- Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703 – March 22, 1758) was an American revivalist preacher, philosopher, and Congregationalist theologian. Edwards is widely regarded as one of America’s most important and original philosophical theologians. Edwards’ theological work is broad in scope but rooted in the Puritan heritage as exemplified in the Westminster and Savoy Confessions of Faith. Recent studies have emphasized how thoroughly Edwards grounded his life’s work on conceptions of beauty, harmony, and ethical aptness, and how central the Age of Enlightenment was to his mindset. Edwards played a critical role in shaping the First Great Awakening and oversaw some of the first revivals in 1733–35 at his church in Northampton, Massachusetts. His work gave rise to a doctrine known as New England theology.
- Almach (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
ALMACH (Gamma Andromedae). You take your new telescope to the back yard perhaps wondering what to examine. When finished with the Moon and the bright planets you turn to the stars, first perhaps to the grand Orion Nebula, next maybe to the magnificent Andromeda Galaxy. Then it is time for double stars. The sky abounds with them, northern winter’s Castor, springtime’s Mizar and Alcor, summer’s Albireo (the seasons reversed for the southern hemisphere), dozens of others easily found. Among the best of all, however, is the last star of the string of bright beauties that helps make the constellation Andromeda, second magnitude (2.16) Almach, Andromeda’s Gamma star.
- Jonathan Edwards was born on October 5, 1703, the fifth of 11 children and only son of Timothy Edwards, a minister at East Windsor, Connecticut (modern-day South Windsor), who supplemented his salary by tutoring boys for college.
- Almost immediately after becoming president of the College of New Jersey, Edwards, a strong supporter of smallpox inoculations, decided to get inoculated in order to encourage others to do the same. Never having been in robust health, he died as a result of the inoculation on March 22, 1758.
