Life and setting
Edwards served as a pastor in colonial New England, became a major interpreter of the First Great Awakening and wrote works including Religious Affections and Freedom of the Will.
Great Awakening • Reformed / Congregational
Jonathan Edwards
1703 – 1758 • Pastor, theologian and revival interpreter
Why this person matters
His writings joined intense revival spirituality with philosophical and Reformed theological reflection and influenced later evangelicalism.
What should not be sanitized
Edwards was a slaveholder, a fact that modern evaluation of his theology and moral legacy must not ignore.
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Search the Early Church Fathers for Jonathan Edwards