Type of Document	Thesis
Author	Gray, Lauren Davis
URN	etd-07092009-134737
Title	Birthing The New Birth: The Natural Philosophy Of Childbirth In The Theology Of Jonathan Edwards
Degree	Master of Arts
Department	Religion, Department of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Amanda Porterfield Committee Chair Amy Koehlinger Committee Member John Corrigan Committee Member
Keywords	Natural Philosopher Theologian Ova Nicolas Malebranche Revivalism First Great Awakening
Date of Defense	2009-05-14
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract “It may be in the new birth as it is in the first birth.” So wrote theologian Jonathan Edwards in his “Miscellanies” note numbered 241, named “Regeneration”. The “new birth” that he spoke of was the process of religious conversion whereby God takes away one’s sinful nature and instills a new, regenerate nature. The process of the new birth is intricately linked to the “first birth,” which refers to physical childbirth. This thesis explores the ways in which eighteenth-century conceptions of childbirth helped to shape the new birth theology of Edwards. While historians have tended to portray Edwards, the revivals that he spawned, and new birth theology as erasing the distinctions of gender, this thesis will argue that Edwardsian evangelicalism actually highlighted the sinfulness of women.
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