comparison of John Woolman and Johnathon Edwards
A comparison of John Woolman and Johnathon Edwards Two very different lives and times converge together when analyzing John Woolman’s writings with Jonathon Edward’s. Woolman, an English Quaker, and Edwards, a man of new enlightenment and reason preached passionately about their beliefs. In Woolman’s case it was the fight against slavery and his desire for people to connect with each other. Woolman describes this feeling best when he wrote: “ I was convinced in my mind that true religion consisted in an inward life, wherein the heart doth love and reverence God the creator, and learns to exercise true justice and goodness, not only toward all men, but also toward the brute creatures.” ( Woolman, 2 ) In Edwards’s case, he subscribed to an interpretation of Reformed Theology that emphasized the sovereignty of God, the depravity of humankind, the reality of hell, and the necessity of “new birth” conversion.