The first Jonathan Edwards was a philosopher and theologian, and one of the earliest great American intellectuals. Born in 1703 in Connecticut, he became interested in the works of John Locke, Isaac Newton, and many others. He is most famous for shaping the First Great Awakening, which had a very profound legacy in American Evangelism, although not of the intellectual sort he would have hoped for. He died in 1758 of smallpox.
The second Jonathan Edwards was a popular musician, born 1946. He had a really big hit in 1971: "Sunshine (Go Away Today)". It was a protest song--against the Vietnam war and the draft, but it's a catchy tune. He's still out there, writing songs, recording and performing, but hasn't had another hit so big.
The third Jonathan Edwards (born 1966) is the greatest triple jumper ever. He's held the world record for almost 19 years and has 4 of the best 6 jumps ever, including two Olympic medals, silver in 1996, gold in 2000. Today, he's a TV presenter for the BBC, mostly on track and field subjects. He was born to a very religious family and for a time, refused to compete on sunday. After retiring as an athlete, he did a lot of preaching. However, in recent years, he says he has lost his faith completely. He refuses to talk very specifically about it.
John Edwards (not quite the same name) was an American politician from North Carolina, who was a US Senator and came very close to becoming vice president in 2004 (it is known that there was a lot of election fraud in that election--it's entirely possible that he won). A few years later, he managed to completely destroy his career with an extramarital affair, conducted while his wife was ill with cancer. He's still alive, but his political career isn't.
Three of these four at one time purported to be very religious. The fourth, the musician, played a preacher in a movie. What he (and the politician) actually think about religion is unclear. There are numerous other Jonathan Edwards (10 of them famous enough be in wikipedia's disambiguation page). Wikipedia lists 20 politicians named John Edwards
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