‘The road to hell starts with good intentions’: New opera tells the story of Northampton’s notorious revivalist preacher, Jonathan Edwards

The Valley Advocate

Lean Left

Factuality

Ownership

‘The road to hell starts with good intentions’: New opera tells the story of Northampton’s notorious revivalist preacher, Jonathan Edwards

By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer Jonathan Edwards, one of Northampton’s most famous residents, was a revolutionary preacher whose legacy has endured through centuries. He was the first minister in Northampton to baptize African Americans, yet he did not free those he enslaved. He was a loving husband, yet he supported complementarianism, a theological belief that gender roles are ordained by God. And his work inspired several suicides. Rose Schwiet…