Jonathan Edwards was an influential pastor in early America. When he was only a young pastor, his church in Northampton, Massachusetts, was the primary spark in a revival in New England. After he wrote an account of the revival, he became well-known in Britain and in America. Five years later, he played a key role in another major awakening, this time led by the young George Whitefield.

Though Edwards continued to pastor, he considered himself more of a writer than a speaker. From a Reformed or Calvinist background, his emphasis was on the sovereignty of God and the redemptive love found in Christ.

He was arguably America’s first great philosopher, and he is commonly considered our greatest theologian of all time.

A man of deep love for Christ, he spent much of his time studying and writing. Besides his tenure as a pastor, he spent six years as a missionary to American Indians, and he accepted the role of President of Princeton University shortly before his early death from smallpox at age 54.

Besides several books of wide influence, he left behind many notebooks of his writings. He continues to have an enormous impact through his writings over two centuries after his death.