From: johnny moral (johnnymoral@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Jul 08 2003 - 02:48:04 BST
Hi all,
You know how Pirsig talks about how the American culture is a meeting of
European and Native American cultures? Well, reading about the Dakota, I
was reminded of Jonathan Edwards, and realized he evolved his philosophy out
of the European Reformation Calvinist thing into an AMerican version. He
wrote Freedom of the Will at the Stockbridge Indian mission (after being
fired by his congregation in Northampton) and I think it has some of those
Dakota ideas about responsibility. (I know I'm making a big leap assuming
that the Indians in Massachuetts had similar ideas as the Dakota, but...)
The Indians Edwards lived with while writing Freedom of the Will were
probably related to these guys:
"Today's Stockbridge-Munsee tribe are descendants of Christian Indians who
settled into a Christian farming community at Stockbridge, Massachusetts in
1734. They were largely drawn from the Mohican (or Mahican) people living in
that area. During the American Revolution, the Stockbridge sides with the
colonists. In the 1780s, the Stockbridge moved to New York to escape
encroachment by White settlers in Massachusetts and live alongside the
Oneida tribe. In 1794, the federal government entered into a treaty with the
Oneida, Tuscarora, and Stockbridge to thank the tribes for their wartime
services with a gift of $5000." http://www.mpm.edu/wirp/ICW-109.html -
interesting site on treaty rights for all tribes
I think early "Christian Indians" would still have Indian values, and such
communities or tribes would be among the first to transfer those values to
Europeans.
1750 : Edwards dismissed as pastor of the Church in Northampton by a 20 -2
margin
1751 : Becomes Pastor and missionary to the Indians in Stockbridge, MA.
While in Stockbridge, MA for 6+ years Edwards does some of his greatest
writing. It is at this time that he writes: "Freedom of the Will",
"Concerning the End for Which God Created the World", "The Nature of True
Virtue", and "Original Sin"
1758 : Edwards accepts the Presidency of the College of New Jersey
(Princeton) in January, and dies of a smallpox inoculation on March 22.
http://www.jonathanedwards.com
Does that make Edwards more interesting to anyone? Remember, it's his 300th
birthday this year...
Johnny
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