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Reverend Timothy Dwight, portrait by John Trumbull

Timothy Dwight (May 14, 1752–January 11, 1817) was an American Congregationalist minister, theologian, educator, and author. He was the eighth president of Yale College, from 1795 to 1817. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Timothy_Dwight_IV.jpg‎ Reverend Timothy Dwight IV (1752-1817), portrait by John Trumbull. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Timothy_Dwight_IV.jpg‎ Reverend Timothy Dwight IV (1752-1817), portrait by John Trumbull. ... John Trumbull, 1756–1843 John Trumbull (June 6, 1756 – November 10, 1843) was a famous American artist from the time of the American Revolutionary War. ... May 14 is the 134th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (135th in leap years). ... 1752 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... January 11 is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1817 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation indepedently and autonomously runs its own affairs. ... Theology is literally rational discourse concerning God (Greek θεος, theos, God, + λογος, logos, rational discourse). By extension, it also refers to the study of other religious topics. ... Yale redirects here. ... 1795 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

He matriculated at Yale College at age 13, and received honorary degrees from Princeton University in 1787 and Harvard University in 1810. He served as President of Yale College from 1795 to 1817. Princeton University is a coeducational private university located in Princeton, New Jersey in the United States of America. ... Year 1787 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... 1810 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

Dwight was the eldest son of Northampton, Massachusetts merchant Timothy Dwight III (a graduate of Yale (1744). His mother was the third daughter of theologian Jonathan Edwards. He was remarkably precocious, and is said to have learned the alphabet at a single lesson, and to have been able to read the Bible before he was four years old.   Northampton is a city in Hampshire County, Massachusetts in the USA. The population was 28,978 at the 2000 census. ... // Events The third French and Indian War, known as King Georges War, breaks out at Port Royal, Nova Scotia The First Saudi State founded by Mohammed Ibn Saud Prague occupied by Prussian armies Ongoing events War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) Births January 10 - Thomas Mifflin, fifth President... Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703- March 22, 1758) was a colonial American Congregational preacher and theologian. ... The word Bible refers to the canonical collections of sacred writings of Judaism and Christianity. ...

Dwight graduated from Yale in 1769. For two years, he was rector of the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, Connecticut. He was a tutor at Yale College from 1771 to 1777. Licensed to preach in 1777, he was appointed by Congress chaplain in General Samuel Holden Parsons's Connecticut Continental Brigade. He served with distinction, inspiring the troops with his sermons and the stirring war songs he composed, the most famous of which is "Columbia". 1769 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... For the Minnesota school, see Hopkins Senior High School; for the university, see Johns Hopkins University. ... Nickname: The Elm City Location in Connecticut Coordinates: Counties New Haven County Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. ... 1771 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Year 1777 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Samuel Holden Parsons (May 14, 1737–November 17, 1789) was an American lawyer, jurist, and military leader. ...

On news of his father's death in the fall of 1778, he resigned his commission and returned to take charge of his family in Northampton. Besides managing the family's farms, he preached and taught, establishing a school for both sexes. During this period, he served two terms in the Massachusetts legislature. 1778 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

Declining calls from churches in Beverly and Charlestown, he chose instead to settle from 1783 until 1795 as minister in "Greenfield Hill," a Fairfield, Connecticut parish which would become Southport. There he established an academy, which at once acquired a high reputation, and attracted pupils from all parts of the Union. Dwight was an innovative and inspiring teacher, preferring moral suasion over the corporal punishment favored by most schoolmasters of the day.   Nickname: Bevtown Settled: 1626 â€“ Incorporated: 1626 Zip Code(s): 01915 â€“ Area Code(s): 978 / 351 Official website: www. ... Birdseye view of Boston, Charlestown, and Bunker Hill between 1890 and 1910. ... 1783 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Fairfield is a town located in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. ... The Southport area of Fairfield, Connecticut (settled in 1639) has been designated as a historic district for its harbor, churches, public buildings, and the homesteads of some of the first families. ... Corporal punishment is the deliberate infliction of pain intended to correct behavior or to punish. ...

