Solomon Stoddard

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Solomon Stoddard (born September 27, 1643 in Boston ( Massachusetts Bay Colony ), † February 11, 1729 in Northampton ( Province of Massachusetts Bay )) was a New England congregational preacher . He was ordained in the Northampton Congregational Church in September 1673, where he served until February 1727.

Family and relatives

Solomon Stoddard's father was Anthony Stoddard (approx. 1614–1686), who came from London ( Middlesex ) and emigrated to New England . Solomon Stoddard was the son of Anthony from his marriage to Mary Downing (approx. 1619 – approx. 1646). Anthony Stoddard was a successful businessman and assistant judge in Boston from 1665 to 1684. A brother of Mary Downing was Sir George Thomas Downing , who u. a. served under Oliver Cromwell and had Downing Street built on his property in London .

In March 1670, Solomon Stoddard married the widow Esther Mather Warham (1644 – approx. 1736) in Northampton. Her first husband was Eleazer Mather (1637–1669), son of Richard Mather (1596–1669). In addition to the three children from Esther's first marriage, there were twelve more from her marriage to Solomon.

The descendants between Solomon Stoddard and Esther Warham include u. a. Christian, John, Mary, Anthony, Rebecca and Esther.

Solomon Stoddard's daughter Christian, married William Williams Sr. (1665–1741) in his second marriage. William williams sr. was one of the most famous pastors in Massachusetts. From this marriage came u. a. Solomon Williams. (The son of Solomon Williams in turn was William Williams (1731-1811), signatory of the American Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.) Another son of William Williams sr. was Israel Williams, who was a merchant, judge, military man, and ruler of Hampshire . Israel Williams was also the estate administrator of Ephraim Williams Jr. Ephraim Williams lost his life in the 1755 Battle of Lake George . Williams College in Williamstown (Massachusetts) emerged from his fortune . Ephraime also wanted to achieve through his will that all injustices that had been done to the Indians in Stockbridge should be redressed.

Solomon Stoddard's son Anthony Stoddard (ca. 1678-1760) was a pastor in Woodbury, Connecticut . The other son, John Stoddard (approx. 1682-1748) became a colonel and represented Northampton in the capital Boston.

Solomon Stoddard's daughter Esther (approx. 1672-1770) married the preacher Timothy Edwards on November 6, 1694. The theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was her son.

All five of Solomon Stoddard's daughters married pastors.

Career

In 1662 Solomon Stoddard graduated from Harvard , where he served as the institution's first librarian for four years. Between 1670 and April 1672, Stoddard had a special spiritual experience distributing the Lord's Supper. He received a broad and glorious view of Christ and his great love, which is expressed in the act of redemption on the cross.

Working life

Solomon Stoddard was pastor in Barbados from 1667 to 1669 for health reasons and followed a call to the pastorate to Northampton (Massachusetts) , as the successor to Eleazer Mather (1637-1669), son of Richard Mather (1596-1669). Stoddard was actually about to leave for London when the invitation came. Stoddard became a member of the Northampton Congregational Church in April 1672 and officially ordained in September 1673.

In his long service, Stoddard had experienced five times of particularly awakening spiritual awakening (1679, 1683, 1696, 1712 and 1718). He was respected and admired in Northampton for his gifts and grace.

From Salomon Stoddard the statement has been handed down: We were not called to the pulpit to prove our cleverness or eloquence, but to kindle a fire in people's consciences.

In 1725, Northampton Parish appointed Stoddard's son-in-law, Jonathan Edwards, as an assistant. Edwards took over the parish on February 15, 1727. This later adopted Stoddard's earlier line of understanding the Lord's Supper. When Stoddard died there were 630 people in his parish.

effect

In 1687, Stoddard published his widely acclaimed dissertation on Judgment Day ( The Safety of Appearing at the Day of Judgment ). As a result, a difference in mentality between the ecclesiastical east (Boston) and the west of New England (Northampton) became clear. For Stoddard, who was strictly based on the Calvinist covenant theology , God was the absolute and only sovereign; for the East, God was simply a rational being. Stoddard found that the old congregational principle that church membership should be limited to those who made a profession of faith and that participation in the Lord's Supper was only open to those who were evidently converted would not work for them in the borderlands. In addition, so far only parents who were full church members could bring their children to baptism.

Solomon Stoddard was the most important preacher of his time in the Connecticut Valley and one of the most important in colonial New England . He opened the sacrament for all ( congregation ) that showed a decent way of life and hope had to be saved forever, even if they are not full member of the church ( church were). Stoddard was an advocate in the launch of the Half-Way Covenant , a freer church ordinance of 1662 as an extension of the Cambridge Platform of 1648, which was based on the Westminster Confession , and was in Connecticut and Massachusetts. The Congregational Synod of 1662 was in session at Harvard when Stoddard was studying there. The aim of the Half-Way-Covenant was to bind more people to the church, because more and more people did not belong to the church or only partially belonged to it due to immigration and only a minority were full church members. Stoddard was very well founded theologically, but still thought very practical. The Mathers in Boston, who used more theoretical arguments, were shocked by his suggestions. A later opponent of so-called Stoddardeanism was among others Charles Hodge of Princeton Theological Seminary.

