was intellectually gifted at this time, he was still only a twenty year old that would have viewed Sarah not just in a spiritual manner, but also in a physical one as well.[2] Reading the letter to Sarah and the miscellanies’ within this context reveals a very real and human component within Edwards thought. Thus, one must question strict perspectives like Claghorn’s when he says: “…the importance of [Jonathan’s] relationship to Sarah was always its spiritual nature.”[3] If this relationship was always spiritual in nature, then why does Edwards use such physical—even racy language in all of the documents in question? Thus it seems that in addition to the spiritual nature of Sarah, Jonathan also saw great physical beauty in her as well.

Like the letter to Sarah, the early miscellanies’ were also written within the same time frame. In fact, there is good evidence that miscellanies’ nos. 189 and 198 were written in 1724, only one year after the letter to Sarah.[4] Perhaps this is why Smith, Stout and Minkema say that Jonathan’s “relationship with [Sarah] is essential for our understanding of the beauty and almost sexual intimacy that he used to characterize the saint’s relationship to Christ.”[5]

In the spring of 1725, only two years after the Edwards’ wrote miscellanies’ nos. 108, 189, 198 and the letter to Sarah, they were engaged.[6] With this time frame in perspective, there is little doubt that Edwards was smitten with deep spiritual and physical love for Sarah. He not only penned intensely romantic and aesthetic theological perspectives on the nature of love between the sexes, but one can be sure that since he was deeply indebted in his devotion and love of Christ, he must have seen Sarah as a real and not just imagined holy and beautiful soul. Marsden says it well, “…the light of [Jonathan’s] earthly love for Sarah Pierpont shone ever more luminously” during this time.[7]

The second historical perspective consists of eyewitness testimony of Jonathan and Sarah’s relationship. The eyewitness accounts are from Whitefield, John Walley, and Joseph Emerson. All three accounts are more limited because they are not found in the early relationship of Edwards and Sarah, but later. Nevertheless, they are still demonstrative of Jonathan and Sarah’s deep love for one another; and in particular, they supplements Edwards’ earlier comments on the nature of Sarah’s holy and beautiful soul.

If Edwards’ letter to Sarah was symbolic, says Minkema, “it was also extremely personal.”[8] This is because when one looks to the historical nature of Sarah and Jonathan’s relationship, there is no getting around the fact that they were thirty-one years married, had eleven children, and suffered a litany of hardships.[9] In all of this, however, Whitefield, Walley, and Emerson bear personal witness to the remarkable love and relationship they shared.[10]

In his personal journal, Whitefield remarks on Jonathan and Sarah’s relationship: “A sweeter couple I have not seen….[Sarah] is adorned with a meek and quiet spirit; she talked solidly of the things of God, and seemed to be such a helpmeet” for Jonathan.[11] Apparently, Whitefield’s exposure to Sarah renewed his faith and prayers that God would also send him a godly woman. Similarly, Walley writes, “…I think I love Mr. Edwards & his Wife, because I see so much of [the] Image of God in them.”[12] Lastly, Emerson says that Jonathan and Sarah were “the most agreeable Family [he] was ever acquainted with. [M]uch of the Presence of God there.”[13]

One can take these eyewitness accounts of Jonathan and Sarah’s relationship in a couple of ways. First, one may run into the problem of an unrealistic and mythical perspective of their relationship. For example, “…romantics have occasionally used the little historical knowledge we have about Sarah Pierpont to create largely fictitious narrative of the Edwards’ domestic lives.”[14] However, the eyewitness accounts specifically regarding Sarah do, in fact, tell of her disposition of sweetness and devotion to God. Assuming that there is some degree of truth in these accounts, especially Whitefield’s, the traits pertaining to Sarah are undoubtedly similar to the overall point of her being the representation of a holy and beautiful soul which Christ loves. If this is the case, and the accounts above do correspond to the reality of Jonathan and Sarah’s relationship, then there is historical warrant for recognizing them as a legitimate source of testimony.

Conclusion

Jonathan Edwards conceived that the love between the sexes was a good way to think of the love that Christ has toward a holy and beautiful soul. This holy and beautiful soul was, for Edwards, his beloved Sarah. In light of miscellanies’ nos. 108, 189 and the Apostrophe to Sarah Pierpont, the main conclusion that this study contributes to the ongoing legacy of Edwards’ thought is that Sarah was the young Jonathan’s spiritual example of a holy and beautiful soul. He not only portrayed his loving affections for her in a uniquely Puritan way, but he also looked to her as his example of purity which ultimately points to the loving person of Christ. One would do well to remember this distinction that Edwards held for Sarah while at the same not idealizing their relationship.

[2] Philip Gura briefly speaks about Sarah’s physical beauty, he says: “An extant portrait shows her to be an attractive woman…” Gura, Edwards: America’s Evangelical, 43.

[3] Ibid., 746.

[4] Smith, Stout, and Minkema, Edwards Reader, xxxiii.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Regarding the age of Sarah Pierpont, Marsden states that “Sarah would be considerably younger than the average New England bride, but such an early engagement was within the bounds of propriety.” Marsden, Jonathan Edwards, 105.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Kenneth P. Minkema, “Personal Writings,” in The Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Edwards, ed. Stephen J. Stein (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 47.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Edwin S. Gaustad and Mark A. Noll, eds. A Documentary History of Religion in America to 1877. 3^rd edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 162.

[12] Minkema, “Personal Writings,” 48.

[13] Ibid.

[14] As an example of this fictitious and idealized perspective, Claghorn references: Elisabeth D. Dodds’ Marriage to a Difficult Man: The “Uncommon Union” of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1971). Claghorn, Letters and Personal Writings, WJE, Vol. 16, 746.