Jonathan Edwards and American Indians: The Devil Sucks Their Blood

ONATHAN EDWARDS (1703-58), the American theologian who for two hundred fifty years has terrified readers with his escription of an angry God, had little but contempt for Indian religions. When trying to refute English Nonconformist John Taylor's notion of an innate human capacity for religious knowledge, Edwards played American Indians as his trump card. What did Europeans find when they came to America and discovered a people who had had the benefit of thousands of years to develop this in-born capacity for religious truth? Nothing but "the grossest ignorance, delusions, and most stupid paganism."' As one might expect of a man not uncomfortable with paradox, however, Edwards's views over time demonstrated more nuance and subtlety than this harsh proclamation suggests. For seven years, Edwards served as a missionary pastor to the Indians of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. During that period, he seems to have approached the population he was enlisted to serve as a test case of the effectiveness of the work of redemption. His findings, perhaps not surprisingly, ultimately tell us more about his own mind than they do about the Indians or God's work among them.