''The Life of David Brainerd'', also called ''The Life and Diary of David Brainerd'', is a biography of
David Brainerd
David Brainerd (April 20, 1718October 9, 1747) was an American Presbyterian minister and missionary to the Native Americans among the Delaware Indians of New Jersey. Missionaries such as William Carey and Jim Elliot, and Brainerd's cousin, t ...
by
evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...
theologian
Jonathan Edwards, first published in 1749 under the title "''An Account of the Life of the Late Rev. David Brainerd''".
[
] David Brainerd was an early 18th century
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
to the
Native Americans who had a particularly fruitful ministry among the
Delaware Indians
The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...
of
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...
. The work was taken from Brainerd's own diary, but was substantially changed by Edwards in order to better present an example of a man who countered the
Arminian
Arminianism is a branch of Protestantism based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) and his historic supporters known as Remonstrants. Dutch Arminianism was originally articulated in the '' ...
viewpoint.
[
][
] The work was a major influence on the domestic and foreign missionary movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and has been the most frequently reprinted book by Edwards.
[
]
References
External links
The Life of David Brainerd full text, on the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University's website
18th-century Christian texts
1749 books
Diaries
American biographies
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