MONSTROUS CONFESSIONS: EARLY AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE DANGERS OF DIVINE REVELATION

Abstract

After Sarah Pierpont Edwards experienced a series of profound encounters with God in 1742, her husband included a description of these experiences in his Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England (1743), though he stripped his account of any identifying details. When Sarah’s original account was later published in Sereno E. Dwight’s The Life of President Edwards (1830), it became clear that not only had Jonathan dropped her name and gender from the account, but he had also edited out much of her language. Though Jonathan directly quotes Sarah’s account in some sections, by and large his descriptions are less detailed and evocative than hers.