Faithful Narrative (1737)

INTRODUCTION

As reports of the awakening of 1734-35 in and around Northampton spread, provincial leaders began to inquire into the truth and nature of the phenomena. Edwards expanded an initial brief description of the revival into a London publication in 1737, and again for a Boston imprint the following year, followed by translations in German and Dutch. A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton put Edwards and his church before the eyes of an international audience. Here Edwards provided a social and demographic profile of the town and a sophisticated portrait of the religious psychology that he observed among his parishioners. In particular, he made famous two of his converts, the dying Abigail Hutchinson and the four-year-old Phebe Bartlett, by including extended accounts of their religious experiences. A Faithful Narrative became nothing less than the model for future revivals, a manual for conducting and monitoring them.