Jonathan Edwards was born in 1703 into a family of prominent Congregational ministers in East Windsor, Connecticut. He is widely acknowledged to be America’s most important and original philosophical theologian And became the most prominent preachers during the revivals of 1734 and 1740-41, the latter of which came to be known as the Great Awakening. He died from complications arising from a smallpox inoculation on March 22, 1758.