Jonathan Edwards timeline

1703: Born Oct. 5, at East Windsor, Conn.

1716-1720: Undergraduate at Yale College.

1720-1723: Studies theology and earns master's degree (M.A.) from Yale; begins "Of Being."

1722-1723: Ministers in a Presbyterian church in New York. It is at this time Edwards begins his "Diary," "Resolutions," "Miscellanies," and writes "The Mind."

1724: Begins two-year tutorship at Yale.

1726: Becomes associate minister in Northampton, Mass., under his popular grandfather, Solomon Stoddard.

1727: Marries Sarah Pierpont on July 28.

1729: Becomes full pastor of the First Church of Northampton upon the death of Solomon Stoddard.

1734: Revival breaks out in Northampton with Edwards's series on "Justification by Faith."

1737: Publishes A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God, defending the revival.

1740-1741: The Great Awakening: George Whitefield first visits New England in 1740. Edwards preaches "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" in Enfield, Conn., in 1741.

1746: Writes A Treatise on Religious Affections.

1750: Dismissed as pastor of the church in Northampton by a 20-2 margin.

1751: Becomes pastor and missionary to the Indians in Stockbridge, Mass. While in Stockbridge for more than six years, Edwards does some of his greatest writing, including Freedom of the Will, Concerning the End for Which God Created the World, The Nature of True Virtue, and Original Sin.

1758: Assumes office as president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton) on Feb. 16, then dies on March 22 of complications from a smallpox inoculation.