In 1777, Dwight married Mary, the daughter of New York merchant and banker Benjamin Woolsey]. This marriage connected him to some of New York's wealthiest and most influential families. Woolsey had been Dwight's father's Yale classmate, roommate, and intimate friend. Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ...

Dwight was the leader of the evangelical "New Divinity" faction of Congregationalism -- a group closely identified with Connecticut's emerging commercial elite. Although fiercely opposed by religious moderates -- most notably Yale president Ezra Stiles -- he was elected to the presidency of Yale on Stiles's death in 1795. His ability as a teacher, and his talents as a religious and political leader, soon made the college the largest institution of higher education in North America. Dwight had a genius for recognizing able proteges -- among them Lyman Beecher, Nathaniel W. Taylor, and Leonard Bacon, all of whom would become major religious leaders and theological innovators in the ante bellum decades. The word evangelicalism usually refers to religious practices and traditions which are found in conservative, almost always Protestant, Christianity. ... The Rev. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... Lyman Beecher Lyman Beecher (October 12, 1775 – January 10, 1865) was a Presbyterian clergyman, temperance movement leader, and the father of several noted leaders, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Beecher, Isabella Beecher Hooker, and Catharine Beecher, and a leader of the Second Great Awakening of the United... This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. ...

During troubled times at Yale University, then-president Timothy Dwight saw his students drawn to the radical republicanism and “infidel philosophy” of the French Revolution, including the philosophies of Hume, Hobbes, Tindal, and Lords Shaftesbury and Bolingbroke. Between 1797 and 1800, Dwight frequently warned audiences against the threats of this “infidel philosophy” in America. An address to the candidates for the baccalaureate in Yale College called "The Nature and Danger of Infidel Philosophy, Exhibited in Two Discourses, Addressed to the Candidates for the Baccalaureate, In Yale College" was delivered on September 9, 1797. It was published by George Bunce in 1798. This book is credited as one of the embers of the Second Great Awakening.

Dwight was as notable for his political leadership as for his religious and educational eminence. Known by his enemies as "Pope" Dwight, he wielded both the temporal sword (as head of Connecticut's Federalist Party), and spiritual sword (as nominal head of the state's Congregational Church). He led the effort to prevent the disestablishment of the church in Connecticut -- and, when its disestablishment appeared inevitable, encouraged efforts by proteges like Beecher and Bacon to organize voluntary associations to maintain the influence of religion in public life. Fearing that the failure of states to establish schools and the rise of "infidelity" would bring about the destruction of republican institutions, he helped to create a national evangelical movement -- the second "Great Awakening" -- intended to "re-church" America. Dwight was a founder of the Connecticut Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and Andover Theological Seminary. The label Federalist refers to two major groups in the history of the United States of America: (1. ... Andover Theological Seminary, now part of Andover Newton Theological School, is the oldest graduate school of theology in the United States. ...

Dwight was well known as an author, preacher, and theologian. He and his brother, Theodore, were members of a group of writers centered around Yale known as the "Hartford Wits." In verse, Dwight wrote an ambitious epic in eleven books, The Conquest of Canaan, finished in 1774 but not published until 1785, a somewhat ponderous and solemn satire, The Triumph of Infidelity (1788), directed against David Hume, Voltaire and others; Greenfield Hill (1794), the suggestion for which seems to have been derived from John Denham's Coopers Hill; and a number of minor poems and hymns, the best known of which is that beginning "I love thy kingdom, Lord". Many of his sermons were published posthumously under the titles Theology Explained and Defended (5 vols., 1818-1819), to which a memoir of the author by his two sons, W. T. and Sereno E. Dwight, is prefixed, and Sermons by Timothy Dwight (2 vols., 1828), which had a large circulation both in the United States and in England. Probably his most important work, however, is his Travels in New England and New York (4 vols., 1821-1822), which contains much material of value concerning social and economic New England and New York during the period 1796-1817. (The term "Cape Cod House" makes its first appearance in this work.) Theodore Dwight (1764-1846) was an American lawyer and journalist, born at Northampton, Mass. ... The Hartford Wits (also called the Connecticut Wits) were a group of American writers centered around Yale University and flourished in the 1780s and 1790s. ... Chesma Column in Tsarskoe Selo, commemorating the end of the Russo-Turkish War. ... 1785 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1788 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... David Hume (April 26, 1711 – August 25, 1776)[1] was a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian. ... For the singer/songwriter of the same name, see Voltaire (musician). ... Greenfield Hill is a neighborhood of Fairfield, Connecticut. ... 1794 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... John Denham is the name of either: John Yorke Denham (b. ... 1818 (MDCCCXVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar. ... 1819 common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Sereno Edwards Dwight (May 18, 1786 - November 30, 1850) was an American author, educator, and Congregationalist minister. ... 1828 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... The coronation banquet for George IV 1821 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1822 (MDCCCXXII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... This article is about the region in the United States of America. ... State nickname: Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York Governor George Pataki Official languages None Area 141,205 km² (27th)  - Land 122,409 km²  - Water 18,795 km² (13. ... 1796 was a leap year starting on Friday. ... A Cape Cod is a style of housing that originated in the New England area. ...

