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Biography of Theodorus Jacobus FrelinghuysenName: Theodorus Jacobus FrelinghuysenBirth Date: 1691 Death Date: c. 1748 Place of Birth: Lingen, Germany Nationality: German Gender: Male Occupations: clergyman Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1691-ca. 1748), a Dutch Reformed clergyman, was a noted exhorter and revivalist who initiated the Great Awakening in America's Middle colonies.A pastor's son, Theodorus Frelinghuysen was born at Lingen, Germany. His father and a minister friend gave him a thorough classical education. Frelinghuysen was licensed in 1717 by the Classis of Emden and the next year became a chaplain and then subrector in Friesland.Having learned that four Dutch frontier congregations in New Jersey desired a pastor, Frelinghuysen left for America in 1719. In a guest sermon in New York (1720) he immediately offended influential clerics by deviating from established rubric and by advocating revivalism.In his scattered settlements Frelinghuysen taught and preached passionately that religious performance without true conversion was an abomination. His zeal appealed to the young and the poor, but many parishoners resented criticism of their behavior and Frelinghuysen's stringent requirements for taking Communion. They allied themselves …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…introduced private prayer meetings and lay preaching and advocated founding a college and theological seminary.Frelinghuysen married Eva Terhune, a farmer's daughter; the couple had five sons and two daughters. The sons all entered the ministry, and both daughters married clergymen. Seven pamphlets of Frelinghuysen's sermons were published (several in English as well as in Dutch) during his lifetime. Further Reading William Demarest edited Frelinghuysen's Sermons, Translated from the Dutch (1856) and added a sketch of the pastor's life. The best account of Frelinghuysen's clerical activities is in Charles Hartshorn Maxson, The Great Awakening in the Middle Colonies (1920), which also provides insight into his character and struggles. Another study is James Tanis, Dutch Calvinistic Pietism in the Middle Colonies: A Study in the Life and Theology of Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1967). Background studies are William Warren Sweet, Religion in Colonial America (1942), and Clifton E. Olmstead, History of Religion in the United States (1960). |