Comparing The Philosophies Of Franklin And Jonathan Edwards

Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Edwards were two of the most influential men during America’s enlightenment. However, they have two very opposing viewpoint on virtually everything. Edwards believes that man’s primary responsibility is to God and is driven by Calvinism, while Franklin rejects theology as the responsibility of man and instead determines that man’s responsibility is to seek a virtuous life through purpose. Jonathan Edwards uses his sermons and explicit imagery to convey that man’s purpose is to seek out the sense of God’s grace regardless of his belief that souls are predetermined as saved or condemned. Influenced heavily by Calvinists John Locke, his father, Timothy Edwards, and his grandfather, Samuel Stoddard, Edwards view on the purpose of man begins to become apparent to his readers in his personal narrative. “It appeared to me, that all happiness consisted in living a pure, humble, heavenly, divine love” (Edwards …show more content…
Edwards later uses different tactics to lead his followers back to Calvinism with the use of his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” due to the influx of lack of vigilant Christianity. Jonathan Edwards’ philosophy on the responsibility of man cannot be separated from his theology because his life revolved around seeking his own salvation. He consistently addressed how in order to seek out deliverance you must constantly live according to the gospel in an image of Christ. However, similar to Franklin’s inability to reach perfection he later acknowledges that “I used to be continually examining myself…but with too great a dependence on my own strength, which afterwards proved a great damage to me” (Edwards 402). Effectively, Edwards realizes that man is unable to live fully as a perfect image of Christ, however, he must seek out the love of Christ to have a fulfilled, happy