With regard to the attainment of eternal salvation, Stoddard was in the traditional Calvinist tradition. He called people to conversion and to a life with Jesus Christ. Solomon Stoddard was generally influenced by the teachings of Cotton Mather . Stoddard later stopped asking people to public creed in order to join the Church of Northampton. Northampton was one of the first parishes to take over Half-Way. From 1677 Stoddard began to differentiate the degree of membership in his church. Partial members had no voting rights and could not attend the sacrament. From then on, Stoddard accepted practically everyone, at least as a partial member, into his parish, except for those contemporaries who were obviously not Christians. His goal was that the partial members, under the influence of the sermons, would turn completely to Jesus Christ and become full members.

Due to his great influence, the other parishes in the west (Connecticut Valley) were also influenced by it. Some historians interpret the new openness of Stoddard's church policy as democratic, while others believed that Stoddard was transformed from a church tribune to a people's tribune and that the whole thing should therefore be viewed more as autocratic. Stoddard organized a regional assembly of clergymen, the Hampshire Association , whereby the strict autonomy of the individual parish typical of congregationalism was somewhat relaxed. This was confirmed for Connecticut 1705 on the Saybrook Platform .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts  in the  Textarchiv - Internet Archive
  2. ↑ http://www.familyrecord.net/getperson.php?personID=I32422&tree=CorlissOrdway (accessed on: March 30, 2012).
  3. ^ Iain H. Murray: Jonathan Edwards: A teacher of grace and the great awakening , Christian literature distribution, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-86699-306-8 , p. 27.
  4. ^ A b c d e f A genealogy of the family of Anthony Stoddard, of Boston  - Internet Archive
  5. ^ Iain H. Murray: Jonathan Edwards: A teacher of grace and the great awakening , Christian literature distribution, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-86699-306-8 , p. 120.
  6. ↑ http://www.familyrecord.net/getperson.php?personID=I29333&tree=CorlissOrdway (accessed on: March 28, 2012).
  7. ↑ http://www.familyrecord.net/getperson.php?personID=I27990&tree=CorlissOrdway (accessed on: March 28, 2012).
  8. ↑ Perry Miller: Jonathan Edwards. (Reprint of the 1949 edition). University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln NE 2005, ISBN 0-8032-8307-5 , p. 36.
  9. ↑ George M. Marsden: Jonathan Edwards. A life. Yale University Press, New Haven 2003, ISBN 978-0-300-10596-4 , Appendix A.
  10. ^ Iain H. Murray: Jonathan Edwards: A teacher of grace and the great awakening , Christian literature distribution, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-86699-306-8 , pp. 119f.
  11. ^ Iain H. Murray: Jonathan Edwards: A teacher of grace and the great awakening , Christian literature distribution, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-86699-306-8 , p. 496.
  12. ^ Iain H. Murray: Jonathan Edwards: A teacher of grace and the great awakening , Christian literature distribution, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-86699-306-8 , p. 35.
  13. ^ Iain H. Murray: Jonathan Edwards: A teacher of grace and the great awakening , Christian literature distribution, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-86699-306-8 , p. 119.
  14. ^ Iain H. Murray: Jonathan Edwards: A teacher of grace and the great awakening , Christian literature distribution, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-86699-306-8 , p. 121.
  15. ^ Iain H. Murray: Jonathan Edwards: A teacher of grace and the great awakening , Christian literature distribution, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-86699-306-8 , p. 120.
  16. ↑ Perry Miller: Jonathan Edwards. (Reprint of the 1949 edition). University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln NE 2005, ISBN 0-8032-8307-5 , p. 136.
  17. ^ Iain H. Murray: Jonathan Edwards: A teacher of grace and the great awakening , Christian literature distribution, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-86699-306-8 , p. 37.
  18. ^ The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 1: Journalist, 1706-1730 , JA Leo Lemay, ISBN 978-0-8122-3854-9 , p. 178.
  19. ↑ Perry Miller: Jonathan Edwards. (Reprint of the 1949 edition). University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln NE 2005, ISBN 0-8032-8307-5 , p. 209.
  20. ↑ Perry Miller: Jonathan Edwards. (Reprint of the 1949 edition). University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln NE 2005, ISBN 0-8032-8307-5 , p. 10.
  21. ^ Ola Elizabeth Winslow: Jonathan Edwards 1703-1758 , Collier Books, New York 1961, pp. 103f.
  22. ↑ Patricia J. Tracy: Jonathan Edwards, Pastor. Religion and Society in Eighteenth-Century Northampton. Hill and Wang, New York 1980, ISBN 0-8090-6195-3 , p. Unbek .
  23. ↑ Perry Miller: Jonathan Edwards. (Reprint of the 1949 edition). University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln NE 2005, ISBN 0-8032-8307-5 , p. 11.
personal data
SURNAME Stoddard, Solomon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION New England congregational preacher
DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1643
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 1729
Place of death Northampton, Massachusetts