Dwight died of prostate cancer, and was buried in New Haven's Grove Street Cemetery. Dwight left eight sons: Timothy (1778-1884), a New Haven merchant and philanthropist; James (17__-18__); Benjamin Woolsey Dwight (1780-1850), a New York physician; educator and theologian Sereno Edwards Dwight (1786-1850); and clergyman William Theodore Dwight (1795-1865). Dwight's grandson and namesake, "Timothy Dwight the Younger" (1828-1916), served as Yale's president, 1886-1899. His nephew, Theodore Dwight Woolsey (1801-1889), served as Yale's president between 1846 and 1871. Another nephew was Theodore Dwight (1796-1866), an author. Prostate cancer is a disease in which cancer develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. ... Grove Street Cemetery or Grove Street Burial Ground in New Haven, Connecticut is located in the center of the Yale University campus. ... 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Someone who practices Philanthropy. ... 1780 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1850 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Sereno Edwards Dwight (May 18, 1786 - November 30, 1850) was an American author, educator, and Congregationalist minister. ... 1786 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1850 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ... For the book and the movie with the same title refer to The Namesake. ... Timothy Dwight V (1828 - 1916) was President of Yale University from 1886 through 1899. ... Year 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... 1886 (MDCCCLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 18 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ... 1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Theodore Dwight Woolsey (1801 - 1889) was a U.S. scholar and educator, nephew of Timothy Dwight. ... The Union Jack, flag of the newly formed United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ... 1889 (MDCCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1846 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1871 (MDCCCLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Theodore Dwight (1796-1866) was an American author, born in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Theodore Dwight, (1764-1846). ... 1866 (MDCCCLXVI) is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ...

Although long dismissed by historians as a reactionary who contributed little to American life, recent scholarship, as it engages the central importance of religion in our culture, is coming to acknowledge his significance as a religious leader and educational innovator. His influence on the thousands of young men who passed through Yale during his presidency is incalculable. Reactionary (or reactionist) is a political epithet, generally used as a pejorative, originally applied in the context of the French Revolution to counter-revolutionaries who wished to restore the real or imagined conditions of the monarchical Ancien Régime. ...

Further reading

See W. B. Sprague's Life of Timothy Dwight in vol. iv. (second series) of Jared Sparks's Library of American Biography, and especially an excellent chapter in Moses Coit Tyler's Three Men of Letters (New York, 1895).

See also Yale Biogaphies and Annals, vol 3, 321-333; Charles E. Cunningham, Timothy Dwight, 1752-1817 (New York, 1942); Peter Dobkin Hall, "The Civic Engagement Tradition," in Mary Jo Bane, Brent Coffin, & Richard Higgins, Taking Faith Seriously (Cambridge, 2005). For selections of Dwight's writings and an evaluation of his significance, see Documentary History of American Philanthropy and Voluntarism [1]

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Rev. ... This article is about the institution of higher learning in the United States. ... Jeremiah Day (1773-1867) was the fifth President of Yale University from 1817 to 1846. ... Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...